In All Its Glory by Curt Walters |
Tidbits
A painting by John Mix Stanley [1814-1872] sold for $145,000 at the Harvey Clars Estate Auction Gallery in January. More than twice the auction estimate, the sale set a world record for the artist. The painting of a desert sunset, which was part of a large estate from Kentucky, was likely inspired by Stanley’s travels in the Southwest and West, where he painted landscapes and Native Americans.
Painter Curt Walters recently donated In All Its Glory to the Grand Canyon Trust, a conservation advocacy group in Flagstaff, AZ. By creating the oil painting of the Grand Canyon specifically for the trust’s fund-raising efforts, Walters showed his support for conserving the canyon he’s painted for more than 25 years. “I think this painting represents what the Grand Canyon environment can be if we all persist in our [conservation] efforts,” he says.
Old Theater by Ed Sandoval |
The Taos Talking Picture Festival, held April 16-19 in Taos, NM, has selected Ed Sandoval’s painting Old Theater for its 1998 poster. Festival officials saw Sandoval’s mastery of telling a story on canvas as a mirror of the way festival participants tell stories on film.
Peter Coors, CEO of Coors Brewing Company, recently added All American, an acrylic painting of a rodeo scene by Wyoming artist Daryl Poulin, to the company’s corporate art collection.
Colorado sculptor Bobbie Lorett has been chosen as the featured artist for the Northern Wildlife Expo, held in January in Lansing, MI.
Show Results
Masters of the American West, Autry Musem of Western Heritage
Los Angeles, CA, Jan. 1998
Overall sales: $343,675
Top lots:
Jim Reynolds, The Bed Wagon, oil, 30 x 48, $40,000.
Roy Andersen, We Follow Cochise, oil, 30 x 40, $31,000
William Acheff, Spirits, Symbols, and Ceremonies, oil, 36 x 24, $27,000.
Donald Crowley, Harvest Time, oil, 40 x 30, $20,000.
Awards:
William Acheff (Masters of the American West Purchase Award)
James Reynolds (Thomas Moran Memorial Award)
Mehl Lawson (Thomas Moran Memorial Award)
American Women Artists,
Trailside Gallery
Scottsdale, AZ, Jan. 1998
Best of Show: Bonita Roberts
Best Series of Work: Rogue Simpson
Top Scholarship Recipients: Carla Knight, Norma Holmes, Pam Ingalls-Cox, Beth Carver, Christine Debrosky
In Memoriam
Navajo artist Carl Gorman, father of sculptor R.C. Gorman, died January 29 of cancer at the age of 90. Nationally known for his membership in the World War II Code Talkers, a group of servicemen who used the Navajo language to encrypt classified messages, Gorman was also a painter specializing in oil and watercolor. In the 1970s he taught art history and Native American history at the University of California at Davis, which in 1973 established the C.N. Gorman Museum in his honor.
Errata
Two dates were listed incorrectly in our January show calendar. The correct dates for the Spokane Western Art Show and Sale are February 27-March 1, and the correct dates for Texas Art Gallery’s Patron’s Party & Auction are May 22-23.
Transitions
The director of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, TX, has resigned the position he’s held since 1980. Planning to leave no later than February 1, 1999, Edmund P. Pillsbury has not accepted a position with another museum but instead plans to travel and write.
Christian Title closed his DeVille Galleries, Los Angeles, on February 15 and is retiring. For 40 years he has shown and sold works by American artists such as Edward Hopper, Ernest Lawson, Childe Hassam, William Merritt Chase, Willard Metcalf, Edmund Tarbell, and Edward Henry Potthast.
Museum News
The Portland Art Museum, the oldest art museum in the Pacific Northwest, has raised $19.2 million (64 percent of the goal) for its campaign titled Project for the Millennium: Building a Legacy Where Art Lives. Campaign funds will be dedicated to renovating and adding museum space. In addition to more galleries and exhibit areas, the improvements will include a community education center and enhanced visitor services. The completed museum will total 240,000 square feet.
The Kendall College Mitchell Museum of the American Indian in Evanston, IL, moved from its two-room campus location to the site of the former Terra Museum of American Art. The museum has more than 3,000 Native American artifacts.
Morning Glory by Penny Stewart |
Recognition
Waterfowl artist Robert Steiner won the 1998-99 Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp competition. His painting of a Barrow’s Goldeneye was chosen out of almost 400 entries. Steiner, who lives in San Francisco, CA, has won 13 state duck-stamp art competitions, including those in California, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah.
David Wallace, 12-year-old son of Denise and Samuel Wallace of DW Studios in Santa Fe, NM, won an award for best photographer in the youth art competition held in conjunction with Santa Fe’s WinterFiesta.
Colorado artist Penny Stewart’s watercolor Morning Glory was included in the Watercolor Society Annual International Exhibition held last month in New York City.
Featured in April 1998