Santa Fe Art Auction’s Christopher Cardozo Collection
Some of the final offerings from the Christopher Cardozo collection of Edward S. Curtis images are available in Santa Fe.
Christopher Cardozo knew photographer and ethnologist Edward S. Curtis backward and forward. He could identify specific Curtis stories and tell you where they appeared within a page or two of Curtis’ 20-volume set of books. He could point out the nuances of the typeface used by the photographer in his publications, and could even elaborate on their characteristics. He knew the names of his subjects, even when Curtis didn’t identify them. He lived and breathed Curtis. When he died in 2021, he left a large hole in the world of Curtis collectors and fans.
At the time of his death, Cardozo was working with Santa Fe Art Auction to
bring some of his collection to bidders. After his death, the auction house helped disperse his vast collection of Curtis materials, including photogravures, text volumes and portfolios from Curtis’ masterpiece The North American Indian and also various Curtis ephemera. The auction house’s newest sale of Cardozo material will take place April 10 and 11 in Santa Fe.
“Christopher Cardozo was one of the world’s leading authorities on Edward Curtis, and through his life’s research and curatorial work he brought the legacy of Edward Curtis to a captivated contemporary audience,” the auction house notes. “Santa Fe Art Auction has now famously brought world auction records for many prominent examples of Cardozo’s seminal private collection. This sale’s offerings will include a wide selection of prints and groupings from this incredible collection of volume and portfolio photogravures, all from Curtis’s magnum opus, titled The North American Indian (1907-1930). In addition, collectors will find a range of fine silver gelatin prints, goldtone prints and notable stills from Curtis’ 1914 landmark film, In the Land of the Head-hunters, as well as original plate cover envelopes and other historic ephemera.”
Curtis, widely considered to be one of the most important photographers of the early 20th century, spent more than three decades documenting Native American people. His work famously included photographs, but he also documented their lifeways, songs, food, music and languages. He combined this exhaustive research into The North American Indian, a 20-volume, 20-portfolio publication that was finally completed in 1930. Curtis began the project as a national celebrity, but by the end of the project, as the Great Depression set in, he was largely unknown and forgotten. At the time of his death in 1952, he was broke and broken. As the decades ticked past, though, researchers and art collectors discovered his works and he saw renewed attention. Cardozo was at the forefront of that attention in the 1970s up until his death.
More than anything, Cardozo believed in the power of Curtis’ photography. His emails would end with a famous Thomas Moore quote: “The mind works with words. The body works with muscles. The soul works with images.”