Texas Windstorm

Charles T. Bowling was known both for his paintings and his lithographs. He was affiliated with the Texas regionalist group known as the Dallas Nine, credited with putting Texas on the art world map in the 1930s and 40s. An Art Digest review of the 1936 Texas Centennial stated: “Texas is Big… and whether New York knows it or not, the commonwealth… (is) contributing a vital element to the nation’s art.” Bowling did not study fine art seriously until his mid-thirties, although he was not without artistic sensibilities—he developed skills in draftsmanship during a 49-year career as a civil engineer for Texas Power and Light Company. Texas Windstorm exemplifies Bowling’s stylistic tendencies—austere rural landscapes and urban scenes in grays, ochres, and taupes—but the darkened sky creates a sense of doom that could be representative of the storms Texans know so well, or perhaps it alludes to hardships and uncertainty present during the Depression years.