Iconic Shirts From Brokeback Mountain on Display in Autry's Imagination Gallery

http://theautry.org/
Two intertwined shirts worn by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in the film
represent struggle between heritage and acceptance in gay cowboy culture.
On display starting July 28, 2009
Los Angeles (July 27, 2009) —The Autry National Center is proud to announce the installation of
the two intertwined shirts worn by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in the Focus Features 2005
groundbreaking film Brokeback Mountain, also starring Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway.
The shirts will be displayed as part of a reinstallation of the Contemporary Westerns case in the
AutrysImagination Gallery. Directed by Oscar winner Ang Lee, the film is adapted from the
short story by Pulitzer Prizewinning author E. Annie Proulx in her Close Range: Wyoming
Storiescollection. The shirts are on loan from collector, producer, and sociopolitical commentator
Tom Gregory.
The Western genre is an American art form that has played a crucial role in the development of
American popular culture. Putting the Western into a larger historical context, the Imagination
Gallery shows how the genre has evolved over the last one hundred years in response to social
and cultural changes taking place in America. The iconic shirts are at the center of the
Contemporary Westerns case in order to highlight Brokeback Mountainssignificance in keeping
the Western genre alive and thriving in the new millennium, and also to spotlight the LGBT
communitys struggle for safety and inclusion in the rural, Western communities from where
many originate yet often feel forced to abandon.
Noted author Gregory Hinton conceived the idea of displaying the iconic shirts at the Autry while
doing research for his fifth novel, Night Rodeo. I noticed they were missing, Hinton told
Gregory when he tracked him down on his website on New Years Day 2009. Mr. Gregory, owner of the iconic shirts, won them in a 2006 charity auction. At their first meeting, Mr. Gregory
confessed to Mr. Hinton that after he bought them, he had assumed he would be hearing from
museums offering to display the shirts. No one called until Mr. Hinton did, three years later.
My feelings were hurt, Mr. Gregory admitted. Not for me, but for the shirts, for what they
represent, he said. On July 28, 2009, six months after the idea was first presented to the
Autry, the intertwined shirts worn by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal will be displayed at the
museum.
Accompanying the shirts in the case are mannequins of Steve McQueen from the historical epic
Tom Horn(1980) and Jeff Bridges from the revisionist WesternWild Bill(1995), along with the
gun belts and revolvers worn by Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short in the comedy
¡Three Amigos!(1986). Aspecial section devoted to the career of actor-director Clint Eastwood
includes mannequins from Pale Rider(1985) and Unforgiven(1992).
The Autry seeks to explore all the peoples of the American West, and the exhibition of the shirts
is part of a larger attempt to examine the LGBTcommunitys contribution to the West and the
Western genre. The Autry is currently in negotiations to house the archives of the International
Gay Rodeo Association, and an October panel about what it means to be gay in the West is also
in the works.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• autry
• national
• center
• museum
• american
• west
• southwest
• brokeback
• mountain
• Heath
• Ledger
• Jake
• Gyllenhaal
• Ang
• Lee
• Jeffrey
• Richardson

[leddger]

to think...im alone in life and my only dream...own a piece of history from brokeback mountain....it wont happen but im happy for the museum.

[sel365]

Heath would be so proud, as I am sure is Jake.

I'd love to see the shirts and the museums.