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July Curator’s Corner

July 13, 2021
Category: Curator's Corner, Curatorial Postcards
Did you know that when our museum was created in 1939 it was called the Nevada State Museum and Art Institute? With assistance of the Nevada Art Association (a former Nevada organization separate from the current Nevada Artists Association), our first art exhibit was presented in the east wing of the second floor of the Mint building.

Some of the artwork displayed was created with support from the Work Projects Administration, Federal Project Number One. One of the artists was Reno resident, Robert Cole Caples. In 1932 he took up an artistic study of the Native Americans he met in his wanderings around Nevada. Presented here are two prints of Caples’ art in the Nevada State Museum collections and an oil painting that was donated to the museum very early in it’s history. The original charcoal portraits, held in the University of Nevada, Reno Special Collections, are among his finest works.

Robert Cole Caples

Tribal Elder

20″ x 16″

Original Charcoal

Print 221 of 1000, 1972

University of Nevada Press

Robert Cole Caples

Bow Maker

20″ x 16″

Original Charcoal

Print 221 of 1000, 1972

University of Nevada Press

Robert Cole Caples

Washoe Legend of Creation, 1941

24″ x 24″

Oil paint