June 2007 | News Beat

The Night Hawk by Frank Tenney Johnson
The Night Hawk by Frank Tenney Johnson

Scottsdale Art Auction Tops $8 Million

When the final hammer came down, total sales at the Scottsdale Art Auction exceeded $8.25 million. The top seller was Frank Tenney Johnson’s the night hawk, which sold for a record-breaking $700,000. William Gollings’ cheyenne winter camp also set a record for the artist, selling for $414,400. Among record-setting prices for living artists, Richard Duncan’s following the river fetched $89,600, Paul Calle’s the free trapper brought in $84,000, and Loren Entz’s the saddle maker went for $30,800. Held at Legacy Contemporary, the March auction attracted more than 400 collectors, dealers, museum curators, and media.


In Memoriam

Dallas civic leader and real estate developer Raymond Nasher, who amassed one of the world’s best collections of modern and contemporary sculpture, died in March at the age of 85. Nasher was legendary for turning a cow pasture into the highly successful NorthPark Center in Dallas. Believing that art should be a part of everyone’s daily experience, he was one of the first developers to regularly include art in commercial and retail buildings. Nasher and his wife, Patsy, started collecting modernist sculpture in the late 1960s and eventually built a collection worth $400 million. Museums from around the world courted him in hopes of becoming the recipient of the collection. Nasher decided to keep the collection in Dallas and spent $70 million to build the 2.4-acre Nasher Sculpture Center, a museum and sculpture garden that opened in 2003 near the Dallas Art Museum.

First Snow Crow Reservation Montana by J.H. Sharp
First Snow Crow Reservation Montana by J.H. Sharp

Results In for C.M. Russell Auction

Montana-based artist Richard D. Thomas won Best of Show for his oil painting bringing in the remuda at the 39th annual C.M. Russell Art Auction and Exhibitors’ Show. The People’s Choice Award for Painting went to Texas artist Gary Lynn Roberts for his painting seniority, and Greg Kelsey of Colorado won People’s Choice for Sculpture for easy does it! Illinois artist John Gawne received the C.M. Russell Museum CEO Award for his painting bald eagle, and Montana artist Tara Moore was honored with the Ralph “Tuffy” Berg Award for her painting drivers permit. Held in Great Falls, MT, the five-day event drew nearly 10,000 visitors, with a total of 4,500 attending two live auctions and a fixed-price auction. Combined sales for all three totaled nearly a half million dollars. The top-selling piece was first snow crow reservation montana by J.H. Sharp, which sold for $155,000.

Out & About

Stacy Barter of Winter Park, FL, won the $25,000 Best of Show Award at the Blossom: Art of the Flower juried exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Her winning piece was an oil still life entitled my grandmother dreams in peonies…. Sculptor Tim Cherry of Branson, MO, won the National Sculpture Society’s Gold Medal and the Maurice B. Hexter Prize for his bronze of a red fox entitled flea flicker…. Sorrel Sky Gallery in Durango, CO, celebrated its five-year anniversary in April…. Gallery of the Master in Loveland, CO, has changed its name to The Master’s Fine Art of Loveland.

Best Places to Live

A garret is one option. Another is a vibrant city or town with a variety of cultural offerings, a diverse and youthful population, and up-and-coming neighborhoods in relative proximity to centers of wealth. This was the criteria used to determine the 10 best places in America for artists (defined as self-employed visual artists, actors, writers, dancers, musicians, etc.) in a recent survey compiled by BusinessWeek.com and Sperling’s Best Places. Six of the 10 locations are in the western half of the United States, with Los Angeles, CA, ranking first, followed by Santa Fe, NM; Carson City, NV; New York, NY; Kingston, NY; Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA; Nashville, TN; Boulder, CO; San Francisco, CA; and Nassau-Suffolk Counties, NY. BusinessWeek.com also noted that high concentrations of artists often serve as an indicator of urban and regional economic growth. Artists are often at the leading edge of neighborhood gentrification, which in turn attracts boutiques, art galleries, and restaurants.