With previews of gallery exhibitions, museum shows and auctions, Western Art Collector is the premier monthly magazine for collectors searching for works by talented living and past artists who depict the West in paintings and sculptures.
How do you really know what is happening in the art market? Well, you reach out to the people who make the market happen and you talk to them. The artists, dealers, gallery owners and collectors who are on the frontlines of all this and making things happening on a daily basis. Well, we’ve spent the last month talking to people across the country. Gallery owners in Dallas, Santa Fe, Scottsdale, Jackson Hole, Bozeman, Billings, Fredericksburg, Vail, Denver, New York City and Los Angeles, and what we’ve heard is quite promising. While 2016 was down for most people, the first four months of 2017 have been a flurry of activity. People are going to galleries, visiting cities and art destinations and, even better, purchasing work like never before. This is…
Altermann Galleries & Auctioneers founder Tony Altermann, whose presence within Western art has been ubiquitous for more than 40 years, passed away March 12 in Dallas. He was 76. The auction house owner— whose string of auctions in places like Dallas; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Santa Fe, New Mexico, are staples in the Western art world— was a prominent force at his own auctions, where he would often help man the phones at the back of the room, but also at museum and gallery exhibitions around the country, where he would mingle with the artists, many of whom he represented early in their careers. His son, Richard Altermann, says his father had an arts-rich history. “Because of his personality and nature he loved art, especially artists. He had an artistic eye,…
Three important Navajo chief’s blankets, each one unique in design and prized for their rarity, can be seen in three separate pieces by California painter Logan Maxwell Hagege, who was commissioned to paint the series, titled The Chiefs, for a prominent and respected Western art collector. The blankets—first-, secondand third-phase Navajo chief’s blankets—are now on loan to Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West in Arizona. The trio of works, each of which dates to the mid-1800s, represents one of the finest collections of chief’s blankets ever assembled. The owner of the rare textiles, Boston collector Tim Peterson, commissioned Hagege to paint three different works, each one featuring a figure wearing one of the magnificent blankets. The series was completed several years ago, but after Peterson acquired a new second-phase…
On January 19 and 20, 2018, the Scottsdale Art Auction will host a one-time special auction for the Leanin’ Tree Museum & Sculpture Garden of Western Art in Boulder, Colorado. More than 600 lots will be on the auction block, including major works from some of Western art’s most iconic names: James Reynolds, Bob Kuhn, Kenneth Riley, Frank McCarthy, Melvin Warren, Martin Grelle and many others. Leanin’ Tree’s collection expanded largely due to its successful greeting card company, which was started in the years after World War II. While the greeting card company is still active and continues to churn out cards—the auction will have no effect on the business—the museum is set to close September 4. The museum’s founder, 92-year-old Ed Trumble, announced the news in a card to…
A 72-by-60-inch painting showing four Native Americans on horseback as the Grand Tetons rise above the clouds behind them has been chosen as the featured artwork for the 2017 Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The piece, Rise Above, was painted by featured artist, Texas painter Mark Keathley. The work will appear on posters and other marketing material leading up to the 33rd annual festival, which runs from September 6 through 17. The piece is currently hanging in the lobby of the Wort Hotel in Jackson Hole for public viewing. It will stay there until it is auctioned off on September 16. “If we want to bring words of hope for unity into a world of unrest and turmoil, we must rise above and gain perspective from…
Ken Rowe Rowe Fine Art Gallery Sedona, AZ I am grateful to say that the art market in Sedona is very strong, and from what I am hearing, other art destinations are greatly improved over last year. To begin with, visitors to Sedona find themselves awestruck and taken by surprise when they are greeted by the most impressive Sedona red rock formations. Next, their pleasure continues as they discover visiting the many local stylish galleries providing them the perfect opportunity to take home a piece of fine art as a memento of their trip. “…we see a strong interest in modern-day and playful bronzes, contemporary paintings with a punch, as well as traditional work with abundant accents of color.” Not surprising, landscape paintings of Sedona, wildlife paintings and sculptures of…
