Innholdsfortegnelse for January2020/ No.149 i Western Art Collector

Two massive glass and tile mosaic murals and a pair of bas-relief bronzes have been unveiled at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. The music, sports and entertainment venue, officially opened in October 2019, features a number of public art components, including a 12-by-63-foot mural by Denver painter William Matthews and a pair of bronzes created by Texas-based artist Buckeye Blake. The artwork, made possible by a gift from the Alice L. Walton Foundation, is titled Los Caballos and it commemorates the horse, a timeless symbol of the American West. Matthews’ work, which is on the southern façade of the 14,000-seat arena, was fabricated in the celebrated female-owned studio Mosaicos Venecianos in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where artisans pieced together more than 600,000 hand-cut glass tiles of 570 different colors to…

345 Camino Del Monte Sol, Santa Fe, NM 87501 • (855) 945-0448 • www.altermann.com Altermann Galleries auction in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on November 8 was well received with $1.4 million in sales. Taos Society of Artists members Joseph Henry Sharp and E. Martin Hennings performed well with Sharp’s Jerry Taos with Lover’s Flute selling at $51,600 and the Hennings’ Indian Hunters selling at $45,600. Cowboy Artists of America member Joe Beeler brought $36,000 for The Hostile’s Revenge while Frank McCarthy’s The Greeting realized $23,400. Ray Swanson’s The Old Navajo sold above its estimate bringing $36,000 and John Moyers painting of a lone burro titled Abandoned brought $18,750, well above the estimated value. Other paintings that performed well include: William Ahrendt’s Jim Bridger Mountain Man bringing $23,400, and John Demott’s…

400 13th Street North, Great Falls, MT 59401 • (406) 727-8787, ext. 333 • www.cmrussell.org The Russell is the premier fundraising event for the C.M. Russell Museum, attracting artists, collectors and patrons from around the country to Great Falls, Montana, every March. The 2020 event kicks off on Charlie Russell’s birthday, March 19, with the Art Preview Party where patrons can preview the art to be sold during The Russell events and mingle with artists. Friday’s Art in Action is a perennial crowd favorite. An exciting variation of a traditional “quick draw,” Art in Action features nationally known artists working in a variety of media while interacting with attendees, finishing with a live auction of the completed works. The First Strike auction, held Friday night, focuses solely on new work…

2737 Larimer Street, Denver, CO 80205 • (303) 825-1855 • maron@hindmanauctions.com • www.hindmanauctions.com The Western regional location of Hindman operates as an office and saleroom in downtown Denver. Appraisal appointments are available through Hindman’s Denver office across all collecting categories, and property is sent to Chicago to be included in Hindman’s globally recognized auctions. The auction house conducts two annual Arts of the American West auctions which feature historic and contemporary Western paintings and sculpture, American Indian art and artifacts, beadwork, basketry, Navajo textiles, Pueblo pottery and Southwestern jewelry. Additional departments include but are not limited to jewelry and timepieces, Asian works of art, postwar and contemporary art, fine prints and photography, American and European art, books and manuscripts, historic firearms and militaria, period furniture, decorative arts and silver, modern…

400 N. Harrison Street, Alpine, TX 79832 • (432) 837-8143 • www.museumofthebigbend.com Celebrating 34 years of honoring the art of the cowboy, Trappings of Texas at the Museum of the Big Bend in Alpine, Texas, is the go-to destination for the collector and patron of Western art. Trappings features emerging artists alongside well-established artists from the United States, Canada and Argentina. This show and sale features custom cowboy gear: mecates, bosals, quirts, saddles, bits and spurs alongside sculpture, etchings, watercolors, pastels and oils. The 2020 Trappings of Texas premier artist is Brian Asher of Snyder, Texas. Artists who have work for sale in the 34th annual Trappings of Texas include Wayne Baize, Teal Blake, Phil Bob Borman, Loren Entz, Phil Epp, Billy Hassell and Donna Howell-Sickles. Gearmakers include Brooks Atwood,…

Andrea Vargas has an extensive exhibition history that has focused on the preservation of ecology and the natural world. Her relationship with the Ventura County Museum of Art and History facilitated her most ambitious visions and immersive art installations. Today, Vargas embraces the medium she has learned to take command of with a unique voice and handling—pastels. In all of her drawings there is a constant element—balance. For Vargas, a successful composition encapsulates details with implications of movement, and spontaneous bursts of abstraction. Although she prefers producing life-size drawings, her recent series for her solo show at Faust Gallery in Scottsdale features hummingbirds in flight and the plumage of roosters. Although Vargas has an origin story rooted in California, her residence in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has made her plein…

