TEXAS – French artist Mark Maggiori loves westerns.
“When I start coming to America when I was older, I wanted to see all of the things that I was dreaming of as a kid,” Maggiori says.
He fully immersed himself in Western culture by attending rodeos and other cowboy-centric events in the U.S. Then he illustrated his passion on canvas.
“I ended up taking a brush and started painting the American West,” Maggiori says.
The artist recently donated one of his pieces titled, “Once Upon a Time,” to the Briscoe Western Art Museum in Downtown San Antonio. However, it’s not a typical piece found in a Western art museum.
The painting illustrates two Black cowboys riding their horses, which, Maggiori says, was very vital history to capture.
“Museums don’t have Black cowboy paintings... there’s very few and especially guys on their horse, riding on the ranch with cattle,” Maggiori says.
Mark Maggiori sits in on a conversation with Larry Callies. (Spectrum News)
There was a point in time where Black cowboys made up 25% of the workers in the cattle industry. So folks like Billy Gordon are excited to see representation in the arts.
“It’s being recognized that the Black cowboys had a great, great participation here in the cattle industry and I’m just glad to see that they are finally being recognized,” Gordon says.
The lack of Black cowboy representation in art combined with the Black Lives Matter movement motivated Maggiori to produce this painting. Maggiori is white but says he wanted to use his privilege to help others.
Organizations like the Bexar County Buffalo Soldiers Association, whose members attended the event that unveiled Maggiori’s painting, are keeping the true Western history alive.
Maggiori says that he can only hope that he can contribute to that progress.
“You know if this goes in the sense of progress and the direction of progress, I’m super happy to put my grain of salt in this thing,” Maggiori says.
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October 26, 2020 at 11:49PM
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Artist's Work Aims to Keep Black Cowboy History Alive - Spectrum News
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