Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2017/ No.119 i Western Art Collector

In case you weren’t watching, something extraordinary happened in Western art this past spring. I’m sure you heard the headlines of the contemporary sales—$110 million for a Jean-Michel Basquiat at Sotheby’s, $57.4 million for a Brancusi sculpture at Christie’s—but then, during the American sale at Christie’s on May 23, Frederic Remington’s bronze Coming Through the Rye sold for $11,223,500. The figure doubled Remington’s previous auction record and is also the highest price paid at auction for any piece of historic American sculpture. After the sale, we spoke with our friend Tylee Abbott, Christie’s specialist and associate vice president in the American art department (and, if you remember correctly, our auction correspondent for many years), and he was quite pleased with the result. “I think a couple of factors sent it…

Kenneth L. Schuster Director & Chief Curator The Brinton Museum Big Horn, WY (307) 672-3173 www.thebrintonmuseum.org What event (gallery show, museum exhibit, etc.) in the next few months are you looking forward to, and why? I’m very excited about our partnership with the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association through our Spring Roundup with the TCAA Exhibition. It represents our institutional commitment to carrying on a tradition which Bradford Brinton started in 1923 when he purchased the Quarter Circle A Ranch here in Big Horn, Wyoming, and made it the focal point and repository of his Western collections. Forrest E. Mars Jr. emulated Brinton’s dedication to the Western tradition by putting his financial support and personal leadership behind our expansion into the new building and added programming. The Brinton Museum and the…

UPCOMING GROUP SHOW Up to 40 works July 3-15, 2017 Altamira Fine Art 172 Center Street Jackson, WY 83001 (307) 739-4700 With subjects that include national parks, desert landscapes, Native Americans, cowboys and prominent Old West figures, Altamira Fine Art will present a new group exhibition featuring the work of prominent contemporary painters Gary Ernest Smith, Howard Post, Ed Mell, R. Tom Gilleon and Dennis Ziemienski. The exhibition, which will be on view from July 3 to 15, will take place at the gallery’s location in Jackson, Wyoming. Available at the exhibition will be Mell’s landscape scene Desert Gap. “It was based on a study I had from a few years ago. I’ve been developing it and drawing on it for awhile and as everything started happening at once in…

SHOW LOCATION COEUR D’ALENE, ID UPCOMING SHOW Up to 6 works July 14-August 11, 2017 Coeur d’Alene Galleries 213 Sherman Avenue Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814 (208) 667-7732 Abigail Gutting has been immersed in the art world since she was a child. Her mother, Western artist Susan D. Gutting, was her first teacher, and now the two are studio-mates. The Pride of the Rodeo at Coeur d’Alene Galleries, her first solo show, portrays the excitement and energy of rodeo action. “It’s been a joy to watch Abigail blossom as an artist,” says gallery owner Buddy Le. “She exudes a quiet confidence that translates well in her work. Abi has a unique ability to capture the character and personality of every horse she paints.” The Western lifestyle of the rodeo has always…

SHOW LOCATION JACKSON, WY UPCOMING SHOW Up to 12 works July 1-31, 2017 Trailside Galleries 130 E. Broadway Jackson, WY 83001 (307) 733-3186 Painter Jie Wei Zhou finds tremendous opportunity in the quiet personal moments people share with themselves without even known that they’re doing it. This moment he captures has a name: life. “I love to show people naturally as they are,” Zhou says. “It is when they are most honest to themselves.” Born in China, Zhou came to the United States in 1994 to pursue his art career. Today he lives outside Denver, but he occasionally returns to China to see family and also capture more reference material, which is often street scenes of people living their lives, whether it’s playing music on a street corner, as in…

SHOW LOCATION SANTA FE, NM UPCOMING GROUP SHOW Up to 24 works July 7-21, 2017 Manitou Galleries 123 W. Palace Avenue Santa Fe, NM 87501 (505) 986-0440 Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, Grant Wood, Dale Nichols and Alexandre Hogue are primarily known as regionalists, whose stylized and distinctive works from the early 20th century came to define rural life in America during a vital period in and around the Great Depression. Keeping alive the spirit and style of American regionalism are Bryan Haynes and William Haskell, whose works depicting the Southwest will be part a new exhibition opening July 7 at Manitou Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The show will feature Haynes’ elaborately staged scene paintings showing various aspects of the West and Haskell’s stylized landscapes of Arizona…

