WEBVTT - Some title

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Frank Mechau Jr.'s Wild Horse Race. Mechau

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described some of the action here: "About twelve untamed

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broncos are drafted out of the chutes to the race track.

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A team of three cowboys ... attempt to saddle the frantic

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creature and ride it around the track. One man tries

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to control it with blindfold and halter, another

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employs the effective, primitive device of biting

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the horses ear." It's believed that Mechau created

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this work for the Federal Art Project, a government

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program that employed artists to provide art for

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places such as courthouses, post offices and libraries.

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Because this painting shares the same name as a mural

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painted for Colorado's Glenwood Springs Post Office,

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it's very likely the artist painted it under the

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auspices of this federal art program. The simplified,

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clearly delineated forms and bright primary colors

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were easily adapted to painting on a large scale,

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and Mechau's brand of abstraction was realistic

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enough for subjects to be recognizable from a distance.

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In this painting, as in Fletcher Martin's humorous

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rodeo scene, the figures are faceless—perhaps the

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message is that the hero could be any one of us.