Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2023/No. 189 i Western Art Collector

Welcome to the May issue of Western Art Collector! I am writing on April 2, 2023, and I want to reflect on the past four weeks. We have been on the Western Art Trail all month long. We started the month supporting our sister title Native American Art as the official magazine of the 65th annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market on March 4 and 5 in Phoenix. More than 20,000 people attended and our team was there to sell subscriptions, pass out the official magazine, and meet and greet collectors. In week two, our team witnessed the historic Mark Maggiori show at Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona. A packed house, auction records and $3 million in sales—it was an epic night in the magazine’s hometown. For week…

New Mexico Museum of Art Santa Fe, NM (505) 476-5063 www.nmartmuseum.org What event (gallery show, museum exhibit, etc.) in the next few months are you looking forward to, and why? I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the opening of the Vladem Contemporary, our new site which will open in Santa Fe’s Railyard District this summer. However, I’m also looking forward to SITE Santa Fe’s upcoming exhibition Bruce Nauman: His Mark, which is his first solo exhibition in New Mexico, though he has been a resident since 1979. What are you reading? I’m always reading three or four things at once, but I just started Ron Cooper’s book Finding Mezcal. Cooper is not only an interesting contemporary artist but also an important purveyor of mezcal. Interesting exhibit, gallery opening…

There is a strong argument to be made that the culture and landscape of New Mexico has a magical, enchanting quality. Visitors are transfixed by the unique beauty of regions like Taos and Santa Fe—also capturing the hearts and minds of many artists who made entire careers out of depicting New Mexico scenery. Artists like Joseph Henry Sharp and Ernest L. Blumenschein were so taken with the town of Taos that an entire school of painting was born, the renowned Taos Society of Artists. The group was officially founded in 1915, and the six founding members prolifically thrived off the seductive energy of Taos and the Southwest. They produced astonishing images of Native Americans, the desert landscape and Western lifestyle and culture. Today, Taos and Santa Fe, among other regions,…

MARSDEN HARTLEY Easily one of the most important modernists of the 20th century, Marsden Hartley started spending time in Santa Fe and Taos after a 1918 invitation from Southwest tastemaker Mabel Dodge Luhan. Hartley was influenced by a variety of subjects, movements, styles and places, but few were as instrumental to him than the Southwest. JOHN SLOAN Known for his association with the Eight—including Robert Henri, Maurice Prendergast, William Glackens and George Bellows—and his early involvement in the Ashcan school, John Sloan started visiting New Mexico during the summer of 1918. His infatuation with Santa Fe would last nearly until his death in 1951. Like his images of the east, Sloan’s Southwest work was able to uniquely capture the energy of the era and the spirit of Santa Fe’s people.…

As the heat begins to rush in, Settlers West Galleries will roll out its annual Summer Show, featuring some of the gallery’s favorite artists alongside upcoming stars in the Western art world. The exhibition gives collectors the opportunity to close out the season in style before they flee to cooler climates during Arizona’s famously hot summer. Fifty-two artists will be showing 100 new works during the Summer Show, which runs from May 6 to 20. Among them are major artists like Jeremy Winborg, Stephanie Campos, John Fawcett, Ann Hanson, D. Edward Kucera and Darcie Peet. While the exhibition displays a variety of subject matter emblematic of the West, many paintings focus specifically on Native American culture. Campos’ Plenty Coups is a charcoal portrait of Chief Plenty Coups of the Crow…

The exhibition of new paintings by Matthew Sievers at Santa Fe’s Blue Rain Gallery is titled Bold Marks—and bold they are. He was encouraged by his father, Gregory Sievers, who is a painter, to find his own voice, a voice with which he now speaks with confidence. Manipulating the qualities of oil paint and the mysteries it has revealed to painters over centuries, he makes paintings that emanate light in the way we see it—detail lost in intense light and circles of lens flare that appear through a camera lens. In Aspen Shadows, the lens flare leads the eye to the painting’s vanishing point beyond the distant dark pines. Paint is applied thinly as in the upper right to suggest mist and builds up to the thick paint of the…

This month, the city of Durango, Colorado, will host its annual Spring Gallery Walk, and Sorrel Sky Gallery will feature Elsa Sroka and Bryce Pettit in a two-person show titled Anticipation. Both Colorado artists, painter Sroka and sculptor Pettit, will showcase works that have inspired a feeling of anticipation and excitement in them. Born and raised in an artistic family in Denver, Sroka has always had a deep appreciation for art and design. “Every single day, I can’t help but notice art in so many forms,” she says. “Color, atmosphere, expression of animals and humans, interior design, the color of the sky, light, and on and on. I am, for good or bad, influenced heavily by all these things.” Sroka is mostly a self-taught artist and had a long career…

