Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2023/No. 188 i Western Art Collector

Welcome to the April Issue of Western Art Collector! In this issue there is more art than you can shake a stick at (a colorful Western interpretation of “more than one can count”). Let me start with our State of the Art: Texas destination guide featuring must-see galleries and museums in the Lone Star State. Texas is our second-largest state at 268,597 square miles. While a big state by all regards, Texas is known for it’s historic art and tight-knit art community. The state’s art scene is supported with many museums and galleries to ensure Western heritage is passed on for generations to come. If you haven’t been to Texas, turn to Page 72 and start planning your art collecting destination vacation. Our Collector’s Focus sections shine a light on…

THROUGH MAY 7 THE NATIONAL COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM Playing CowboyOklahoma City, OK – (405) 478-2250www.nationalcowboymuseum.org THROUGH MAY 7 BRISCOE WESTERN ART MUSEUM Night of Artists Exhibition & SaleSan Antonio, TX – (210) 299-4499www.briscoemuseum.org THROUGH MAY 7 HARWOOD MUSEUM OF ART Outriders: Legacy of the Black CowboyTaos, NM – (575) 758-9826www.harwoodmuseum.org THROUGH MAY 14 THE JAMES MUSEUM OF WESTERN & WILDLIFE ART The Stories They Tell: Indigenous Art and the Photography of Edward S. CurtisSt. Petersburg, FL – (727) 892-4200www.thejamesmuseum.org THROUGH MAY 15 COUSE-SHARP HISTORIC SITE, THE LUNDER RESEARCH CENTER Etched in Memory: Gene Kloss’ TaosTaos, NM – (575) 751-0369www.couse-sharp.org THROUGH JUNE 4 PHIPPEN ART MUSEUM Arizonarama: Artwork by R. G. RodellPrescott, AZ – (928) 778-1385www.phippenartmuseum.org THROUGH JUNE 11 YELLOWSTONE ART MUSEUM The Montana Modernists: Shifting PerceptionsBillings, MT – (406) 256-6804www.artmuseum.org…

On view now in the Orme Lewis Gallery at the Phoenix Art Museum is Fremont Ellis’ painting Old House at Cienega. The work was part of 170 recent acquisitions by the Arizona museum. The acquisitions come from many different places, including small, private collections and large collections from important art enthusiasts. “Old House at Cienega by Fremont F. Ellis, gifted by JPMorgan Chase, is one of Ellis’ outstanding landscape works,” the museum notes. “Settling in Santa Fe, [New Mexico,] in 1919, the primarily self-taught painter captured his environment and founded one of Santa Fe’s earliest art groups, Los Cinco Pintores. This work was formerly in the collection of Walter Reed Bimson (1892-1980), a pioneering Arizona art collector who headed Valley National Bank.” Another important acquisition made by the museum is…

In 1970 John Lennon told Rolling Stone magazine: “I’m an artist and if you bring me a tuba I’ll bring something out of it.” The Beatles had just broken up, and Lennon was in a strange place musically, but his point was that creativity often wasn’t isolated to just one thing. Creativity could manifest itself in many ways, and across many mediums. The West has had many tuba players, that is artists who could pick up almost any medium and wrestle beautiful work out of it. Consider Charles M. Russell, Frederic Remington, Joe Beeler and John Coleman, just to name a few. Another artist who continues that great tradition is Texas artist Bruce Greene, who will be showing one of his most diverse collections of work at a show opening…

It’s somewhat rare for a painting to generate the kind of buzz that George Carlson’s painting Mayday! did at the Masters of the American West. And not just days before the show, but months before visitors streamed into the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. So when Mayday! was named the Masters Best of Show, it came as no surprise to many collectors. The painting, showing a coyote impaled and limp on a metal fencepost, was simultaneously horrific and also strangely gripping. “Mayday! is a painting I never set out to paint; the content doesn’t coincide with my feelings toward nature,” Carlson wrote about the work. “So what compelled me to paint a dark subject as this? I witnessed this scene while driving gravel roads not far…

