Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2020/ No. 154 i Western Art Collector

The current situation we are in has us all over here thinking about what the role of a magazine is and what motivates us to publish it each and every month. And that conversation extends to not just what we think it is but what you, the reader, wants it to be. From our discussions and from what we hear every day as we talk to gallery owners, art dealers, auction professionals, artists and of course collectors, is that this magazine should be provide a direct link between collectors, gallery owners and artists in a way that makes it easy for people to purchase art for their own collections. When we came up with the preview concept (often imitated but never duplicated, btw), this was an entirely new format never…

Christina E. Burke Curator of Native American & Non-Western Art Philbrook Museum of Art Tulsa, OK (918) 748-5387 www.philbrook.org What event (gallery show, museum exhibit, etc.) in the next few months are you looking forward to, and why? I’m thrilled that Philbrook is the final venue for the traveling exhibition Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists (June 28 through September 20, 2020). This incredible show of more than 100 works of art from the past 1,000 years celebrates the powerful and ongoing creativity of Indigenous women across a variety of media. It was developed by co-curators Teri Greeves (Kiowa) and Jill Ahlberg Yohe (Minneapolis Institute of Art) in collaboration with an advisory board of women artists, curators and scholars. What are you reading? At the moment I’m really enjoying…

Last year Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, held a series of gallery lectures related to its artists, including recent presentations by Billy Schenck and Erin Currier. The gallery is continuing the well-received series, but now through an online virtual space to allow more art fans and collectors to participate from anywhere in the country. The series will continue with painter Doug West on June 9, from 5 to 7 p.m. MDT. The presentation will take place on Zoom, the video conferencing application that has risen in popularity as meetings, events and openings have moved to online platforms. Denise Phetteplace, executive director at Blue Rain Gallery, is organizing the series and is excited to continue it via a new medium. “Doug West and I have been discussing the…

When gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848, California’s fate was sealed as a place where fortunes would be made and lost in the West for decades to come. Not only did miners descend on the state—its motto, “Eureka!” relates to the gold find—but so did early photographers. Some of those early photos of the search for gold are now part of a new exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. Gold Rush: Daguerreotypes of Early California opens April 4 and features images that reveal a nation on the cusp of economic, social and environmental change. Organized by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and curated by Jane Aspinwall, Gold Rush: Daguerreotypes of Early California will feature nearly 100 works and provide an insightful look into this historic…

Collected Thoughts I think one of the most common questions posed to any collector, especially Western art collectors, is “why did you choose to collect this type of art?” I’m sure the answers vary quite wildly from aesthetics to emotion to perhaps tradition. While I loved the color and emotion of art, my answer to this question has always had something to do with history—and learning from that history. I’ve always had an intense interest in what went on in bygone eras. Who were the people? What was life like? How did they survive? How did what they did back then affect what we do now? For me, the history of art and the artist have always been just as fascinating as the beauty of the art itself. As I…

COAST-TO-COAST COVERAGE Find out what’s happening across the nation. Western Art Collector is the first magazine to provide nationwide coverage of upcoming shows and auctions showcasing Western art from coast to coast. PREVIEWS In the Preview pages we reveal new contemporary and historic Western works about to become available for sale at the country’s leading Western art galleries. AUCTION AND EVENT PREVIEWS AND REPORTS Each month we alert you to upcoming Western art auctions and events nationwide. Read our reports on prices fetched so you can stay informed and up-to-date on the market. WESTERN ART INSIGHTS Find out everything the discerning collector needs to know. Each month our panel of art consultants, museum curators and experts share their behind-the-scenes knowledge of how the Western art market works. STATE OF THE…

