Inaugural sale
The Jackson Hole Art Auction kicks off its first-ever Wyoming Art Auction on February 20.
The organizers of the Jackson Hole Art Auction have watched as internet bidding has increased in sales year after year. They then watched those numbers go up almost exponentially during the pandemic as collectors grew even more comfortable with bidding from afar.
The ease and comfort of internet bidding has resulted in the inaugural Wyoming Art Auction on February 20 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. “After toying with this idea for a good amount of time, it was obvious this was a great time to host an online-only sale,” says Madison Webb, the auction director at the Jackson Hole Art Auction, which is presenting the sale. “And when we looked at our calendar, February was wide open, so it seemed perfect for a Wyoming sale.”
The sale will be held entirely online through Invaluable, Liveauctioneers and the Jackson Hole Art Auction’s web and app bidding platform, though visitors to Jackson Hole will be able to preview the auction lots starting a month before the sale. Webb adds that the February sale effectively adds another art season to Jackson Hole, which is a big destination for skiers and other winter visitors.
The 175-lot sale will feature wildlife, landscapes, sporting art and works showing cowboys and Native American subjects. Highlights include Porfirio Salinas’ Texas painting Hill Country Bluebonnets (est. $50/75,000) and Bob Kuhn’s 1968 wildlife painting Watch the Buck Runways (est. $10/15,000).
Two paintings that should interest Jackson Hole collectors are Conrad Schwiering’s Snake River Overlook (est. $10/15,000) and Bruce Cheever’s Grand Descent (est. $12/18,000), both of which show the majesty of the region from perspectives that have been popular throughout the history of Western art.
In addition to a bronze by Bill Nebeker, The Legend Lives (est. $6/9,000), and Tom Browning’s cowboy scene Fading Light (est. $15/25,000), there will be a Stanley Meltzoff painting, Eider Duck Shoot (est. $12/18,000), from 1968. Meltzoff, whose work is rare at auction and usually fought over by bidders, is widely collected by marine and sporting enthusiasts who treasure his unique above-and below-water scenes.
Other artists represented in the sale include Clyde Aspevig, Matt Smith, Curt Walters, Luke Frazier, James Morgan, David Maass, Brent Cotton, Ralph Oberg, Tucker Smith, Bruce Greene, Tyler Crow, Grant Redden, Wayne Baize and many others.
Heritage Auctions hosted its December 3 sale to a robust crowd of buyers through its online platform, by telephone and absentee. The auction house, which has its own system through its website, saw “massive amounts of online bidding,” according to Alissa Ford, Heritage’s director of Western art. “Not only that, but we found this season we registered quite a few new bidders.”
The market for Western art continued to show is strength with Thomas Moran’s Mountain Lion in Grand Canyon (Lair of the Mountain Lion) becoming the top lot of the day at $471,000. The second-highest earner was the dynamic painting The Best in the
Bunch by William R. Leigh, which sold within estimate at $312,500. “The Western section of the sale only had one unsold painting,” says Ford. As a whole the auction totaled more than $4.3 million in sales and had a 93 percent sellthrough rate.
“It’s just proving that people are turning toward art at this time to maintain their strength and find that beauty in life that they need while being at home,” Ford adds.
There was a selection of contemporary Native American paintings in the sale that also performed well including Fritz Scholder’s Indian on Blue Horse (est. $40/60,000), which doubled its high price at $162,500, and John
Nieto’s Turning Bear, 1987, sold for $21,250, which was a price higher than its $8,000 to $12,000 estimate.
Other standouts in the sale included Frank Mccarthy’s The Whine of a Ricochet (est. $30/50,000) at $25,000; G. Harvey’s Colorado Morning (est. $8/12,000) at $23,750; and Birger Sandzén’s In Logan County, Utah (est. $40/60,000) at $55,000.
“Overall we’re seeing people more comfortable from the comforts of their home and finding it very convenient,” says Ford. “It’s increasing our bidding pool and possibly increasing the market values at the end of the day.”