Bill Ohrmann only began seriously painting when he retired from ranching in 1996. Since then, the 95-year-old Montana artist has produced hundreds of canvases that explore his blistering criticism of the modern West. His direct, narrative paintings, often inspired by quotations from his favorite poets and environmental writers, are by turns wry, apocalyptic, horrifying and hilarious.

In Tainted Revelations, Joe Ashbrook Nickell maps out the broad landscape of Ohrmann's oeuvre, communing along with the way with the cavemen and future-men, tigers and mice, neighbors and nymphs...