Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2022/ No. 177 i Western Art Collector

Many consider New Mexico as an epicenter for the arts, and more specifically, the town of Santa Fe. The Historic Arts District along the half-mile Canyon Road, Santa Fe’s main drag, is home to more than 80 galleries, along with an array of artists studios, restaurants and iconic architecture. On Saturday, May 7, artists will come together for the 9th Annual Canyon Road Spring Art Festival in celebration of the decades-rich live art scene along the iconic road. Event organizers note that “dozens of artists working in every imaginable media will provide an unprecedented view of their creative processes at [this year’s festival].” Galleries along Canyon Road will feature quite the array of original works, offering a little something for everyone. This includes paintings in oil and acrylic, watercolor, drawings in…

He was a founding member and the first president of the famed Taos Society of Artists, and undeniably, one of the biggest names in historic Southwestern art. Eanger Irving Couse’s depictions of New Mexico, the lives of Native Americans and the culture of the Southwest left behind a legacy that would influence the work of future artists more than a century later. That influence continues today, exemplified through an upcoming exhibition at Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Taos Six Collection: An Homage to E. Irving Couse is the third in a series of six themed exhibitions hosted by Blue Rain Gallery that focus on pioneering members of the Taos Society of Artists. Last spring was An Homage to Joseph Henry Sharp, and the spring before that, An…

As the weather heats up (and up) in Arizona, Settlers West sets out to celebrate its catalog of acclaimed artists with the annual Summer Show. “This event offers us the opportunity to showcase paintings and sculpture by artists we have proudly represented for years alongside new and emerging talents, and this mix makes for an exciting collecting opportunity for art enthusiasts,” says gallery manager Mike Salkowski. With more than 80 Western works, the show includes a wonderful variety of themes, styles and mediums, offering a little something for everyone. Canadian artist and Western enthusiast Ross Buckland will feature two of his aviation- and landscape-themed paintings seen in pieces like Bringing the Goods. “Both new paintings are a little different in that instead of a mountainous backdrop, they feature the hills…

This May, Heritage Auctions will host the spring edition of its American Art sale in Dallas. The approximately 150-lot sale offers masterworks across all genres of American art and across a wide range of values from $5,000 to $500,000. “Our upcoming [American art] sale will not disappoint,” says Aviva Lehmann, senior vice president and director of American art at Heritage Auctions. “Following up on our stupendous 2021, seeing our highest sale totals in the category in the company’s history (over $25 million), we continue to demonstrate our position as leaders in the field of American art.” Among some of the top blue-chip lots in the sale are works of Western art, including a fantastic grouping of works by celebrated contemporary Western painter Ed Mell. The Arizona-born artist is best known…

This spring and summer, Hindman is diving into a season dense with Western, Native American and wildlife art with several major sales. One of the auctions kicking off this fantastic season is the biannual Western & Contemporary Native American Art sale, which includes a significant group of contemporary Western paintings and bronzes from the Collection of Barbara and Robert (Bob) P. Hunter, Jr., Alpharetta, Georgia. “[This auction] is shaping up to be one of the strongest groups of property Hindman’s Western art department has had the privilege to bring to market,” says Alexandria Dreas, associate specialist of Western art at Hindman. “We are thrilled to once again be offering a beautifully curated auction that seamlessly combines historic and contemporary Western and contemporary Native American genres into a sale that attracts…

James Swinnerton (1875-1974) discovered the desert when he was sent to a sanatorium in Colton, California, to spend what was thought to be his last days, suffering the ravages of alcoholism and tuberculosis. He gradually recovered, lived to be 99, and is often called the “Dean of Desert Artists.” He had been a cartoonist admired by William Randolph Hearst who later saw to it that he was settled in the sanatorium. As he recovered, he began traveling around the Southwest by burro and sketching the landscape. He painted the desert from about 1920 to 1965 while he continued to produce cartoons. His oil painting, Desert Landscape, illustrates his mastery of the light and atmosphere of the desert. He celebrated what others overlooked, the colors and textures of scrubby desert scenes.…

“I paint the air that surrounds my subjects and reveals a deeper understanding of the moment one of my paintings,” painter Curt Walters says of his landscape works. Walters embarked upon his first descension into the depths of the Grand Canyon and peering over its magnificent rims fresh out of high school. Though life would draw him away and on many adventures since that first visit, Walters knew deep down that he had an eternal link to this sacred place. In the 1980s, he was enticed back to these grand expanses and put his creative knowledge to work, skillfully capturing the grandeur and depth of beauty that this majestic landscape presented. His words convey such passion that it harkens to a deep spiritual connection—“beautiful and delicate temples” are the words…

On May 15, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery will present its Spring Auction, which will offer a variety of materials from throughout the West, and includes paintings and bronzes, and work within Native American art categories such as jewelry, pottery and more. The sale will also feature items from a prominent private collection. “We are pleased to be able to offer the Frances White Estate collection, one of the premier pueblo pottery collections to ever come to market, with more than 40 pots including over a dozen Tony Da pieces and rare examples of red and sienna Maria Popovi jars,” says gallery owner Mark Sublette. “The collection includes important jewelry by Charles Loloma and Jesse Monongya.” Sublette continues: “The auction is steeped with important historic and contemporary Native arts including…

