Gordon Snidow

Ruidoso, New Mexico

Gordon Snidow has been known as the foremost chronicler of the contemporary cowboy for over forty years. He is a leader in the development of the American Western Art Movement, and is one of America's outstanding fine artists. He paints the West not as he would like it to be, but the way it is - warts and all.

Snidow was born in 1936 and grew up in Missouri, Texas, and Oklahoma, where he attended Tulsa’s Webster High School and Tulsa University. He earned a BFA from the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. He is a charter member of the Cowboy Artists of America.

“I remember my first art show in the second grade in Tulsa ... Dad found a teacher to give me private lessons in Enid, Oklahoma, and enrolled me in the Famous Artists School. Then I discovered the Gilcrease Museum when I was twelve and I decided I wanted to be a cowboy artist.”

His work can be found in the permanent collection of the leading Western Art Museums. He participates in several shows, including the Prix de West Show at the National Cowboy Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Snidow is also the creator of the “Coors Cowboy Collectors Series.”

In 2003, Snidow was honored with a retrospective exhibtion at the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building in Washington DC. The exhibition, "Gordon Snidow - My Story" featured more than 100 works of art spanning over four decades of his career.