MAY Through May 22 MOUNTAIN TRAILS GALLERIES SEDONA Horses and Canyons Sedona, AZ – (800) 527-6556 www.mountaintrailssedona.com Opens May 23 MAXWELL ALEXANDER GALLERY Logan Maxwell Hagege Los Angeles, CA – (213) 275-1060 www.maxwellalexandergallery.com May 23-August 23 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WILDLIFE ART Tucker Smith: A Celebration of Nature Jackson, WY – (307) 733-5771 www.wildlifeart.org May 29 HERITAGE AUCTIONS Ethnographic Art: American Indian, Pre-Columbian and Tribal Auction featuring the I.S.K. Reeves V and Sara W. Reeves Collection Dallas, TX – (214) 528-3500 www.ha.com May 29-June 13 BLUE RAIN GALLERY Matthew Sievers: New Paintings Santa Fe, NM – (505) 954-9902 www.blueraingallery.com Through May 31 MANITOU GALLERIES Four Wheelin’ Flashback Santa Fe, NM – (505) 986-0440 www.manitougalleries.com Through May 31 TUCSON DESERT ART MUSEUM Art is the Seed: Contemporary Native American Female Art Tucson,…

Ben Fife Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, Ben Fife spent a good portion of his life outdoors. “My father was a survival instructor for the Air Force, so time in the wilderness was always filled with lessons on how to make somethin’ from nothin’, which also passed down a general attitude of ‘figure it out,’” he says. “While growing up in town, I witnessed both of my parents, very skillfully and creatively, remodeling every house we lived in. I didn’t understand it when I was young, but that was a big part of our income at the time. To me it seemed like they just enjoyed doing it, and once it was done, it was time to move on and find a new project.” With that sort of background…

More than 30 examples of Western quilts, ranging from the early 1800s to the present day, are now on view at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis. The exhibition will explore the profound artistic and cultural contributions of women in the West as they used quilts as a storytelling medium. Quilts: Uncovering Women’s Stories will show how the quilts had a utilitarian purpose, primarily warmth, but also how they offered a form of expression that allowed women of the West to show their lives, experiences, aspirations and struggles. Quilts in the exhibition are organized into three broad themes: family, friends and personal relationships; ethnic and regional identity; and political agency and power. “Quilts embody personal stories and symbolize community relationships. They document people, places, and events, and serve as visual records—ones…

“Uncertainty rules the day, yet as the world fights the awful pandemic, painting offers a perfectly normal, perfect escape from it all,” says oil painter Chuck Mauldin. Even so, questions of all kinds still ebb and flow for the landscape and wildlife artist. “Is the critter’s head drawn in proper proportion to the body? Will my gallery reopen? Is that underpainting too dark? Where will I get frames? Should I add some clouds to the sky? Will anyone buy a painting?” However confusing times may be, Mauldin tries to find a happy focus. Inspired by his Texan landscape surroundings, an abundance of beauty competes for his attention. “How about a full-on Texas spring stimulated by rain, or bountiful bluebonnets, greeny greens everywhere. Nature is bursting at the seams.” While Mauldin…

This year’s Spring Auction for Grogan & Company is sure to delight with its newest additions of Western and American fine art. There are approximately 200 lots in the sale, including jewelry, silver, decorative arts and fine arts by many remarkable artists. The highlights of the sale include a Jane Peterson gouache painting, Campo Santa Margherita (est. $15/30,000); a Guy Wiggins oil, Winter at the Library (est. $20/30,000); a John DeMott oil, Beaver Men ‘n Whiskey, (est. $3/4,000); and Gustave Baumann’s colored woodcut Grand Canyon (est. $5/7,000), which is the standout piece among a selection of other Baumann woodcuts. Among these highlights are favorites mentioned by fine art director Georgina Winthrop. “I’m particularly drawn to the John Singer Sargent pencil sketch of Grace Elvina, Marchioness Curzon,” she says. “With just…

