Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2018/ No.126 i Western Art Collector

The long-hidden California art collection of the late Gerald E. Buck has been gifted to the University of California, Irvine. Valued at tens of millions of dollars, the collection was one of the most comprehensive collections of California modern art and includes work from Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, Joan Brown, Gilbert “Magu” Luján, Sam Francis and more. Included in the collection are some notable California works, including Maurice Braun’s Springtime, which shows a golden California field at the base of a mountain range. The Hungary-born Braun, whose family moved to the East Coast when he was a youngster, began his art education at the National Academy of Design in New York City. After studying under William Merritt Chase, Braun traveled in Europe for a year before eventually moving to San…

Feb. 10-Mar. 25: Masters of the American West Autry Museum of the American West | Los Angeles, CA | (323) 667-2000 | www.theautry.org FEBRUARY Feb. 2-Sept. 30 HEARD MUSEUM Symmetry in Stone: The Jewelry of Richard I. Chavez Phoenix, AZ – (602) 252-8840 www.heard.org Feb. 6-23 INSIGHT GALLERY Robert Pummill Fredericksburg, TX – (830) 997-9920 www.insightgallery.com Feb. 7-11 CASA DE TESORO Lawrence Lee Tubac, AZ – (520) 455-7276 www.casadetesoro.com Feb. 7-11 TUBAC VILLAGE Tubac Festival of the Arts Tubac, AZ – (520) 398-2704 www.tubacaz.com Feb. 9-11 FORT MASON CENTER San Francisco Tribal & Textile Art San Francisco, CA – (310) 822-9145 www.sanfranciscotrialandtextileartshow.com Feb. 9-March 4 MILLICENT ROGERS MUSEUM Annual Miniatures Show & Sale Taos, NM – (575) 758-2462 www.millicentrogers.org Feb. 10 SETTLERS WEST GALLERIES American Miniatures Tucson, AZ – (520)…

Celebrated as a global trendsetter in popular culture and innovation, California has been a haven for art and artistic inspiration since its inception. In the early 20th century, many Americans saw the Golden State as a desirable vacation destination, with its bright, warm weather, grand mountain ranges, beach-lined coast and stoic wildlife. In the 1960s, musicians like the Beach Boys and Elvis propagated the image of Californians as laid-back beachgoers lounging beside the glittering waters of the Pacific. And as the origin of the film industry and hippie counterculture, contemporary artists continue to find inspiration throughout the California landscape. Often lauded as an oasis in the Western desert, the Southern Californian city of Los Angeles is widely seen as one of the most notable centers of the art and entertainment…

President Theodore Roosevelt and his distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt were ardent conservationists. In 1903, Teddy Roosevelt went camping alone with the great John Muir in Yosemite, roughing it as a Rough Rider would. In 1937, FDR visited Yellowstone in the back of an open touring car unable to hike because of the crippling effects of polio. Later, he said in a speech, “I see an America whose rivers and valleys and lakes are protected as the rightful heritage of the people.” The Spanish introduced horses to the West nearly 10,000 years after their extinction in the last Ice Age. They became the ubiquitous mode of transportation for Native peoples and settlers alike. Horses also pulled wagons, transporting settlers across the plains and carrying produce to market. Hyrum Joe (Navajo)…

Mountain Trails Gallery in Park City, Utah, will mount an exhibition of Western landscapes that depicts the varied terrains of the region in all seasons and times of day. Landscapes of the American West featuring five of the gallery’s artists—Troy Collins, Simon Winegar, Mark Gibson, Tal Walton and Nicholas Coleman—takes place February 15 to 20. In the show, Gibson and Coleman will both exhibit classic scenes where teepees are juxtaposed against the landscape. In Coleman’s work, Along the Bear River, smoke billows from one of the teepees as several Native Americans are on horses pointed out away from their camp. The narrative is set further back in the scene, drawing the attention of the viewer, but also allowing them to take in majestic beauty of the atmosphere. The shining moon…

Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West rolls out the red carpet for its guests quite literally. And not only is there a red carpet, but also snapping paparazzi nearby, an usher in fancy duds and movie screens where stories are told. All that’s missing is popcorn—please, no food and drink in the museum. Now open at the Scottsdale, Arizona, museum is The Rennard Strickland Collection of Western Film History, a new exhibition that presents select highlights from Oklahoma collector Rennard Strickland’s 5,500-piece collection of posters, lobby cards and movie marketing memorabilia. Strickland, who recently donated the collection in a joint gift to the museum and Arizona State University, says he originally started collecting for a PBS project he was considering in the 1970s. “It was going to be on…

Now open at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, is Constance Jaeggi’s debut exhibition, Aspects of Power, Light and Motion, which will feature her dramatically lit equine photographs. The exhibition opened in the museum’s Anne W. Marion Gallery in September 2017. Jaeggi—pronounced jayguee— achieved her photographs by bringing horses directly into her studio she built on her ranch, the J5 Horse Ranch in Parker County near Weatherford, Texas, the “cutting horse capital of the world.” “I photograph the horses with no halters or means of restraints,” Jaeggi says. “It is a soft and natural process. Unrestrained, horses tend to be incredibly cooperative if you know how to talk to and coax them. In many ways, I feel that my process is similar to the…

R. Tom Gilleon grew up drawing in the sand by day outside “a little place where there was no electricity and the inside of our wooden home was lit by kerosene lanterns. I always felt drawn into the light and everything around the glow disappeared into a blur.” It was close to the earth and a place of shelter. His iconic paintings of teepees epitomize shelter on the Plains, lit by the setting sun or illuminated from a fire within. He says of his Cherokee forebears and other Native American tribes, “They didn’t stand outside of the natural world looking in. They were part of it.” In Winter North snow piles up around the teepee’s base. It’s symmetrical shape gives it stability in the strong winter winds. Ranchers throughout the…

To celebrate his 82nd birthday, Robert Pummill decided to paint 82 miniature works for a new show at InSight Gallery in Fredericksburg, Texas. “Eighty-two seemed like a good number,” he says, “at least at the time.” After quickly realizing how herculean of a task it was to do 82 new works, Pummill settled on a more manageable batch of 60 new works, which is still a tremendous amount of new paintings, even if they are small works. “They may be small, but you still have to create a good composition and a good painting. You have all the same problems as a large piece, but now, less area to work in,” Pummill says. “It can be difficult, but also very rewarding. I get so many requests for small works that…

California has always been a place of deep discovery, whether that discovery was the Pacific Ocean, natural splendor of all types or untamed adventure. The pioneers of the 19th century were seeking new beginnings. The so-called “forty-niners” were hoping to find gold, and many did. Led Zeppelin sang of love in 1971 when they recorded Going to California, with the line: “Someone told me there’s a girl out there / With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.” Whatever it is that draws people to California, they tend to find it, hence the state motto, “Eureka!” That sense of discovery will return once again to the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles February 10 when the Masters of the American West exhibition returns for its…

The West is so diverse, so rich with history, so compellingly linked to American mythology that when asked to “imagine the West,” 100 people would easily come up with 100 different visions of the land, the people and the wildlife. This cornucopia of imagery associated with the West is the subject of Imagining the West, a new 40-artist exhibition now open at the Steamboat Art Museum in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The exhibition, which asked invited artists to reflect on the culture and history of the Western way of life, is highlighting extensive renovations and expansions at the 13-year-old museum. “People come in and see the new space and ask if they were suddenly in New York City or San Francisco. We love to hear that,” says Steamboat Art Museum executive…

During its two-day Arts of the American West sale, November 6 to 7, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers brought to market a collection of paintings and bronzes from a Midwestern museum. The offerings, which included pieces by noteworthy Western artists, drew competitive phone bidding and interest in the room. The highest earner from the items—and the top lot of the sale—was The Roper by William Robinson Leigh, which depicted a cowboy on his bucking bronco with a lasso raised in his hand. Estimated to achieve $100,000 to $150,000, the painting more than doubled its low estimate when it sold for $281,000. The work, which was evocative of the subject and style the artist is most recognized for, went to a private collector. Other standouts from the museum’s offerings included a Charles M.…

