The annual Art of the West sale, presented by Santa Fe Art Auction, is always a great opportunity for bidders to sample some of the flavors of the Southwest, including artwork by Native American artists, regionalist works, paintings and bronzes of cowboys and cattle, woodblock prints and etchings, and magnificent examples of Southwestern modernism. Examples from all of these categories, and then some, were up for grabs May 8 and 9 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Fritz Scholder (1937-2005), Another Dream Horse, 1991. Bronze, ed. 16 of 16, 19½ x 23 x 9 in. Estimate: $4/6,000 SOLD: $9,225
“Santa Fe Art Auction’s Art of the West sale…featured a fine selection of artworks that celebrate the iconic landscapes, history, figures and wildlife that characterize the American West,” says Gillian Blitch, the auction house’s president and CEO. “The sale achieved an 83 percent sell-through rate with nearly 400 lots offered, and total sales of $450,000…”
Olive Rush (1873-1966), Arches and Dove, 1930. Watercolor on paper, 165⁄8 x 12¾ in. Estimate: $3/5,000 SOLD: $8,610
The sale’s two top lots, both of which realized $9,225, were Carlos Vierra’s Walpi Pueblo (est. $8/10,000) and Fritz Scholder’s bronze Another Dream Horse (est. $4/6,000). Vierra was active in the early 20th century and painted all around New Mexico. Scholder, a Luiseño painter from California who was active in the mid-20th century, is routinely being sought out by top collectors for his modern perspectives on Western and Native American figures. Not far behind those two artists, was Olive Rush’s watercolor work Arches and Dove. The 1930 work on paper sold for $8,600, clearing the high estimate of $5,000.
B.J.O. Nordfeldt (1878-1955), Indian Portrait, San Juan Pueblo, ca. 1919. Oil on canvas, 24¼ x 20 in. Estimate: $6/9,000 SOLD: $7,380
Indian Portrait, San Juan Pueblo, a painting by modernist artist B.J.O. Nordfeldt, was sold for $7,380, within estimates of $6,000 to $9,000. The image shows a portrait of a young Native American subject wearing a yellow shirt. Robert David Wilkie, who painted in the 1800s, was represented in the sale by The Emigrant Trail, a work that sold for $5,400, well over its $2,000 high estimate.
Other artists with notable sales in the auction were Peter Hurd, Richard Lorenz, Willard Nash and Nicholas Firfires.
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