Western Art Collector magazine has changed the way artists, galleries and collectors connect. It has closed the gap that previously existed in the Western art market. Spectacular and instant SOLD! stories keep rolling in. On this page you can read just some of the feedback pouring into our office from coast to coast on sales and connections achieved. And now that the Virtual Version of the magazine launches up to 10 days before the Printed edition arrives, collectors can find new art even faster. 1. Martin Grelle sells top work at Settlers West show On February 11, Settlers West Gallery presented the annual American Miniatures show of small works in Tucson, Arizona. These popular and well-attended shows often bring out hundreds of collectors and artists to celebrate the opening. The…

My wife and I have young children, and we all love to have movie nights. As they’ve grown, we’ve introduced different kinds of movies to them. For many years, it was always cartoons and films that were specifically for their age groups because that’s what held their short attention spans. But we’ve branched out in recent years. More live-action films. Movies with less zany plots. Older films—even a black-and-white one here and there. John Coleman recommended The Agony and the Ecstasy about the painting of the Sistine Chapel with Charlton Heston as Michelangelo. And two of three kids were glued to the screen wondering what the Pope was going to do next to poor Michelangelo. (They’re still not old enough for Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, but I wait…

MAY 12, 2023 Heritage American Art SaleDallas, TX – (214) 528-3500 MAY 24, 2023 Bonham’s American Art SaleSkinner Marlborough, MA – (212) 644-9001 JUNE 2-AUGUST 6, 2023 Prix de WestOklahoma City, OK – (405) 478-2250 JULY 15, 2023 Coeur d’Alene Art AuctionReno, NV – (208) 772-9009 JULY 21-30, 2023 Cheyenne Frontier Days Western Art Show & SaleCheyenne, WY – (307) 778-729 JULY 22-23, 2023 Tehachapi Arts Commission Art 2023 ShowTehachapi, CA – (626) 945-3753 AUGUST 18-20, 2023 The RussellGreat Falls, MT – (406) 727-1939 AUGUST 19-20, 2023 Santa Fe Indian MarketSanta Fe, NM – (505) 983-5220 SEPTEMBER 8-10, 2023 Quest for the WestIndianapolis, IN – (317) 636-9378 SEPTEMBER 2023 (DATES TBA) Western Visions Show + SaleJackson, WY – (307) 733-5771 SEPTEMBER 2023 (DATES TBA) Jackson Hole Art AuctionJackson, WY – (866)…

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This spring, Plainsmen Gallery in Dunedin, Florida, will put on its annual Wildlife & Western Visions show, which features 75 pieces of wildlife and Western artwork by 18 award-winning artists, including John Coleman, David Yorke, Shawn Gould, Bonnie Marris and more. Coleman’s subject matter is representative of what he refers to as “American mythology.” Both a painter and a sculptor, he’s an emeritus member of the Cowboy Artists of America and a fellow at the National Sculpture Society. In the Plainsmen show, he’ll have a bronze on view titled Sister of the Plains, which stands nearly a foot high and depicts a young girl from the Sioux tribe in the late 1800s. “She wears a Christian cross and a double cross representing the dragonfly, which holds special powers because it…

Art and animal lovers alike converged in the Lowcountry of Charleston, South Carolina, this past February for another edition of the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition. A sense of exhilaration seemed to permeate every aspect of the event, which takes place across five venues throughout downtown Charleston, along with new and returning programming at every exhibit site. “We are so thankful for the atmosphere that all of the people in the SEWE community come together to create,” SEWE organizers note. The new live art series was a tremendous success and gave visitors the opportunity to engage with talented SEWE artists in action, as well as learn more about the process behind their work. A live art event took place each day in the Fine Art Gallery including “Mother-Daughter” duos, graphite sketches and…

Emily Wilson Curator of Art Briscoe Western Art MuseumSan Antonio, TX(210) 299-4499www.briscoemuseum.org What event (gallery show, museum exhibit, etc.) in the next few months are you looking forward to, and why? The Briscoe will be opening our summer exhibition in late May that we are hosting and augmenting from the Tucson Museum of Art titled, Southwest Rising: Contemporary Art and the Legacy of Elaine Horwitch. It was organized by their head curator Julie Sasse, who is an authority on Southwestern modern and contemporary art. The show will feature a wide variety of artistic styles that are less traditional than what our audiences are used to seeing, so I’m excited to see the response from our patron base. What are you reading? I’ve been digging into scholarship on the Texas borderlands…

