Untitled by Joseph Henry Sharp |
Dance Garment wins top honors
Clarissa Hudson’s Copper Woman, a traditional woven dance garment and accessories, won Best in Show at this year’s Heard Museum Indian Fair and Market, held in March in Phoenix, AZ. Hudson, a Pagosa Springs, CO, resident, also won the Best of Classification award for weaving and the Best of Division award in traditional weaving. Other top winners this year were Roderick Tenorio (jewelry/lapidary), Dale Gilbert (cultural materials), Larry Yazzie (fine arts), Michael Dean Jenkins (kachina dolls/wood carvings), and Jacquie Stevens (pottery).
C.M. Russell Auction approaches million-dollar mark
Wall Street uncertainties didn’t dampen the moods of collectors at the C.M. Russell Auction in March in Great Falls, MT. Sales totaled $985,650, with proceeds benefiting the C.M. Russell Museum. Top sellers included Blackfeet Hunters on Cut Bank Creek by Charles Fritz ($33,000), Ah-Kene-Ah by Edgar S. Paxson ($28,000), and Echoes of the Spirit by Joe Abbrescia ($27,500).
The museum is also celebrating the completion of a three-year expansion plan, including the opening of several new galleries. The Photography Gallery holds works by historical and contemporary photographers including Edward S. Curtis and Greg Albracht. Modern western works by artists such as Donna Howell-Sickles and Cyrus Afsary are on view in the New West Gallery, and the Traditions of the West Gallery contains works by Russell contemporaries Maynard Dixon, Joseph Henry Sharp, and others.
Phoenix voters approve museum expansion funds
Look for more changes at the Phoenix Art Museum in coming years. In a bond election on March 13, voters approved Proposition 6, allotting more than $66 million for educational, youth, and cultural facilities around town. Of that amount, the Phoenix Art Museum receives $18.2 million to finish expansion efforts, which include completing the south building to display more 20th-century and Latin American art, expanding the lobby, and redesigning the courtyard into an outdoor gallery.
Gallery Owner Dies
Influential art dealer Joe Wade died February 27 in Santa Fe, NM. He was 70. Wade was the owner of Joe Wade Fine Arts in Santa Fe for more than 30 years. He is survived by his wife, Judy Wade, his three children, and several grandchildren.
Grand Canyon Paintings Sold
In September 1999, Curt Walters, Gil Dellinger, Michael Coleman, and 11 other painters embarked on an eight-day painting, rafting, and hiking trek through the Grand Canyon [swa feb 00]. After the trip, each of the artists donated several works for an exhibit and sale to benefit the Grand Canyon Trust, an organization that promotes the protection and restoration of the national park. The sale, which closed February 28, fetched a total of $130,000, with $80,000 going directly to the trust. Grand Canyon Expressions: Painting Down the Rapids, a collection of paintings from the trip, is on display through August 31 at Forbes magazine’s headquarters in Burlingame, CA.
Auction Report
The Life and Art of Toulouse-Lautrec went up for bid at Sotheby’s New York on March 23, fetching a total of $3.2 million. Ambassadeurs, a poster of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s friend Aristide Bruant, sold for $170,750, more than double the high estimate. A rare 1890 first printing of his first poster, Moulin Rouge—La Goulue, also sold for $170,750.
Featured in June 2001