It is so magnificent to see artists creating at a high level, and continually excited to get in the studio every day. This is certainly the case with Jim Rey, who has been around the sun 83 times now. He is sending eight new paintings to Claggett/Rey Gallery in Edwards, Colorado, where they will find eager collectors ready to snap them up. “This is even more meaningful when the artist is my father,” says Bill Rey, owner of Claggett/Rey Gallery. “It is as exciting as it was almost 40 years ago when I began working in a Vail gallery, which represented Dad’s work. It’s always wonderful, like Christmas morning, to see art arrive at the gallery from any artist. All these decades later I am still amazed and surprised by…

Johanne Mangi remembers discovering art at a tender, young age. At 7 years J old she was copying greeting cards and cartoon characters. “Since I can remember, I tried to draw anything and everything,” she says. In college, and after, she tried other careers, but art was always calling to her. “I never gave up on creative pursuits, particularly drawing.” Today Mangi is a professional and fulltime artist. Dogs and horses are her passion. “I never remember not having them or thinking about them every day,” she says. “I’ve had several of each throughout my life. Horses have always been a heart-stopping passion and growing up in Upstate New York gave me plenty of opportunity to be around them. I read anything I could including thoroughbred racing magazines as well…

“Ask any wildlife painter to name an inspiration, and it is likely that one of the Big Four will be mentioned. Most often you will hear Liljefors or Rungius with Kuhnert coming in a close second. The lesser-known Friese may not be on the top of everyone’s list, but since he was a mentor to Rungius and Kuhnert, his work helped shape what we know today as wildlife art,” says Adam Duncan Harris. Harris is the Grainger/Kerr Director of the Carl Rungius Catalogue Raisonné, a project initiated by the National Museum of Wildlife Art in 2020. He’s also curator of the museum’s new exhibition Survival of the Fittest: Envisioning Wildlife and Wilderness with Carl Rungius and his Contemporaries, Masterworks from the Rijksmuseum Twenthe and the National Museum of Wildlife Art,…

Few books have touched the West quite like Lonesome Dove, the story of retired Texas Rangers driving cattle during the closing out of the Old West in the 1870s. It’s a book that has inspired countless paintings and sculptures and is frequently in art libraries of many great Western artists. Lonesome Dove’s author, Larry McMurty, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1985 for the book. His other hits were Terms of Endearment, The Last Picture Show and the screenplay (he was a cowriter with Diana Ossana) for Brokeback Mountain. McMurtry died in 2021 at the age of 84. His family will be offering his estate to bidders through Vogt Auction on May 29 in San Antonio, Texas. The sale will include around 400 lots. Key items in the sale…

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. Historic night for Mark Maggiori On March 11, Legacy Gallery presented a new solo show for painter Mark Maggiori titled Beyond the Golden Skies. Buzz for the show had reached a fever pitch in the days leading up to the sale, which did not disappoint with…

In March, I moderated two panels for the Night of Artists exhibition at the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas. During the second panel, several fascinating issues were raised about the structure of the Western art market, and where collectors should be focusing their time, energy and money. At the center of this discussion was Beau Alexander from Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles. From his perspective as a gallery owner, he spoke about why galleries are vital to the art market and how they are instrumental in finding and nurturing new artists, as well as supporting established artists. He also spoke about how auctions and even large museum shows, like Night of Artists, compete with galleries. The reaction from the panel was immediate—and fascinating. Suddenly, all at once,…

Few stretches of asphalt are as famous in the art world as Canyon Road in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Within just half a mile, Canyon Road treats visitors from around the world with dozens of art galleries—from Western to contemporary, traditional to modern, paintings to sculpture and so much more. Visitors will have a chance to celebrate the famous road on May 13 during the Canyon Road Spring Arts Festival, which will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The festival showcases the talents of dozens of artists working in mediums such as watercolor, ceramic, pastels, acrylics, metal leafing, photography, sculpting and much more. “Everyone attending will have the opportunity to see a vast variety of art,” says Nancy Ouimet, president of the Canyon Road Merchants Association. “Artists will…

When we think of horses and the West, we most often think of bucking broncos, old Western shootouts, cattle drives and other rough and tumble activities. But just as the cowboy needs some R&R, sleep in the bunk house or beer and cards in the cantina, horses need a change of pace, some maintenance and some rest. Howard Post was raised on a ranch in Arizona, became a cowboy, competed in rodeos, received his MFA and worked as a commercial artist before dedicating his life to portraying ranch life in his oil and pastel paintings. Often, his horses and riders are taking a break. A unique aspect of his art is views of daily life and work on the ranch from a high perspective, emphasizing the forms of buildings and…

