Jerry Bywaters: Interpreter of the Southwest (review)

228Southwestern Historical QuarterlyOctober own partner in cold blood. Then there was Barney Riggs, who according to DeArment "was a violent, vindictive man, a brutal, probably psychopadiic, killer" (p. 151). Two of the gun battles involved unlikely participants. In one of them, City Marshal Pat Desmond of South Pueblo, Colorado, had a violent dispute with one of his patrolmen. An eyewitness said the patrol officer "squatted, advanced his left leg, [and] dropped his right hand to his pocket" (p. 26). But Desmond fired first and put two shots into the extended leg. In the second incident, one Bill Standifer, a former security man for a cattle ranch, and his former employer, Pink Higgins, faced each odier on horseback. At a distance of less than a hundred yards, both men dismounted and Higgins killed Standifer with a single rifle shot. Many of the gunmen in this study served on and off as peace officers in places such as Colorado and New Mexico. Most notable among diese were Pat Desmond and Mart Duggan, two tough cops of Irish descent; the fiery Dan Tucker; the good-bad lawman C. C. Perry; and Milt Yarberry, who "would swing at die end of a rope for using weapons too freely while serving the law" (p. 208). Some of these lawmen (for example, George Goodell) wore the peace officer's star in several states and territories, yet shot and killed other policemen. The author concludes, "While ten of the twelve wore a badge at least for a time, only a few, most notablyJeff Kidder, could be considered career law officers" (p. 208). Many of the gunmen presented in this work got their starts in Texas. Barney Riggs, for example, may have gunned down his fist victim in Texas and surely killed others in the Lone Star State before his death there. Dan Bogan was a fugitive from justice in Texas for decades. Of the gunmen described in this book, DeArment writes, "Many were cowboys, particularly drovers from Texas, who regularly packed sidearms and earned a wide reputation for reckless bravado. It is not an accident that fully half of the dozen gunfighters whose lives are detailed in this volume spent their formative years in the Lone Star State" (p. 5). Jamestown Community CollegeHaroldJ. WeissJr. Jerry Bywaters: Interpreter of the Southwest. Edited by Sam Deshong Ratcliffe. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2007. Pp. 120. Illustrations, color plates, index. ISBN 9781585445912. $30.00, cloth.) Edited by Sam Deshong Ratcliffe, head of special collections at Southern Methodist University's Hamon Arts Library, this work evolved from the centennial commemoration of the birth of Texas artist, Jerry Bywaters (1906-1989). Ratcliffe built upon the 2007 exhibits honoring Bywater at the Meadows Museum of Southern Methodist University. This impressively illustrated book is a needed retrospective of the important Texas artist's work, highlighting the transitional stages in his career. Bywaters—along with other members of the Dallas Ninesuch as Otis Dozier (1904-1987), William Lester (1910-1991), and Everett Spruce (1908-2002)—identified with and helped shape the creative legacy of Texas and Southwestern regional art in the twentieth century. 2??8Book Reviews22g The importance of Bywaters's role increased over time because of his multifaceted career. He was not only a capable and pioneering artist, but for twenty years served as director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (now the Dallas Museum of Art) and was a teacher in the Division of Fine Arts at Southern Methodist University. In addition, he forged a significant collection of regional art and cultural objects, now part of the Jake and Nancy Hamon Arts Library, and he was a writer with a sense of history. This latter side of Bywaters perhaps stemmed from his undergraduate work in comparative literature at SMU, which translated into an appreciation of the written word as well as visual expression. Bywaters's accomplishments were wide ranging. He was in tune with the wider development of art in America and in Europe, and his interests included various schools, styles, and techniques, particularly printmaking. He also promoted sculpture , ceramics, mosaics, interior design, and photography. Of particular importance to Bywaters were the Mexican muralists of his day such as Orozco, Rivera, and...