Each of the artists, and many others, have blazed a trail and quite literally carved their names into the history of Texas art. So it’s no wonder we continue to see exceptional work coming from Texan artists to this day. Take Robert Pummill, for example. His soft, yet detailed oils capture the heart and diversity of the Texan land-scape, from fields of wildflowers to cowboys wrangling steer to buffalo charging through a blazing prairie. The Lone Star State is also home to several of the biggest institutions in the country dedicated to Western (and of course, Texas-based art). Among these are the Museum of Western Art in Kerrville, the Museum of the Big Bend in Alpine, the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin and the Dallas Museum of Art. Clifton-based…

Growing up, a lot of kids are fascinated with trains and boats. For painter David Knowlton, that love has never really stopped. In fact, it’s grown to near epic proportions. Originally from Wisconsin and now living in the art hub of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Knowlton paints ocean liners, passenger trains, steam locomotives and more, executed in a manner that makes them look gargantuan. For something that’s already massive, like an ocean liner, take a moment to ponder that. “When I was a kid I always loved ocean liners and trains, and when I grew up, I never lost that feeling about them,” says Knowlton. “In most of my paintings, the subject matter is really prominent—a monumental view of something. I’ve always been interested in low horizon lines and long…

Barbara Meikle is passionate about animals as art subjects. But her passion does not end at the easel. “One of my major influences is raising money for animal rescue, in particular for horse and donkey rescue.I have been drawing and painting equines since I was a child and now I find as much inspiration in raising money for people who save them as I do painting and sculpting them,” she says. “I have several rescue equines, two are horses and one is a mini mule, and I feel so lucky that they are such wonderful characters, beautiful inside and out. My artwork reflects that in the way I use color to portray the personalities of the horse or the donkey or other animals that I paint. We also raise money…

A meeting in April of 2021 marks the beginning of what the Booth Museum is now calling Many Metals, Many Fires, a unique exhibition involving three metal sculpture artists celebrating the West in their own way: Eric Strauss, James Ivy and J. Doyle Rogers. During that initial meeting, executive director Seth Hopkins and the director of curatorial services, Lisa Wheeler, both recall how well the artists got along—making for quite an exceptional, first-of-its-kind showcase for the Booth. “It was about the synergy between the three of them,” says Wheeler. “They were talking and sharing their stories as artists, and the way they were connecting was really special. Normally, we push for pieces that have something to do with the American West, but these guys are so unique, we loosened the…

The Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, held its biggest fundraiser of the year on February 18, nearly reaching its record by bringing in more than $225,000. The weekend kicked off on February 17 with the pre-gala party, “Boots n’ Saddles” event at Savoy Automobile Museum. Artwork created in 90 minutes or less by quick draw artists Dawn Whitelaw, Lori Putnam, Amanda Lovett, Thomas Caleb Goggans and David Boyd Jr. was auctioned off while still wet, garnering nearly $5,000 for the Booth. John and Terri Kelly Moyers were honored the following evening at the For the Love of Art Gala & Art Auction with the Booth’s annual Artist of Excellence Award, joining the ranks of past winners that include Martin Grelle, John Coleman, Howard Terpning, Glenna Goodacre and others.…

The third edition of Jackson Hole Art Auction’s Online Auction, held on February 18, came through with quite a successful outcome, totaling an outstanding $838,310. Mike Overby, managing director and partner, also notes the sell-through rate at 90 percent of the 318 lots of significant Western and wildlife depictions. “Our auctions tend to have a diverse group of artworks, almost all genres represented, and in this auction specifically, they performed well overall,” explains Overby. “There is something for everyone in our auctions, and the accessible price points help new bidders build on their collections.” The honor of top lot from the Online Auction goes to the impressive oil painting Gaylordsville in February, 1964, by Richard Schmid (1934-2021), selling for a total of $51,000 (est. $60/90,000). The wintery scene features a…