Mesa, AZ - Eddie and the Cowboys

In a nondescript building on a 2-way street, surrounded by fields, old ranch houses and horse stables in Chandler, AZ you can find quite possibly the best, most extensive Western Art collection in the world.

Who would have guessed? It’s the Zelma Basha Salmeri Gallery and is actually in the corporate headquarters of Basha’s, a chain supermarket in Arizona. It began as the private collection of its owner, Eddie Basha when his aunt, Zelma Basha Salmeri introduced him to Western Art and he began his collection in 1971. Today in 11,000 sq. feet are over 3000 pieces of art from paintings in oil, acrylics, pastels, charcoal and watercolor. There are Apache and Pima baskets, ceramic and clay bowls, Hopi Kachinas, Navajo and Zuni jewelry along with a stunning collection of sculptures in wood, marble, bronze and granite. In one gallery you can enjoy the paintings of John Clymer with its careful lines and color

and then wander into the next gallery and there are the almost impressionist paintings of Joe Beeler. Wowsa, wowsa. But, wait until I show you some of the pottery, Kachinas, and statuary. Every niche in this gallery is filled with amazing art.

Could a collection this massive be built today? Probably not but when Eddie Basha began to collect, Western art was not so fashionable nor so expensive. But Eddie knew what he liked was able to build this extensive collection over the years. He also became friends with the artists, discussing their art with them, giving them a showroom, helping them in hard times and just generally being a good friend. Actually part of the collection is a lot of sketches and hand drawn Christmas and birthday cards that the artists gave him.

And, this museum with its extensive collection is mostly obscure, viewed by those who have heard via word of mouth that it is here. We met a woman today who has lived in the Phoenix area since the 1970’s and has never been here. She just heard about it a few weeks ago. I read that they get approx. 700 visitors a week but during the 5 hours we were there, we saw only about 12 others. And, you know how much it costs to get in? How much viewing this marvelous collection of the best Western Art is? Nothing, zero, nada. It costs nothing to get in. (They ask for a donation which goes to art education for the local schools who bring students every year to view the collection.)

The collection is huge, it is free, and the setting is so intimate, with no large galleries, guards watching your every move and cameras pointed right at you. Interestingly enough, it would be possible for you to touch anything in the gallery. You could toss the pottery like a football. There are few cases and most of the art is out in the open. WOW. As an aside, I looked down one of the corporate office corridors through a locked door and the walls are lined with more art. Imagine coming to work every day and being able to see this marvelous art all around you. (In the corridors of my office were what I might charitably call ‘motel art.’)

We’ve been here before but knew that we wanted to see it again and see things that we might have missed the first time around. That’s a dumb statement, heck, there’s so much here that I don’t know how anyone could see it all in one visit, or even in two. None the less, we’re here to see it all again.
Breakfast out at the Farmhouse Restaurant in Gilbert where we shared a large cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting and a veggie omelette with home fries. You can see Gary’s hand clenched - he must be hungry.

Good meal but we had to mention that the potatoes were a bit on the crispy critter side and our waitress brought us some fresh ones. Much better.

Lets get to the art work. This huge vibrant painting greets you as you enter.

Then there is a large gallery with smaller side galleries off of it. Note the banquet tables still set up. They had a banquet for many of the artists yesterday here in the gallery - guess who catered it? Yep, Bashas. We began wandering around, trying to keep to a pattern so that we wouldn’t miss anything. But, you know, in art galleries, they have so many rooms off of other rooms that you can get lost.

So, let’s go wandering around the gallery. Here’s one of my favorites.

We saw it the last time I was here and I liked it then so looked for it particularly this time around. Hey, they had moved it. It a depiction of the Lewis and Clarke expedition in the Bitterroot Mountains by John Clymer. They were following an Indian trail but, in the snow and weather, it was getting increasingly difficult to follow. Notice Sacajawea on the horse wrapped in the blanket. I can’t even imagine setting up a campsite in the evening in this setting.

Around the corner was this one by John Clymer, titled the Fur Press. It’s a group of trappers who have spent the winter in the wilderness trapping and cleaning furs for shipment to St. Louis in the spring. Self-reliant and rugged to the core, they carried their rifles, knives and steel traps into the wilderness relying only upon themselves to build a shelter, find food and live through a rough winter. They trapped by day and huddled in rough shelters over night. On the right are the pelts that they had cleaned and stretched over willow frames to dry. Now, it’s spring and they are taking them off the frames and pressing them to make a compact bundle which they will wrap with deer or elk hides and tie with rawhide thongs. This rawhide shrinks as it dries and makes the bundle even more compact but these bundles could weigh up to 100 lbs.

When you think of women in the early history of the Northwest, you naturally think of Sacajawea and Narcissa Whitman, the first white woman along with Eliza Spaulding who had ever crossed the Great Divide. They were also the first to use wagons to transport goods along the furthest reaches of the Oregon Trail. In 1836 she joined her doctor-missionary husband, Marcus, and another missionary family for the grueling overland journey from St. Louis, MO to Walla Walla, WA. At the Platte River in Nebraska, they joined a fur caravan and traveled with them to a rendezvous along the journey. Word spread that white women were coming and this painting depicts the welcoming committee greeting the new arrivals. The Whitmans were at the rendezvous for 12 days and ‘passed out all the Bibles that could be carried on two stout mules.’

Knowing that wagons and women could make the journey to Oregon along the Oregon Trail, others followed and soon the trickle became a flood as wagon trains made the arduous journey cross country to the West Coast. (A sad postscript: the Whitman's enthusiasm soon began to deteriorate. They lost their 2-yr old daughter in a drowning accident. Then, after a measles epidemic killed most of the children in the nearby tribe, the Cayuse, the relations with the Native American spiraled downward. in 1847 a band of Cayuse murdered Narcissa, Marcus, and a dozen other whites and then burned their mission to the ground.)

Another gallery features Howard Terpning.

In the next blog posting, I’ll show you the native American art.

You know you’re in Arizona when you can pronounce Saguaro, Tempe, San Xavier, Canyon de Chelly, Mogollon Rim, and Cholla.
                                Anonymous