“Painting for me is a form of travel, with every picture a new adventure. Some are short trips near to home while others are distant or infinite. The mysterious ones interest me the most and often contain a lot of symbolism,” says artist John Philip Wagner. His journey often begins with a small idea or concept that won’t resolve itself without clarification. Preliminary drawings and pencil studies help the artist organize the more complex compositions. Wagner’s subject matter is influenced by many years of travel in the Southwest and the myths and legends of Indigenous peoples that have lived there for thousands of years. “I found in these stories a respect for the earth and all living things and the need for prayer showing gratitude for these gifts,” he says.…

Since opening in 1987, the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, has recognized living artists in its collection alongside the works of past masters. Last year the museum mounted its first Living Legends exhibition featuring pieces by some of today’s artists that are in its permanent collection. The show has since evolved into a series of installations with its next edition running December 14 through May 12. “The idea for Living Legends arose after our last major reinstallation of the galleries. We wanted to honor the contributions of living artists who have contributed so much to the Museum,” says Adam Duncan Harris, Ph.D, the museum’s Joffa Kerr Chief Curator of Art. “Some artists have been working with us since the founding of the Museum in 1987, some…

Now open at the Steamboat Art Museum in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, is Richard Galusha Retrospective: An Artist’s Journey, a new exhibition to celebrate the 35-year career of Western painter Richard Galusha. The painter, who has lived in the Steamboat Springs area since 1986, is featuring 70 works from all corners of his long career in the exhibition, which is his first retrospective. The show will focus on his path as an artist, which largely began in Texas, where he lived on a ranch with a large family and many siblings. “Being in a large family, everyone had their niche and mine was art,” Galusha says, adding that he remembers artwork by Wayne Baize in his home growing up. “I remember having an art show in the fifth grade and all…

Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell and Frank Tenney Johnson are three of the most exciting names in the Western art world. Their pieces frequently garner six figures at auction, and their work is sought-after by collectors for its classic, romanticized imagery of the American West. During Sotheby’s November 19 American Art auction paintings by all three artists—and many other notables associated with the genre—helped push the day’s total to more than $20 million. Leading the Western art segment was Remington’s The Round-up, a bucking bronco painting that first became known to scholars of the artist in 1997 when it arrived to auction. This being only the second time the work has become available, it sold just shy of its $800,000 high presale estimate at $740,000. Two grisaille oils by Russell,…

In 1987 Bill Nebeker created If Horses Could Talk, a bronze work showing a hunter peering through binoculars on a rocky outcropping. The piece had a humorous twist: a deer is quietly sneaking under the ledge that the hunter is sitting on…if only the horse could just tell the hunter. That small work is being turned into a massive monument for Prescott, Arizona, Nebeker’s hometown. The life-and-a-half-sized work will sit in the center of a roundabout on a major thoroughfare through Prescott. Although it’s based on a smaller bronze, the artist had to design it from the ground up due to the large scale of the monument. “When you’re standing underneath something that big, it looks different when you’re looking up at it, so I’ve changed the original design in…

Thomas Moran first visited the Grand Canyon in 1873. The trip would have a profound and intense effect on him. His daughter, Ruth, would later recall: “To him it was all grandeur, beauty, color and light—nothing of man at all but nature, virgin, unspoiled and lovely.” Though Moran would return to the Arizona landmark, and paint it hundreds more times, The Grand Canyon of the Colorado would remain one of his most significant of all his Western works. The piece sold at a Christie’s auction in 2014. It would fetch nearly $12.5 million.…

Wes and Chris Spiker moved to Montana with their two young children in 1981 and later established their marketing and advertising company, Spiker Communications. Fresh from a high-pressure “big-agency life” on the West Coast, they “left the rat race and set up shop in Missoula, Montana, trading our suits for hiking and wading boots.” The walls of their offices and their home are hung primarily with the work of Montana artists and others who embody the spirit of the West. “We bought a site and began designing a home,” Wes explains. “My goal was to have each room in the house represent some aspect of people’s perception of the West—the different views that other creative people saw. I’m from Ohio and my ideas of the West came from John Wayne…

Make no mistake about it, art does not sell itself. Gone are the days of oil tycoons coming into a Western show and buying cowboy artwork sight unseen. The dealers, the museums, the artists, the auction houses…everyone has to be savvier to sell art in the 21st century. I mention this because it was a risky maneuver for the members of the Cowboy Artists of America to blaze their own trail after many years at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma. The group shared a show, Cowboy Crossings, with the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association, but in 2018 the CAA announced they were going to leave the museum and hold their own show, one not affiliated with another group or museum. The members would have to not only…

