Solon H. Borglum, born Ogden, UT - Untitled - n.d. - T-Shirt

This untitled etching by American sculptor Solon H. Borglum turns to the American frontier, a subject he returned to throughout his career.

Visual Elements & Composition

As an etching, the work is built from incised line and tone rather than flat colour, so its character rests on the density and direction of its marks. The composition is grounded and unhurried, with the eye moving across the image as it would across open country. The work carries no formal title and no legible inscription in the record, so its meaning comes from its subject and its maker.

Meaning & Symbolism

Borglum lived among the cowboys and Native American communities of the Great Plains, and he drew on those direct observations for his work. The piece reflects his interest in human endurance set against an untamed landscape, and in the ranchers, indigenous peoples and wildlife of a rapidly changing West. He chose these lived realities over idealised European models, which places the work within the late nineteenth and early twentieth century effort to document the American West through art. The Smithsonian American Art Museum holds the work in its collection.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A tee is seen up close and in motion, and this etching suits that. Its fine line and tonal depth reward a closer look, and the image moves with the wearer as they walk, sit and turn. The composition gives the chest a single, contained scene, so the frontier study reads as a complete image rather than a pattern. Worn, the piece carries Borglum's record of a transient era into everyday life.