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.
Whether it be in print or in the digital world, one thing we’ve learned over all the years of doing a magazine geared toward art collectors is that content is king. Above anything else, the magazine that endures is the one that is able to come up with smart, well-written, unique and informative content issue after issue. To me, this is why collectors keep turning to Western Art Collector to aid them on their collecting journey. Obviously, our gallery previews keep people alert as to what is coming on the market each month from the best galleries in the industry, but also our columns and art insights also help keep collectors abreast as to what is happening in the wider art market in the United States. We are also quite…
Even in Western circles, it’s not likely many people have ever heard of Joe De Yong. His works never commanded the same presence or prices as his contemporaries, and because of that he has been lost to the ages. A new book aims to bring him and his work to a new generation. Joe De Yong — A Life in the West, by William Reynolds, available now through Alamar Media, explores De Yong’s life and career and weaves a fascinating story about his determination and grit in the face of adversity. Born in 1894, De Yong wanted nothing more than to be a cowboy, and later, after meeting silent film star Tom Mix, a Western artist and illustrator. But at the age of 19 he was stricken with cerebral meningitis,…
Painter Morgan Weistling’s works tell stories big and small. The small ones are right there on the canvas as his pioneer and Western figures go about their daily lives amid wholesome scenes on country farms or small Old West towns. The big stories take place elsewhere, on other paintings, and when assembled together reveal larger narratives as characters grow up, take on new responsibilities and find themselves in new settings. These two storytelling aspects of Weistling’s paintings can be clearly seen in a new book about his career, his work and his long history with art. The book, A Brush With History: The Paintings of Morgan Weistling, is available now and features 182 full-color plates of his works, as well as looks into his early illustration career, his inspirations and…
By all estimates John James Audubon’s magnum opus, The Birds of America, had a print run of 175 to 200 editions. From that original printing, 120 complete editions are known to have survived, with 107 of them in the collections of institutions, leaving just 13 in private hands. One of those 13 editions, a set owned by the fourth Duke of Portland, sold at Christie’s June 14 for $9.6 million, within estimates of $8 million to $12 million. The full set is made up of four volumes of double-elephant folios with 435 hand-colored copperplate etchings and five bound text volumes, known as the Ornithological Biography. The works are elegantly bound and gilded by royal English bookbinder John Mackenzie. Based on the binding and other markings, it is estimated that the…
If you’re a familiar with Mark Sublette and his Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, Arizona, then you’ll likely already know Sublette is not camera shy. His YouTube channel—which has nearly 100 posted videos on paintings and sculpture, as well as Native weavings, pottery and jewelry—not only has 2,800 subscribers, but his videos have a combined 838,000 views. His picture also appears inside all seven of his Charles Bloom Murder Mystery Series books. Sublette is now branching out with a new podcast, Art Dealer Diaries, which brings artists, industry experts and art dealers into his new studio space for long-form interviews in the same vein as many of the top podcasters working today. “I’m a fan of Marc Maron and Joe Rogan…those more interview-type podcasts and I just really love the…
Opening July 27 at Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is Out of the Shadows: Ralph Meyers and the Taos Founders, a new exhibition focusing on the “charming, colorful work” of Ralph Meyers. Meyers, who had prominent painter friends in both Santa Fe and Taos, was respected as a merchant, craftsman and trader. Moving to Taos from Denver, Meyers set up a curio shop in 1910 just off the Taos Plaza—the shop, now called El Rincon, is active today and is run by Meyers’ grandson. He was the first white man to establish trade with the Taos Pueblo, which gained him a reputation as an expert on the Pueblo culture. Later, and because of this reputation, he was contacted by the Museum of Natural History in New York…
