Diversity of Materials

Santa Fe Art Auction brings in $2.5 million across three diverse sessions in New Mexico

There was something for everyone at the Santa Fe Art Auction’s Signature Annual Live Sale held November 3 through 5 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Not only were paintings and bronzes readily available, the sale also offered a huge variety of important Native American jewelry, Navajo weavings, pueblo pottery, woodblock prints, drypoint etchings, photography and books, illustration and much more.

Gustave Baumann (1881-1971), Winter Corral, 1961. Color woodcut, ed. 75 of 125, 14¼ x 13¾ in. Estimate: $10/20,000 SOLD: $36,600

It was that diversity of material that helped push the sale to $2.5 million in sales with a 90 percent sell-through rate. Held across three sessions on three days, the sale was also marked by the inclusion of three prominent private collections that mixed genres and materials: the Charles and Georgia Loloma Estate, Edward S. Curtis material from the Christopher Cardozo Collection and the Sonnett Pottery Collection.

Gene Kloss (1903-1996), All Saints Mass – Taos Pueblo, 1934. Drypoint, aquatint, ed. of 30, 9¾ x 13¾ in. Estimate: $14/16,000 SOLD: $18,300

“This success of the sale demonstrates the triumph of the mix of modernity and history in the West art market today,” says Gillian Blitch, president and CEO of the Santa Fe Art Auction. “To be able to sell everything from Charles Loloma jewelry to historic 19th-century pueblo pottery speaks to the breadth and diversity of not just the auction house but our collectors as a whole.”

Peter Hurd (1904-1984), Fiesta del San Ysidro (San Patricio NM), 1977. Watercolor on paper, 21 x 29¾ in. Estimate: $8/12,000 SOLD: $33,550

The auction house has been offering works from the Loloma and Cardozo collection for more than a year, and those collections have continuously performed strongly as collectors are drawn to the Loloma’s unique collection of paintings, carvings and jewelry and Cardozo’s deep collection of Curtis materials. Top lots from those collections included a Charles Loloma gold and multi-stone inlay cuff (est. $65/95,000) that sold for $73,200, and Portfolio II (est. $12/18,000) and Portfolio IX (est. $7/10,000) from Curtis’ The North American Indian that each sold separately for $54,900.

Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952), The North American Indian Portfolio II, 1908, 36 photogravures on Japanese tissue with original Van Gelder overmats, 23 x 19 in. Estimate: $12/18,000 SOLD: $54,900

The sale also saw a high number of Gustave Baumann woodblock prints perform very strongly, with Winter Corral (est. $10/20,000) selling the highest at $36,600. Other important lots were Peter Hurd’s Fiesta del San Ysidro (est. $8/12,000) that sold above estimates for $33,550, Gene Kloss’ All Saints Mass – Taos Pueblo (est. $14/16,000) that sold for $18,300 and Thomas Hart Benton’s lithograph of Prodigal Son (est. $1,500/2,500) that sold for $5,795.