Helen McAuslan

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Full NameHelen McAuslanDate of Birth1895Date of Death1970DescriptionThe Helen McAuslan Collection at Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT, consists of drawings, paintings, collage, sculpture, and prints created by Helen McAuslan (American, 1895-1970). The collection was donated to the museum in 1972 by McAuslan’s cousin, Helen Dornbusch.

McAuslan was a modern artist who lived in Montana for several decades. She created art inspired by her life in Montana and her travels abroad. McAuslan was a contemporary of other renowned Montana artists including Jessie Wilber, Frances Senska, and Robert and Gennie DeWeese. While she was inspired by many cultures, the rugged beauty of the Rockies is what captivated McAuslan to relocate to Montana and convey that beauty through her work. The artwork in this collection explores McAuslan’s experience of Montana’s landscape and the beauty of the world.

Helen McAuslan was a versatile artist active throughout the twentieth-century. She was captivated by a wide array of media, experimenting with drawing, painting, collage, printmaking, and sculpture. Born in 1895, Helen McAuslan was raised by a well educated and wealthy family in Providence, Rhode Island. She earned a BA in Philosophy from Mt. Holyoke College in 1917 and went on to study at the Art Students League in New York from 1920 to 1926. While in New York, McAuslan became acquainted with several modernists including Max Weber and John Sloan. Many of her early paintings reflect trends and movements that evolved out of the European avant garde.

McAuslan’s time in New York impacted her profession as an artist, and she continued to apply trends in abstraction to her work throughout her life. Perhaps the most influential activity to McAuslan’s developing art career was her time spent traveling. Most of her paintings and drawings reflect the many enticing places she traveled to. Her adventures led her to places such as Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, North America, and the one place she would eventually call home, Montana.

McAuslan first visited Montana in 1932, and continued to visit every summer until she settled down in 1946 with the purchase of a cattle ranch in Springdale. Although busy with her new found passion as a cattle rancher, McAuslan continued to work on her art, sketching and painting scenes that reflected her daily life on the ranch. Eventually, McAuslan’s desire to dedicate more time to her artistic career led her to sell the ranch and build a cabin on the Boulder River near McLeod. The intellectual and creative communities present in Bozeman inspired McAuslan to relocate in 1966. While in Bozeman, she became close to the tight knit group of modernists including Francis Senska, Jessie Wilber, and Bob and Gennie DeWeese. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, McAuslan’s subject matter became focused around applying trends in abstraction to the western landscape. Many works include the use of bold, non-objective color to flatten and outline the rich Montana landscape.

In the last decade of her life, McAuslan became actively involved in progressive politics. In 1966 she joined the League of Women Voters and the United Nation Association. In 1962, McAuslan was elected secretary of the Democratic Central Committee of Sweetgrass County. Her involvement and dedication to political and social matters became the main focus of her artwork in the last three years of her life. One of McAuslans’ most well known series of work is her Kent State Series. This group of five paintings depict the horrifying events that happened at Kent State University on May 4th, 1970. McAuslan passed just three months later, on August 26th, at the age of seventy-five.

Written by:
Maggie Reinhardt
Annya Jacobs

Bibliography
1. DeWeese, Gennie. “Helen McAuslan: Drawings”. Published by Museum of The Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. (1972).

2. Chacón, Rafael. “Rediscovering Helen McAuslan: Montana Modernist”. Art Museum of Missoula. (2001).
ResidenceSpringdale, MontanaMcLeodRelated CollectionPower of Place: The Artwork of Helen McAuslanContributing InstitutionMuseum of the RockiesCollectionExhibitsSub-CollectionArts & Culture

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