This year marks two significant milestones for Manitou Galleries: 18 years in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and 15 years on Palace Avenue. “The gallery has evolved quite a lot over the years and we are very grateful to Santa Fe for our continued support,” says Manitou’s marketing director Matt Mullins. “We have tried our best to offer the best in contemporary Southwest artwork from today’s best working artists.” Manitou Galleries began in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1975 by Bob Nelson. When it came to Santa Fe it took a space on Palace Avenue, giving customers easy access to the Santa Fe Plaza and nearby museums. The gallery opened a second location in Santa Fe, on Canyon Road, in 2011. Nelson says he was born a collector. By the age of 15,…

Much has been written about Brandywine, Old Lyme and Taos, all places—sometimes just ideas really—where artists congregate to take in the sights, lay down their artistic roots and flourish in the pleasure of the scenery. In Alhambra, California, one art colony has largely been hidden from history, and it’s easy to see why when looking at a map. Just blocks long, Champion Place is the kind of street you’d drive past if you didn’t know where to turn. The tree-lined street, gorgeous on both sides, is fairly modest and ends in a cul-de-sac. But in the 1920s and 1930s, Champion Place was home to some of the most prominent names in American art: Norman Rockwell, Frank Tenney Johnson, Jack Wilkinson Smith, Eli Harvey, Tex Wheeler, Victor Clyde Forsythe, Sam Hyde…

Dinah Worman recalls that when she was 4 years old, during a long recovery from an accident, her father built her a desk to fit over her bed—and she drew the things she saw around her. She refers to her drawing as “scribbling and then filling in the scribbling.” Today, an award-winning painter, she starts with a few slashes to establish the basic shapes and diagonals. “I go to another place, a little euphoric state. When it’s done, I stand back and say ‘Wow! I did that.’ Once I’ve drawn in the basic shapes and diagonals I drop in with fat paint using brushes and palette knives and work it until it’s right, sometimes roughing up the flat areas.” She studied art and did commercial work before turning to painting…

For the past 35 years, the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition has brought together among the finest in wildlife and sporting art to Charleston, South Carolina. A three-day celebration of the natural world, SEWE not only boasts fine art for sale, but conservation education, sporting demonstrations and several must-attend art quick draws. The show sees more than 40,000 visitors from across the nation who continue to be enthralled by the immersive experience. This year’s 36th annual edition runs February 16 to 18 at multiple venues in downtown Charleston. VIP events kick off the day prior, February 15, with the anticipated Preview Gala and Sale from 7 to 11 p.m. at Charleston Place. During the gala, collectors will have the chance to mix and mingle with artists as well as participate in an…

Now open at the Stark Museum of Art in Orange, Texas, is Paul Kane: Intrepid Artist and Adventurer, a new exhibition that explores the artwork and westward journeys of Paul Kane (1810-1871), an Irish-born Canadian artist who followed in the footsteps of other great artist-explorers such as George Catlin and Karl Bodmer when he ventured out into the wild to document the land, people and wildlife. Kane, who moved to Canada from Ireland in 1819, aspired to be an artist early in his life and frequently traveled throughout the United States. After a trip to Europe to study the great masters, he learned of Catlin’s journey west in the 1830s, which inspired Kane to mount his own exhibition from 1846 to 1848. His journey began in Toronto and veered into…

The top lot in Bonhams November 20 auction of California and Western paintings and sculptures in Los Angeles was a record-breaker. Joseph Kleitsch’s jewel-toned, 1925, oil on canvas The Oriental Shop sold for more than three times its low estimate of $300,000, achieving $912,500. The painting is a second version of a 1922 painting also titled The Oriental Shop, which were both painted from inside G.T. Marsh & Company. The piece became a new world auction record for the artist. “We were witness to robust bidding across the board,” says Scot Levitt, Bonhams’ director of fine arts. “Top-quality works continue to energize a bevy of collectors, all vying for those works rarely seen on the market. Most of the top 10 lots saw multiple bidders in both the San Francisco…