Consistent Bidding

Santa Fe Art Auction’s signature annual sale brings in more than $2 million in sales

On November 10 and 11, Santa Fe Art Auction presented its largest offering of the year, the Signature Annual Live Sale. Sustained bidding amid a diverse selection of materials from all around the Southwest helped bring in more than $2 million in sales with a 90 percent sell-through rate. The sale exemplified “the best of what the auction house brings to offer throughout the year,” Gillian Blitch, the auction president notes.

Fremont F. Ellis (1897-1985), Tesuque Mission. Oil on board, 22 x 30 in. Estimate: $8/12,000 SOLD: $51,850

Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952), President Theodore Roosevelt. Orotone on glass (goldtone), 10 x 8 in. Estimate: $6/9,000 SOLD: $15,860

The top lot of the sale was Luis Jimenez’s El Filo, a cast fiberglass work showing a figure on a motorcycle. The 84-inch-long work, of which there are five editions, sold for $115,000, within its estimates of $100,000 to $150,000.

A David Barbero painting titled Grande Canyon was a huge sleeper hit at the sale. Estimated at only $10,000 to $20,000, the work saw intense bidding before closing at $73,000, more the triple its high estimate. The work now holds the auction record for Barbero, who moved from the East Coast to live and paint in Santa Fe. The artist died in 1999.

Gustave Baumann (1881-1971), Apple Blossoms, 1917. Color woodcut, 9½ x 11¼ in. Estimate: $10/15,000 SOLD: $30,500

Another work that soared past estimates was Fremont Ellis’ Tesuque Mission, which sold for nearly $52,000, more than four times over its high estimate of $12,000. Ellis is another artist who lived and worked in Santa Fe.

Norma Bassett Hall (1889-1957), Aspen and Spruce, ca. 1940. Silkscreen, 11 x 13 in. Estimate: $3/5,000 SOLD: $8,540

The auction house continued to see strong sales for Gustave Baumann, a woodblock printer and painter whose love for the Southwest reverberated through his work. Other artists that performed well were Albert Bierstadt, Eldridge Ayer Burbank, Maynard Dixon, Edward S. Curtis, Norma Bassett Hall, Ward Lockwood and modernist Native American sculptor Allan Houser.