Troy Collins paints “wet on wet,” squirting oil pigment from a caulking gun onto his canvas, sometimes picking it up off his palette with his hands and applying it directly, then moving it around with his palette knife. The result, which he has only a few days to accomplish before the paint dries, is a scene of great vitality. Lights and darks play against one another in his forest scenes and light reflects off the richly textured surface of the paintings, adding further to their vibrancy. He returns often to scenes of aspen trees, each of which he describes as having its own personality. He eagerly responds to the infinite variety of the divinely inspired landscapes of the mountain West. In Paths of Promise, a 2-by-4-foot canvas, the bright yellow…

When Steve Atkinson moved to Prescott, Arizona, in 2009 it was a W life-changing event. At that time, he had been painting Western art for many years while living in Minnesota, but knew he needed to live in the American Southwest. It had been his dream since he was a child watching movies with stories of the rugged men and women who were drawn there to live their lives in a land that was wild and untamed. These people deserved to have their stories told and preserved, he thought. So Atkinson, along with his wife Ann, left a successful career as an illustrator and took the leap of faith, trusting everything would fall into place. He chose right. Prescott is a town filled with history and the high desert is…

Ridgely Francisco is a Philadelphia-based artist that has always been drawn to the incredible beauty and magnificence of the American West. “I simply cannot ignore the overwhelming grandeur throughout this region of America,” he shares. From his first visit to Wyoming at the age of 9, Francisco has been under its spell, and now as a retired art director, he has returned to oil painting after a 45-year hiatus, He focuses primarily on the history, Indigenous people and their struggles, the wildlife and the dramatic landscapes of the West. “I try to tell a story in each of my paintings, a visual tale that the viewer is drawn to and can reflect upon,” he says. While Francisco’s painting style has varied over the last few years, he has reestablished himself…

May is a big month for Western art and for the Phippen Museum in Prescott, Arizona. The museum’s first event of the month is the 20th iteration of its popular Miniature Masterpiece Show & Sale, a fixed-price, by-draw sale that begins May 1, with the drawing taking place on May 29. More than 70 small-scale works will be on display and available for purchase by artists such as Phil Beck, Don Weller, Ken Rowe, Susan Kliewer, Joni Falk and Nancy Cawdrey. The 70 invited artists submitted work that measures no more than 15 square inches for two-dimensional pieces and 16 inches in length or height for sculptures. “Small works shows are a great way for seasoned collectors to get introduced to new artists and for new collectors to begin building…

Aa wide array of offerings will be available to bidders on May 12 in Dallas during Heritage Auctions’ upcoming sale, Diverse Visions: Important Works by American Masters. The sale marks an important milestone for Heritage, which is seeing renewed interest in its dedicated American art sales. “We are definitely having a moment,” says Aviva Lehmann, senior vice president and director of American art at Heritage Auctions. “We have seen very strong success in this category, so much that we are seeing serious growth. There are not enough hours in the day or days in the week to handle it all.” The sale will feature fewer than 100 lots, including some fantastic Western examples, one being Arthur Wesley Dow’s Cosmic Cities, Grand Canyon of Arizona, an oil on canvas from 1912.…

Foundations have been poured and vertical construction has commenced at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The famous art museum, founded in 1949, closed in July 2021 so the old museum could be torn down and a stunning new $139 million museum could be built in its place. The construction is expected to take two years to complete. As work continues, the museum is planning ahead in anticipation of reopening to the art world. One aspect that is at the forefront of the project is funding. More than $80 million of the project has come from the public sector and $39 million from private donors, which leaves a gap of more than $20 million to complete the museum, which is owned and managed by the City of Tulsa. Two causes…

Gallery Wild kicks off Memorial Day weekend in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with fresh-off-the-easel works from Aaron Hazel and Luke Anderson. Elemental, their first two-man show together, showcases the young painters’ take on the West with design-forward works that share DNA, but ultimately, take individual forms. A mainstay at Gallery Wild and outposts across the country, Idaho-based Hazel interprets the faces of the West with blocky palette knife gestures and striated bands of color. His outsized works often feature underknown or misrepresented figures from American history—Indigenous leaders, Black cowboys and, for Elemental, key players in the early conservation movement. Subjects include botanist George Washington Carver, Sequoia National Park superintendent Colonel Charles Young and the “independent, awesome women” who helped turn Jackson from a few scattered homesteads into a full-fledged community, he…

New Mexico is the kind of place that stops you in your tracks. Known as the Land of Enchantment, a well-earned name, the state is rich with art, culture, architectural wonders and natural beauty. Flanked by the Great Plains in the east, the Basin and Range Province in the southwest and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the north, this land is abundant with stunning and diverse geology. New Mexico is also a place deeply steeped in Native American, Spanish and Mexican history, from the Spanish missions throughout the state, to adobe buildings, and art galleries and festivals dedicated to Indigenous art. Take the iconic Santa Fe Indian Market, which brings in thousands of visitors to the alluring city of Santa Fe each year to experience the very best in…