After more than a decade in the works, a gallery reinstallation and reconfiguration is now complete and opening May 17 at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming. The new gallery configuration, titled Exploring Wildlife Art, will enhance the visitor experience and offer a more seamless presentation to the museum’s permanent collection. “We want each visitor to experience the collection on their own, either one piece and one gallery at a time or as a whole as it tells a larger narrative about wildlife art,” says Adam Duncan Harris, Petersen Curator of Art & Research at the museum. “Visitors can follow a sequence as it builds, or they can go off on their own and appreciate the works in their own way. When they go in sequence, we…

While John Gould spent his life admiring and accumulating specimens of his beloved hummingbirds, it wasn’t until a trip to America in 1851 with his son Charles where he saw his first living specimen. Gould and his son first traveled to New York but arrived too early for hummingbird season. Then the two traveled to the gardens of the famed American naturalist John Bartram in Philadelphia and it was there where Gould spotted the object of his life-long obsession. The gardens are still there today and, having been established in 1728, are the oldest surviving botanic gardens in the United States. Iridescence: John Gould’s Hummingbirds is on exhibition at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming, through August 27. The show includes 80 antique prints from the late…

OWNER Greg Fulton Astoria Fine Art Jackson Hole, WY Last year we celebrated our 10th anniversary, and our business is thriving due to the vast array of styles and genres created by the artists we represent and the fact that we have a high concentration of museum-held and national award-winning artists. Astoria has become a destination for both contemporary and traditional works, so we continue to attract a broad clientele. “Astoria has become a destination for both contemporary and traditional works, so we continue to attract a broad clientele.” On the contemporary side of the Western and wildlife art world, some of the hottest artists are Ewoud de Groot, Andrew Denman, Mark Eberhard and Joshua Tobey. On the traditional side, we are seeing great demand for Dean Mitchell, G. Russell…

SHOW LOCATION JACKSON, WY UPCOMING SHOW Up to 25 works July 1-9, 2017 Mountain Trails Gallery 155 Center Street Jackson, WY 83001 (307) 734-8150 Some artists have to venture far and wide to find their inspiration. For Troy Collins, he merely has to find a window in his home or studio. “I live on 20 acres above the Bitterroot River with 360-degree views of the Bitterroot mountain range. I am surrounded by peaceful beauty: aspen, cottonwood, maples and pines that grow in my own backyard,” the Montana painter says. “I am constantly immersed in nature and subject matter. This gives me the opportunity to constantly gather information all around me. I find myself standing at the easel looking out from my studio window and feeling completely blessed to be placed…

SHOW LOCATION SANTA FE, NM UPCOMING GROUP SHOW Up to 40 works July 28-August 10, 2017 Ventana Fine Art 400 Canyon Road Santa Fe, NM 87501 (505) 983-8815 Rebecca Tobey and Jean Richardson create forces of nature in their abstract wildlife artwork. Tobey’s sculptures and Richardson’s paintings will be featured at Ventana Fine Art’s two-artist show Alive in the Wild. Tobey developed her unique sculpture style with her late husband, Gene Tobey, and has worked solo for the past 11 years. Her bronze bobcat Night Watchman will be featured in the show, along with a group of ceramic animals, including a buffalo rider, which is the only sculpture that features a human form. “Although I enjoy creating for bronze, the ceramics are my passion. They are ‘born’ in the kiln…

SHOW LOCATION JACKSON, WY UPCOMING SHOW Up to 20 works July 1-10 Astoria Fine Art 35 E. Deloney Avenue Jackson, WY 83001 (307) 733-4016 Joshua Tobey and Ewoud de Groot are instinctual artists. Tobey steps back at the end of the process of modeling his animals in clay to “see a spirit or intelligence existing within the work, one that my collectors can relate to as an emotion we feel as human beings, from playful curiosity to quiet contemplation.” De Groot says the reason he paints animals “is something which comes from an instinct, way deep I think.” Both artists diverge from exactitude to enhance a common animal bond between animal and human and both artists balance reality and abstraction. Seeing these artist’s work together, it is striking to compare…

