The Amon Carter Museum of American Art celebrated the opening of the traveling exhibition “Cowboy” Sept. 28. Less than two weeks later, the show — which promised works that “disrupt the homogeneous ideal of the cowboy as a White, cisgender American male” — was temporarily closed without explanation.

As the parking lot filled up for the museum’s monthly “Second Thursdays” event on Oct. 11, guests who hoped to see the marquee show instead encountered a sign that read “Darn! This area is closed.”

Personnel stationed at the front desk and outside of the exhibition’s gallery said they had no information about why “Cowboy” was closed or when it would reopen. The Carter’s website instructed guests to check back soon.

Within days, the show reopened with a new sign warning guests of “mature content.” The sign offered visitors the chance to scan a QR code with their phone to preview works included in the show.

The museum declined an interview about the temporary closure of the exhibition and its subsequent reopening.

“We received some feedback about the exhibition’s content and needed time to evaluate and get aligned on messaging for visitors,” a museum spokesperson wrote in an email to the Report. “The Carter welcomes audiences who bring different perspectives and backgrounds, and we wanted to give visitors a chance to preview the works before entering the exhibition, so we added signage outside the exhibition entrance with a link to the exhibition checklist.”

“Cowboy,” which was organized by two curators from MCA Denver, includes 60 works from more than 25 artists.

The works address hot button topics like race, religion, gender and sexuality.

Media within the exhibition ranges from Deana Lawson’s photo of Black cowboys riding horses against a dark sky to 3-D objects like Mel Chin’s “Roughrider,” a saddle made of barbed wire.

The show does not feature nudity. The Carter owns several nude works within its collection, including some currently on display.

“Cowboy” does include innuendo and romantic imagery. One installation has a painting of two men kissing, a video of two men dancing and an adobe floor where their boot prints are visible.

The Carter did not answer questions regarding which piece or pieces in the show the mature label is referring to, nor how frequently it adds warnings to exhibitions after a show has opened.

The museum did not change the “Cowboy” exhibition itself, the spokesperson continued.

“Again, we are glad that ‘Cowboy’ is reopened, and we apologize for any inconvenience the brief closure may have caused,” the spokesperson said.

Fort Worth artist Bernardo Vallarino saw the show before the temporary closure and enjoyed the exhibition.

As an artist, Vallarino said he might proactively add a warning on some of his work if he feels the content warrants it. However, the fact that the warning was added after “Cowboy” opened strengthens the need for an exhibition like this that challenges stereotypes about masculinity, he said.

“You can have a museum for female nudes, and there’s no warning at the beginning of the show, but rather that you have some gay undertones and deals with masculinity … it’s a big issue, right?” Vallarino said. “It’s a different perspective, and I think that’s unusual for where we live, I guess.”

Angela Ellsworth’s “Seer Bonnets,” constructed with pearl-tipped corsage pins, and the video of charros in Ana Segovia’s “Pos’ se acabó este cantar (2021),” stood out to Vallarino.

Seeing Segovia’s video again, which Vallarino had previously seen at a museum in Italy, speaks to the quality of works within the exhibition, he said.

“What is noble about the show is that the Amon Carter has always shown a typical, Western idealistic kind of vision of what a cowboy is, and in this case, it’s not,” Vallarino said. “So it’s nice to see this additional representation altogether, both as a Hispanic male and a Hispanic, gay male.”

When the “Cowboy” debuted at MCA Denver last year, the museum did not include signage about “mature” content.

“MCA Denver is so pleased that the journey of the Cowboy exhibition continues at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and more audiences have the opportunity to engage with it,” a museum spokesperson wrote to the Report.

“Cowboy” is on view now through March 23, 2025.

Marcheta Fornoff covers arts and culture for the Fort Worth Report. Reach her at [email protected]. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.