Every Memorial Day Weekend, the Phippen Museum holds its Western Art Show & Sale, a chance for Western art enthusiasts and fine art collectors to gather for three days at the Courthouse Plaza in historic downtown Prescott, Arizona. The annual tradition is currently in its 48th year and features some of the best Western artists working today, as well as a menagerie of events sprinkled in throughout the weekend. Taking place at the beautiful Yavapai County Courthouse Plaza is the Quick Draw Challenge & Live Art Auction on May 28 and 29 at 2 p.m., in which more than 20 participating artists are challenged to create a finished piece of artwork in only 60 minutes. These works will then be immediately auctioned off before the paint has even dried. In…

MAY 20-22: La Luz de Taos – Gala 2022 COUSE-SHARP HISTORIC SITE & LUNDER RESEARCH CENTER | Taos, NM | (575) 751-0369 | www.couse-sharp.org | www.laluzdetaos.org April APRIL 29-MAY 21 BLUE RAIN GALLERY The Taos Six Collection: An Homage to E. Irving Couse Santa Fe, NM – (505) 954-9902 www.blueraingallery.com THROUGH APRIL 30 THE DANCING RABBIT GALLERY Sculpture: Artistic Cultural Interpretations Santa Fe, NM – (505) 850-2212 www.thedancingrabbitgallery.com May THROUGH MAY 1 NATIONAL COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM Mother Roads Oklahoma City, OK – (405) 478-2250 www.nationalcowboymuseum.org MAY 1-OCTOBER 3 MT. KEARSARGE INDIAN MUSEUM One Hundred Years of Hopi Katsinas Warner, OH – (603) 456-2600 www.indianmuseum.org THROUGH MAY 2 MANITOU GALLERIES Young Guns Santa Fe, NM – (505) 986-0440 www.manitougalleries.com THROUGH MAY 5 ANN KOROLOGOS GALLERY Light: F/X Basalt, CO…

With the Cowboy Artists of America settled in Texas after many years in Arizona and Oklahoma, the group will be the center of attention when a new show opens at the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, on May 27. On May 25, prior to the show’s formal opening, the museum will host an opening event that will include a cocktail reception. That will be followed by several other events that will be timed around the opening of the exhibition. On May 27 there will be a meet-and-greet event with Michael Duchemin, museum president and CEO, and Liz Jackson, the museum’s vice president. That will be followed by a ticketed suite of events that begins with a sponsor luncheon, curator’s talk and VIP tour with curator Emily Wilson.…

Traditional Western art has long sought to embody a longstanding version of the American West: one Americans themselves have passed down and retold through media, public instruction, and arts and culture—namely, a West of rugged independence, pioneer spirit, opportunity, adventure and the inspiration afforded by grandeur. These national values make up the visual foundation for traditional Western art, whose power resides in its ability to recall with nostalgia the founding character and mythos of America in the face of ongoing social change. Traditional Western art represents an enduring desire for continuity, stability and a fixed identity of what it means to be an American. In relation to American culture, the Cowboy Artists of America organization derives salience from this version of the West, which resonates for many people today as…

The earliest evidence of the predecessors of the modern horse in North America indicates they were here in the Eocene era, 56 to 39.9 million years ago. It’s believed that they went extinct between 10 and 12,000 years ago due to a global cooling event. Some of the North American horses moved across the Bering land bridge into Siberia and then west across Asia and Europe. They were first domesticated about 6,000 years ago in what is now Ukraine. Christopher Columbus brought horses to the Virgin Islands in 1493 and Hernán Cortés brought them to the American continent in 1519. They either escaped from their owners or were pilfered and eventually made it to the Great Plains of the United States. Today there are debates about whether or not wild…

Amy Lay’s confidence doesn’t require perfection. She’s sure enough in her artistic vision to “show her work”—so to speak—allowing the trial and error of her efforts to remain visible in completed wildlife paintings. “I have lots of mess ups, but I think that’s one of the good things about my style,” Lay says. “Notice all the pencil line. You’ll see three or four different tries to make the shoulder or the back; it’s intensive with the drawing, that helps me find the right shape. I want that to show. I want the drawing to show, it’s like the bones of the work.” The foxes, horses and wolves depicted in Lay’s gestural artworks emerge as if from a dream. Or a memory. They do. Eschewing photography or plein air sketches, Lay…

On May 18, Christie’s will present the single-owner sale Stewards of the West: The Knobloch Collection, a dedicated live auction of Western American art at Christie’s New York location. More than 75 lots will be available, all of which were collected by the late entrepreneur and conservationist Carl W. Knobloch Jr., who died in 2016. The estimated value of the collection is $15 million to $23 million, which could put the sale above the T. Boone Pickens Collection, which sold for $20 million by Christie’s in 2020. “[Knobloch] built a striking private assemblage of Western American painting and sculpture that reflects his deep commitment to the region, while developing a reputation as a leading connoisseur and collector in the field,” Christie’s notes. “Off the walls of the family’s Wyoming residence,…

John Moran Auctioneers kicks off the summer season with the May 10 California, American & Western Fine Art sale, “offering new and seasoned collectors an opportunity to acquire various statement pieces in both the classic and contemporary Western market,” says Morgana Blackwelder, senior vice president and fine art director. The auction house is excited to be offering a strong collection of Western artworks, acquired through multiple private sales in Southern California. “The secondary auction market for both contemporary and classic works in the genre has seen a large uptick in the past five years,” says Blackwelder. “New buyers coming from the Midwest and the East Coast are showing that the subject is not merely [coming from] the South or Southwest. The value gap between the historical and contemporary Western art…