One of the most celebrated sculptors of public monuments in the United States, Glenna Goodacre, died April 13 at her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She was 80. Goodacre was known for the massive Irish Memorial in Philadelphia, the Sacagawea dollar, a monument of Ronald Reagan at the Reagan Presidential Library and the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, D.C. Her work was also in museums from coast to coast. Her death was announced by entertainer Harry Connick Jr., husband to the artist’s daughter, Jill Goodacre Connick. “I lost my mother, hero and best friend today, and my heart is completely broken,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “She was one of the most celebrated artists of all time, and yet she always said that her greatest pieces were her…

May 2020 (Date TBA) Phippen Western Art Show & Sale Online – (928) 778-1385 May 15 Altermann’s American Western Artwork & Native American Artwork Santa Fe, NM – (307) 753-3316 May 19 Sotheby’s American Art Auction New York, NY – (212) 606-7000 June 4-5 Hindman's Arts of the American West Denver, CO – (303) 825-1855 June 13 Scottsdale Art Auction Scottsdale, AZ – (480) 945-0225 July 1 Heritage Auctions’ American Art Auction Dallas, TX – (877) 437-4824 July 25 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction Reno, NV – (208) 772-9009 August 1-September 13 Prix de West Oklahoma City, OK – (405) 478-2250 September 9-20 Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival Jackson, WY – (307) 733-3316 September 9-October 11 Western Visions Show & Sale Jackson, WY – (307) 733-5771 September 10-12 The Russell Great…

Fifty years ago, Christopher Cardozo made a life-changing discovery when he acquired a 1905 Edward S. Curtis photograph of noted Blackfoot leader Bear Bull. It was his first Curtis print, and there would be many more to come. Today Cardozo is one of the leading collectors, dealers and publishers of Curtis’ work, including an impressive republication of Curtis magnum opus, The North American Indian. So it delighted and surprised him when he was introduced to a medicine man who was Bear Bull’s great grandson, Art Cedar. In Seattle in 2015, Cardozo presented Cedar with several copies of the Bear Bull print. This was not the first time, nor the last, that Cardozo would interact with descendants of subjects from Curtis photographs. Today he’s undertaking new efforts to repatriate Curtis prints…

Now open at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, is Robert Glenn Ketchum & Eliot Porter: On Seeing Color, a new photography exhibition that will highlight works from the two prominent nature photographers. The show will center around the works of Ketchum, but also dedicate significant space to the works of Porter, Ketchum’s mentor. Porter was known for his delicate and evocative works within nature. He was also one of the early pioneers of color photography, so much that he was nicknamed the “Ansel Adams of color photography.” Urged forward by Alfred Stieglitz, Porter worked with the Sierra Club, photographed Glen Canyon before the flooding for the Glen Canyon Dam and even helped Congress pass the Wilderness Act of 1964. The two photographers met when Ketchum was attending…

SHOW LOCATION SANTA FE, NM In her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard writes, “Today is one of those excellent January partly cloudies in which light chooses an unexpected part of the landscape to trick out in gilt, and then the shadow sweeps it away. You know you’re alive. You take huge steps, trying to feel the planet’s roundness arc between your feet.” Douglas Fryer is attuned to those fleeting moments as well as to the unexpected beauty after the shadow sweeps away the gilt. “I’ll pick subjects I have an aesthetic response to,” he explains. “There is a balance between beauty and truth. I try to bring out the beauty that hasn’t been seen before. I’ll have an aesthetic response to a mountain range or to a ditch…

On March 17, Bonhams hosted its California & Western Art auction at its showroom in Los Angeles to robust bidding from buyers in-house, on the phone and online. The day’s action resulted in more than $2.6 million in sales, with a number of lots hitting or exceeding presale estimates. Scot Levitt, director of fine arts at the auction house, says given the California stay-at-home orders that were about to go into place, the sale performed well and there were multiple people vying for many works. Among the star lots of the auction were three iconic Frederic Remington bronzes coming to market from the estate of Barron Hilton, who was the chairman, president and CEO of Hilton Hotels Corporation. The pieces—The Broncho Buster, The Rattlesnake and The Cheyenne—are considered to be…