Parsons Gallery of the West in Taos, New Mexico, is revved up for a very special show featuring around 30 masterful works of landscapes, still lifes and portraits. Seven talented artists showcase their Western-inspired creations, while some highlight the flavor of the Taos region. The show titled Looking West will include artists Melinda Littlejohn, Mary Dolph Wood, Drew Macias, Jim Keffer, Scott Yeager, Don Ward and Spike Ress. “Taos has historically been a place of inspiration, bringing many of the most influential and important Western artists to the area; these artists are no exception,” says Anne Delling, Parson’s assistant director. For Drew Macias’ figurative works, his dream is that the viewer “will see my paintings and imagine their own story of who this person was or what they are thinking,”…

Artist Brad Price returns to Meyer Gallery in Santa Fe for yet another thrilling series of paintings that depict the landscape of Northern New Mexico. While Price’s November show with Meyer Gallery focused on the theme of New Mexico back roads, the new solo show, Braking for Beauty, opening May 26, will highlight similar views but with an emphasis on the artist’s love of seeking out the perfect landscape scene from the drivers seat. “I’ve often thought I should have a bumper sticker on my car warning people, ‘I brake for beautiful landscapes,’” the artist explains. “When I see something I like, I brake immediately so I can get a photo of it.” Price lives and works in Oklahoma, but his deep fascination with the New Mexico landscape has him…

When Brad Teare was working as an illustrator, he went to see an exhibition of paintings by Vincent van Gogh at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He had seen many of the impressionist’s paintings in reproduction and marveled at the visceral power of the thickly applied paint. He experimented with applying thick paint in abstract works but later returned to painting landscapes with his new mastery of the medium. “There’s a reality to impasto,” he says. “It becomes sculptural. You want to touch it. My late wife was a trompe l’oeil painter. That also triggers the instinct to touch. I think as children we learned to know the world by seeing and wanting to touch what we see. Even though we’re discouraged from touching paintings, seeing a…

Tim Gump is a self-taught West Virginia artist who enjoys living among the Appalachian Mountains. “Inspiration comes easy in a state that offers so much natural beauty along with the history,” he says. “Most of my time has been spent connecting me to a life in the past and what I enjoy painting the most—the Native Americans, especially the Eastern Woodland Indians that once lived here and gazed upon its beauty long ago. This is where my passion for painting lies. Their way of life is fascinating. The soil in this state is rich with footprints of their past. Each time I start prepping for a new painting it’s as if I fall into that time period. It’s this journey I take at the easel that opens up creativity. In…

One of the most iconic views of the West is in Taos, New Mexico, looking up at the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It’s a view that fascinated many of the historic artists of Taos—Joseph Henry Sharp, Oscar E. Berninghaus, Ernest L. Blumenschein and Victor Higgins, to name a few—and also contemporary artists who are still using the region as a muse. One of those living artists still visiting Taos and painting its subjects is Nancy Silvia, whose work will be the subject of a new exhibition at the Nicolai Fechin studio at the Taos Art Museum. The exhibition, titled Taos Holds My Heart, will open May 2 and continue through June 4. Silvia, a pastel artist and member of a number of pastel societies and organizations, was responsible for getting…

For Hindman’s biannual auction Western & Contemporary Native American Art, collectors can expect quite the thrilling line-up. Alexandria Dreas, Hindman’s associate specialist for Western art, can attest to the high quality of the 276 lots that will be sure to interest collectors of all kinds. “The caliber of property we bring to the secondary art market will be of great interest to collectors seeking art that represents the experience of the American West,” says Dreas. “We are proud to be one of the strongest auction houses offering this specific category of work, and always strive to improve on our previous successes. This sale includes material from several important collections: property from a corporate art collection out of Oklahoma, property from the estate of Harry M. Cornell Jr. and property from…

On May 9, John Moran Auctioneers will present its seasonal California & American Fine Art in Monrovia, California. The sale will feature several stunning examples of Western art by respected and collectible artists. One piece that should delight collectors is Carl Oscar Borg’s Hopi Rain Dance, showing a group of dancers on the edge of a perilous cliff at Second Mesa. The square painting is filled with the contours and shadows of the canyon wall, with small details of the village and figures buried deep within the streaks of carefully placed color. The work is estimated at $20,000 to $30,000. Laverne Nelson Black’s Western Native American on Horseback will also be offered, with estimates of $15,000 to $20,000. The work, measuring 10 by 12 inches, has a strong composition with…