3201 Zafarano Drive, Suite C585, Santa Fe, NM 87507 • (480) 779-9378 contactus@oldwestevents.com • www.oldwestevents.com Brian Lebel’s Old West Events is home to Brian Lebel’s Old West Shows and Old West Auctions, held every January in Mesa, Arizona, and every June in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Each annual event consists of a weekend vendor sale with hundreds of dealers, along with an exciting, live Saturday night auction. Both the events feature the best authentic Western art, antiques and artifacts available for public sale. The Old West Auction is best known for the 2011 sale of the only authenticated photograph of Billy the Kid (the “Upham tintype”) for $2.3 million. The company prides itself on its reputation for honesty, quality and authenticity. The Old West Auctions feature the finest Western artists…

11944 N. Tracey Road, Hayden, ID 83835 • (208) 772-9009 • www.cdaartauction.com For more than 30 years the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction has specialized in the finest classical Western and American art representing past masters and outstanding contemporary artists. The auction principals have more than 100 years of combined experience in selling fine art and have netted their clients more than $325 million in the last 15 years alone. The auction has been hailed as “The Biggest and Most Successful Auction of Western Art” by the Wall Street Journal and was named “The Most Important Annual Event for Collectors of Western Art” by the New York Times. Specializing in artwork by Charles M. Russell, Frederic Remington, William R. Leigh, Thomas Moran, Howard Terpning and other fine Western artists, this year’s 35th…

130 E. Broadway Avenue, P.O. Box 1568, Jackson, WY 83001 • (866) 549-9278 coordinator@jacksonholeartauction.com • www.jacksonholeartauction.com Trailside Galleries and the Gerald Peters Gallery are pleased to announce the 14th annual Jackson Hole Art Auction, scheduled for September 18 and 19, 2020, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Since 2007, the Jackson Hole Art Auction has been recognized as one of the premier wildlife and Western art events in the country, defined by the high standard of work offered by both contemporary artists and deceased masters. A signature event of the annual Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival, the JHAA attracts collectors from across the country as well as abroad. JHAA’s 2019 auction established 17 new auction records, bringing its total to 171, as a result of its consistently exceptional results at auction. JHAA…

7178 E. Main Street, Scottsdale, AZ 85251 • (480) 945-0225 • www.scottsdaleartauction.com Founded in 2005 by three of the most respected names in the field—Michael Frost of New York City’s J. N. Bartfield Galleries, Jack Morris of Morris Whiteside Galleries in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and Brad Richardson of the Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona—the Scottsdale Art Auction has enjoyed rapid growth and a phenomenal increase in popularity since its inception. Mark your calendar and join the standing-room only crowd at the next action-packed Scottsdale Art Auction, April 4, 2020. More than 350 lots of the finest in Western, wildlife and sporting paintings and sculptures will be on offer in the Legacy Gallery’s state-of-the-art facility in the heart of Old Town Scottsdale. American masters like Maynard Dixon, Charles M. Russell,…

Arizona has a thriving art scene from the southernmost areas of the state all the way to its northern border. We’re talking the Phoenix Valley and Scottsdale, Wickenburg, Prescott, Flagstaff, Tucson, the Southern Arizona area and more. Every one of these cities and metropolitan areas has something significant to offer in the world of art and culture. When in Arizona, you really can’t go wrong. Located in the Valley, Scottsdale’s Old Town district is teeming with Western art and the Western way of life. Ed Mell’s iconic bronco sculpture Jack Knife sets the tone for numerous galleries that focus on cowboy culture and Western art. Check out Main Street for a stroll through galleries such as Legacy Gallery, Alta Mira Fine Art, the recently relocated King Galleries and more. Close…

For Canyons, Buttes, & Beyond at Tucson’s Medicine Man Gallery, artist Stephen C. Datz decided to go far beyond and venture into uncharted territory—a series focused entirely on large-scale works. “For this particular show, I started a lot of canvases all at once. Normally I might have two or so going that I can switch back and forth from,” he says. “I decided to put all the ideas down and just see where they went.” Opposite from his usual process, this allowed Datz to learn early on which ideas stuck, while also giving him a better sense of how, ultimately, the works would all come together. “It was very different from my normal routine, which is a very mixed bag,” he shares. “It’s been a great learning experience because large…

Returning January 8 to the Denver Art Museum is the Petrie Institute’s Western American Art Symposium. This year, the annual daylong event will delve into an unlikely pairing of works by Winslow Homer—known for his depictions of rocky Eastern coastlines—and Frederic Remington—famous for his vision of the American West—in anticipation of the museum’s upcoming exhibition, Natural Forces: Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington. “Because both Homer and Remington are bound to geographical regions—Homer to New England and Remington to the West—we don’t often think of their shared experiences and context,” says Thomas Brent Smith, director of the Petrie Institute. “Both matured from their early days as illustrators to create works that explored man’s relationship with nature. At a time when the definition of what it means to be American was hotly…

