Santa Fe Art Auction
Santa Fe, NM
When the Santa Fe Art Auction kicks off its 26th annual sale on November 9 it will do so from the comfort of its new shiny digs, a massive 12,000-square-foot facility that will allow the auction house to consolidate its various needs—a research library, a photography studio, office spaces and a 3,000-square-foot showroom—all under one roof within the
Baca Railyard within the heart of Santa Fe.
“It’s going to be a very exciting time and we can’t wait to launch the new space. All the extra room will allow us to intake more, host more auctions, increase our capacity for large collections…we’ll be able to do everything in house and on location,” says Gillian Blitch, Santa Fe Art Auction president. “We’re essentially quadrupling in size, and we’re feeling very good about what’s in store for us.”
Blitch says one of the most important categories for the auction house is Southwest modernism, and this year is no exception with top works from important figures throughout the West, but particularly in Santa Fe and nearby Taos. Additionally, female artists are proving to be a powerful force in this year’s
sale, with works available from Gene Kloss, Janet Lippincott, Beulah Stevenson and Susan Hertel, whose piece Untitled (Interior with Dogs) will be offered with estimates of $20,000 to $25,000. “The works by women artists are very strong, especially from artists who came to Santa Fe to work,” she says, adding that Jet and Moon (est. $10/15,000), by Dorothy Brett, is an early favorite among bidders.
This year’s sale, which will boast 350 lots, will feature several important collections, including selections from the estate of Mrs. Harold Charles (Carolyn) Price Jr. The Price family was close friends with Frank Lloyd
Wright, who designed their residence and the Price Tower, the only Wright skyscraper, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Carolyn Price, who died in 2018, had a deep affinity for the Southwest and spent a great deal of time in Santa Fe, where she acquired works for her collection. The Price Collection includes pieces by Hertel, Richard Schmid, Nancy Guzik and works by early Navajo photographer Laura Gilpin. Another important collection comes from the Patricia Janis Broder Estate. Broder was an acclaimed writer and historian of Western art and a champion of American Indian art of the 20th century.
One of the top works being offered in the sale is Joseph Henry Sharp’s Untitled (Pueblo Woman), showing a woman wrapped in a yellow shawl under a tree. The oil work is expected to sell between $50,000 and $60,000. Sharp, one of the founders of the Taos Society of Artists, was one of the earliest artists to visit and paint Taos and its people. Another work related to the Taos Society of Artists comes from associate member Gustave Baumann, whose 1930 woodblock print Rancho de Taos will be offered with estimates of $15,000 to $20,000.
Another top lot is Fritz Scholder’s 81-inchtall Untitled (Buffalo and Indian), estimated at $80,000 to $120,000. The Luiseño painter
is one of the early pioneers of abstract and modern art in the West. His work shows a nude figure lying in a field of green and purple abstraction, at the feet of a white buffalo that dominates the already-massive painting. “We are very excited about this Scholder,” Blitch says. “This is a very important work, and it shows in its size and color.”
Other noteworthy pieces are Howard Cook’s Good Friday, Procession #5 (est. $30/50,000), Joseph Fleck’s View from Fleck’s Talpa Residence (est. $6/12,000), Frank Paul Sauerwein’s Grand Canyon (est. $8/12,000) and E.A. Burbank’s Red Woman, Southern
Cheyenne (est. $5/8,000). A Maynard Dixon watercolor from 1945, Untitled (Cowboy on Horseback), will be offered with estimates of $15,000 to $25,000. The work will hit the market at a great time with a major Dixon retrospective ongoing at Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West in Arizona.
Blitch says that the Western art as a whole is in a good place, in large part to the collectors who have expressed a deep interest in the materials and have sought those materials out. “There is a shift happening right now within American art. I see an elevation of knowledge and interest, and some of that shift can be seen right here in Santa Fe. It’s an excellent time to be buying mid-century art of the West,” she says. “It’s a burgeoning area and some areas of the market have neglected it, but now it’s coming into its own as more people discover the artists and their works. It’s an exciting time.”