Modern Views
Santa Fe Art Auction’s Signature Annual Auction
Santa Fe, New Mexico, has long been known as a haven for art, but also specifically modernism, which has lured many of the great painters of the 20th century, from John Marin and Marsden Hartley to
Emil Bisttram and Jozef Bakos. Santa Fe’s rich history of art was on full display at Santa Fe Art Auction’s annual Signature Annual Auction, held on November 14 in the City Different.
The star of the sale was Colorado painter Gerard Curtis Delano, known for his Native American figures and colorful compositions. Delano achieved more than $1.1 million across nine lots, including five lots in the top 10.The top lot was The Orange Cloud (est. $500/700,000), showing two Native American figures on horseback in front of a beautifully shaped cloud billowing over the horizon.the work sold for $526,500. Not far behind it was Desert Thunderhead (est. $300/500,000), that sold for $351,000, and then Vermilion Cliffs (est. $100/150,000), which sold for $93,600.
Andrew Wyeth’s 1976 watercolor Nell (est. $80/120,000) sold for $84,825 while Karl Horst Hodicke’s 1982 work Odysseus and Siren (est. $10/20,000) sold well over estimates at $81,900. Elsewhere in the sale were two works by Taos Society of Artists co-founder Eanger Irving Couse: The Camping Place (est. $100/150,000) that sold for $84,825 and Indian Brave Kneeling Before Firelight (est. $30/40,000) that sold for $52,650.A world record was set for Gustave Baumann, whose piece
Palo Verde and Ocotea (est. $3/5,000) soared to $40,950.
Other artists who performed well were Agnes Martin, Georgia O’keeffe, John Cowan and Emil Bisttram, whose 1933 watercolor
Talpas Valley sold for $21,060, nearly tripling its high estimate of $8,000.
The two-session sale saw considerable bidding online and via telephone, both of which Santa Fe Art Auction expanded due to the pandemic.
“We were delighted with the sale.we enjoyed over 2,000 registered bidders in more than 25 countries, and saw some vigorous bidding competition between the telephones and the internet. Since it was online only for the first time in nearly 30 years, we were not sure what to expect. Our sellthrough, including robust post-auction sale interest and activity, is about 85 percent—a very healthy result,” says Gillian Blitch, the auction’s CEO and president. “it has certainly been a challenging year, but in my view the art auction market has proven to be very resilient, as witnessed by the recent Signature sale.the attendance and sell-through rates for our regular online-only sales have been as good as we would expect in any circumstances. So volume is steady but prices might be a little on the soft side. we’re generally seeing more sales at the low estimate than the high end. So it’s a buyer’s market, and that plays well into the auction market.”■