Western paintings and sculpture were among the major highlights of Heritage Auctions’ November 1 sale of American art in Dallas. Leading the segment, and the sale as a whole, was a rare 1½-scale version of one of Frederic Remington’s most iconic sculptures—Bronco Buster. The piece, created shortly before the artist died in 1909, was cast after his death in 1910 and only 19 editions from the larger-scale plaster model were made. Hailing from the collection of illustrator Mort Künstler, Bronco Buster sold squarely within its presale estimate of $500,000 to $700,000 at $615,000. Two Western paintings also landed in the top 10 lots of the sale: G. Harvey’s When the Cowboys Come to Town – Houston, 1900 (est. $120/180,000) at $162,500 and Howard Terpning’s Jicarilla Apache Riders at $125,000. The…

Opening February 22 is Forgotten Stories: Northwest Public Art of the 1930s at the Tacoma Art Museum in Tacoma, Washington. The exhibition will examine artwork that was created during a period of intense economic downturn, when the federal government initiated the Works Progress Administration to help put people back to work. Some of the people employed by the program were artists, many of whom created public art all around the country. The show will focus on artists of the Northwest, where hundreds of artists were employed and thousands of works of art were created. Their stories have not previously been told, and the museum is hoping to introduce visitors to this important period of creation in American history. Works in the show include Elizabeth Colborne’s Mossy Wood, Washington color lithograph…

DECEMBER December 19 PARSONS GALLERY OF THE WEST Parsons Gallery of the West’s Small Works Holiday Celebration Taos, NM – (800) 613-5091 www.parsonsart.com/home/parsonswest Through December 20 HALEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY AND J. EVETTS HALEY HISTORY CENTER Paso por Aqui: George Hallmark’s Return Midland, TX – (432) 682-5785 www.haleylibrary.com Through December 23 INSIGHT GALLERY Kyle Ma - Viewpoints Fredericksburg, TX – (830) 997-9920 www.insightgallery.com December 26-January 1 MOUNTAIN TRAILS GALLERY Troy Collins Park City, UT – (435) 615-8748 www.mountaintrailsgalleries.com Through December 31 LEGACY GALLERY Holiday Small Works Show Scottsdale, AZ – (480) 945-1113 www.legacygallery.com Through December 31 MANITOU GALLERIES Small Works Group Exhibition Santa Fe, NM – (505) 986-0440 www.manitougalleries.com Through December 31 MOUNTAIN TRAILS GALLERY Holiday Gems & Treasures Sedona, AZ – (928) 282-3225 www.mountaintrailssedona.com JANUARY JANUARY 3-31 MOUNTAIN TRAILS GALLERY…

Howard Terpning has long said that as long as his eyes can see and his hands can hold a brush he would keep painting. The 92-year-old painter is definitely a man of his word. When Western Art Collector stopped by his home in Tucson, Arizona, we found him between paintings—one had recently left his studio and another was slowly starting to materialize—but painting was on his mind and his studio was prepped for the new work, which now comes at a leisurely pace since he retired from museum and gallery shows, and their incessant deadlines. Not only is Terpning one of the great standard-bearers of Western art—whose works are treasured around the globe and have been known to sell at seven figures—he’s also one of the last painters still working…

210 W. Market Street, San Antonio, TX 78205 • (210) 299-4499 • www.briscoemuseum.org The Night of Artists Exhibition and Sale at the Briscoe Western Art Museum showcases 280 works by more than 80 of the country’s top Western artists. The Briscoe, located along the iconic San Antonio River Walk, draws artists, collectors and art enthusiasts for a weekend of festivities with the chance to view and purchase nearly 300 works of painting, sculpture and mixed media. From scenic landscapes, scenes of Native Americans and classic cowboys to stunning wildlife and detailed portraiture, there is something for every attendee and art enthusiast to enjoy. Some of the featured artists include Martin Grelle, Don Oelze, George Hallmark, Z.S. Liang, Mark Maggiori, Jan Mapes, Billy Schenck and Xiang Zhang. Friday evening is the…