DuPont has announced a substantial donation of artwork to the Delaware Art Museum, Brandywine River Museum of Art and Hagley Museum & Library. The works— which include art from three generations of the Wyeth family, Harvey Dunn and Helen Coolidge Woodring—come from the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, Delaware. Built in 1913, the hotel housed some of the DuPont collection beginning in in 1940. One of the donated pieces is N.C. Wyeth’s “Stand away from that girl!” repeated de Spain harshly, backing the words with a step forward, which was made for Frank H. Spearman’s 1915 book Nan of Music Mountain. The image depicts the character Henry de Spain confronting a cattleman who is assaulting a female character. The story focuses on de Spain, who is attempting to find the…

July 29 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction Reno, NV – (208) 772-9009 Aug. 11-12 Altermann Galleries & Auctioneers’ August Auction Santa Fe, NM – (505) 983-1590 Aug. 13 Heart of the West Contemporary Western Art Show and Auction Bozeman, MT – (406) 781-0550 Aug. 19-20 SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market Santa Fe, NM – (505) 983-5220 Sept. 6-17 Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival Jackson, WY – (307) 733-3316 Sept. 6-Oct. 2 Western Visions Jackson, WY – (800) 313-9553 Sept. 8-Oct. 8 Quest for the West Indianapolis, IN – (317) 636-9378 Sept. 15-17 Jackson Hole Art Auction Jackson, WY – (866) 549-9278 Sept. 22-23 Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale Cody, WY – (888) 598-8119 Oct. 5-7 Cowboy Crossings Oklahoma, OK – (405) 478-2250 Nov. 2017 (Date TBA) Gilcrease Museum Collectors’ Reserve…

SHOW LOCATION JACKSON HOLE, WY UPCOMING SHOW Up to 15 works July 21-31, 2017 Astoria Fine Art 35 E. Deloney Avenue Jackson Hole, WY 83001 (307) 733-4016 Andrew Denman chose to study fine art at a liberal arts college so he could also study literature and the texts that form a base for our common culture. Describing his artistic career for his alma mater, Saint Mary’s College of California, he writes, “Even the creative writing courses I took at SMC—playwriting and screenwriting in particular—taught me valuable lessons about economy of style, and when to imply and when to describe.” He brings that awareness and that skill into his painting. A wildlife artist, he studies animals in their natural habitats from nature parks to zoos, from Kenya to Trinidad. His travel…

SHOW LOCATION JACKSON, WY UPCOMING SHOW Up to 16 works July 19-26, 2017 Mountain Trails Gallery 155 Center Street Jackson, WY 83001 (307) 734-8150 In his first show at Mountain Trails Gallery in nearly two years, painter Nicholas Coleman is examining the West with a renewed perspective. “I wanted this show to have a fresher look on traditional themes I like to paint. Some of my compositions are little more simplified and highlight certain things I would like the viewer to notice right away,” he says of the upcoming July 19 show at the gallery in Jackson, Wyoming. “There are many avenues of early life in the frontier of the West which of course will showcase wildlife and man crossing over into wild habitats—whether in Wyoming, Idaho or down into…

Last May, Heritage Auctions set a world auction record for artist Birger Sandzén when his painting Lake at Sunset, Colorado sold for $670,000. They continued to show success with his works during this year’s American Art sale on May 3 when Creek at Twilight (est. $300/500,000) achieved $516,500 and became the third highest price for the artist at auction. The piece arrived at market from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Washington High School Alumni Scholarship Foundation, with net proceeds of the sale going to fund college scholarships for graduates of the school. “With Sandzén, people really want his early work from the ’20s on a large scale,” says Aviva Lehmann, director of American art at Heritage Auctions. “This work had it all in what one looks for. It’s the height of his…