"Since the 1980s - much of western history and art has been reevaluated. Its rosy ambience has been tinged with allegations of sexism, ethnocentrism, imperialism, and economic exploitation. The exhibition The American West: Out of Myth, Into Reality, for which this volume is the catalogue, explores some of these new insights and perspectives and seeks to reconcile these with entrenched myth. The emerging realities add to the fascinating story of the West in art and enhance our appreciation of the region, its people, and its pictorial legacy."--Jacket.