"Red Scared!" author speaks Oct. 17 at UW's American Heritage Center

Michael Barson is UW's 2011 American Heritage Center George A. Rentschler Distinguished Lecturer. On October 17, 3-4 p.m., in the AHC Wyoming Stock Growers' Room in Laramie, he will discuss his book, Red Scared! The Commie Menace in Propaganda and Popular Culture. This event is free and open to the public

Murder at a deactivated Wyoming missile silo at center of Robert Greer's new novel

Wheatland’s Robert Greer has a new book coming out in March 2012:

ASTRIDE A PINK HORSE
North Atlantic Books
Hardcover: March 27, 2012, ISBN-13: 978-1583943694

The Cold War ended years ago, or did it? For Thurmond Giles, a decorated African American Air Force veteran found dead, naked, and dangling by his ankles inside an entry tube to a deactivated minuteman missile silo in desolate southeastern Wyoming, the answer is no. The labyrinthine investigation that follows, led by Air Force fighter pilot Major Bernadette Cameron and ex-college baseball phenom-turned-reporter Elgin "Cozy" Coseia, reveals how the atomic era's legacy has continued to destroy minds and lives.

Robert Greer

Set in contemporary times, Astride a Pink Horse follows Bernadette, Cozy, and Cozy's eccentric boss Freddie Dames as they match wits with a gallery of unforgettable murder suspects: a powerful, politically connected cattle rancher, long bitter over government seizure of his land for defense purposes and the expulsion of his son from the U.S. Air Force Academy; a declining 76-year-old WWII-era Japanese internment camp victim and her unstable math professor nephew; an idealistic lifelong nuclear arms protestor; and a civilian Air Force contractor with a 20-year-old grudge against the murder victim. Do three amateur detectives stand a chance against these characters and the conspiracy that may be behind it all?

Robert Greer's trademark mix of vivid eccentrics, surprising plot twists, and political edge makes this one of his most memorable thrillers.

Cold War, cool art, at UW Art Museum

From a UW press release:

"Cold War in America: Works from the 1950s - 1970s, Selections from the Art Museum Collection" opens to the public Saturday, Aug. 21, at the University of Wyoming Art Museum. A free public reception for all the fall exhibitions is scheduled at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 17.

The end of World War II in 1945 marked the beginning of a new conflict, the Cold War. This ongoing state of political conflict, military tension and economic competition continued primarily between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Abstract expressionism, color field painting, pop art and minimalism all came of age during the Cold War period, representing a radically new engagement with materials and space, and redefining the role and purpose of art.

Abstract expressionist artists, such as Willem de Kooning and James Brooks, who based their works on the pure expression of ideas relating to the spiritual, the unconscious and the mind, will be included.

Color field painting is characterized by large fields of flat, solid color creating areas of unbroken surface and a flat picture plane. It will be represented by the work of artists such as Robert Motherwell and Adolph Gottlieb.

Pop art in the United States, considered a reaction to abstract expressionism, will be represented by artists Alice Neel, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Lee Krasner and Larry Rivers.

For more information on exhibitions and programs, call the UW Art Museum at (307) 766-6622 or visit the museum's Web page at www.uwyo.edu/artmuseum or blog at http://www.uwartmuseum.blogspot.com/.

"Imagine learning from the masters" is a guiding principle of the UW Art Museum's programs. Located in the Centennial Complex at 2111 Willett Drive in Laramie, the museum is open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is free.

Photo: Conrad Marca-Relli ‘s 1969 collage "Untitled #7," is among the works to be featured in a University of Wyoming Art Museum exhibition on Cold War art. (UW Art Museum)