213 E. Sherman Avenue, Coeur d’ Alene, ID 83814 • (208) 664-2091 info@marchinmontana.com • www.marchinmontana.com For its 2020 sale March in Montana will have a fantastic representation of some of the best historic works to come out of Montana in the last several years. One of the gems is a large William Standing buffalo hunt scene, The Last Chase. It was painted in 1925 and hung in a bar in eastern Montana for more than 50 years. Also included in the auction are distinctive works by Philip R. Goodwin and Edgar Paxson, including a large piece that was commissioned by Montana copper baron, Marcus Daly. March in Montana will also be offering a collection of works by Charles M. Russell’s protege, Joe De Yong. March in Montana is also looking…

932 Railfan Road, Santa Fe, NM 87505 • (505) 954-5858 • www.santafeartauction.com Santa Fe Art Auction was delighted to open the new doors to its massively expanded permanent facility at the Baca Railyard to a packed house on November 9, with well over 200 registered bidders in attendance and more than 1,100 registered online across 20 countries. While the auction house launched a new website with its own proprietary online bidding platform this year, allowing www.santafeartauction.com internet bidders the same preferential buyer’s premium as floor bidders, it continues to be available on major online platforms including Invaluable, LiveAuctioneers and Bidsquare, and saw remarkable internet sales of some 60 percent of gross sales of $1.8 million and a sell-through rate including post-auction sales of 90 percent. Nevertheless, no matter the venue,…

Celebrating the beauty of the Grand Canyon State is Mountain Trails Gallery’s annual Made in Arizona exhibition. The show features roughly 30 works either depicting the terrain of this diverse state or works created by artists who call Arizona home. “Representing artists who exemplify some of the best of the West, and the best of Arizona, has been an inspiration beyond measure,” says Julie R. Williams, director of Mountain Trails Gallery._ “Collectors…express so much enthusiasm for their intrinsic value as well as for their tremendous aesthetic reward.” Artists in the show include Lisa Danielle, Gregory Stocks, Sandra Byland, Bill Cramer, Deborah Copenhaver Fellows, Howard Carr, Marcia Molnar, Susan Kliewer, Percy Edwards and more. Betty Carr’s impressionistic piece Moving Through (Alcantara Winery) depicts the Alcantara Vineyards and Winery in Cottonwood, Arizona.…

When Texas painter George Hallmark began showing his paintings professionally, one of the first venues for his artwork was the Haley Memorial Library and J. Evetts Haley History Center in Midland, Texas. As his career has soared and he’s become one of the iconic fixtures within Western art, Hallmark has retained a special place in his heart for the center and its role in the early part of his career. Decades after his first showing at the center, Hallmark has returned to the Haley with a new retrospective, Paso por Aqui: George Hallmark’s Return. The exhibition, which is ongoing through December 20, 2019, will present work from throughout Hallmark’s impressive career. “I started my career painting primarily contemporary cowboy subject matter. During the late ’70s and early ’80s, it seemed…

Colorado’s National Western Stock Show is a cornerstone of the state, a nearly monthlong series of rodeos, trade and livestock shows that celebrate the Western way of life. A monumental component of the Stock Show is the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale, now in its 27th year. One of the nation’s most highly attended Western art exhibitions, the show raises funds for the National Western Scholarship Trust, which provides scholarships to students studying agriculture, rural medicine and veterinary science. The Red Carpet Gala Reception opens the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale on Tuesday, January 7, running from 5:30 to 9 p.m. The show and sale then remains open to the public from January 11 to 26. “With the Coors Show…I tell artists, don’t paint what you think my…

Featuring items from some of the finest Western artists and craftsmen, the 30th annual Brian Lebel’s Old West Show & Auction returns to Mesa, Arizona, this January 24 through 26. Not only will the auction, held on January 25 at 5 p.m., have plenty of Western art, but it will also offer up a slice of life in the great Old West with authentic Western artifacts. Past auctions have included everything from rifles, revolvers, saddles and chaps to Native American blankets, saloon bottles and poker chips. The 2020 rendition of the auction will include roughly 300 lots of Western art, antiques and artifacts. “What we offer at our shows isn’t just objects. It’s a Western way of life,” says show and auction owner Brian Lebel. “And most of these collectors…

Hindman hosted its fall Arts of the American West auction on November 7 to much fanfare, achieving more than $1.5 million in sales. Highlights ranged from Western paintings to historic and contemporary Native American artwork that included sculpture, jewelry, beadwork and more. “We are thrilled with the results of the sale,” says Katherine Hlavin, the auction house’s Director of Business Development, West. “Active bidding in the room, over the phone and online drove strong results, setting a record sale total for the Arts of the American West department.” The top lot of the sale was the wildlife painting High Plains Lothario, by one of the masters of the genre, Bob Kuhn, which sold for $68,750. Coming in second was Vance Kirkland’s Explosions on 20 Billion Years Ago, which shattered expectations…