News from the Prix de West show
By Kristin Hoerth
Makeshift Ambulance by Bill Anton.
This story was featured in the October 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art October 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
FOR ALMOST half a century, the Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale has been one of the premier annual events in the western art world. Presented by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, OK, it features paintings, drawings, and sculpture by nearly 100 respected artists from the West and beyond. Its traditional opening weekend in early June—featuring lectures, demonstrations, a fixed-price sale, and lots of camaraderie—has been a mainstay of the western art scene for collectors and art-lovers alike.
This year, of course, many things changed: The works went on view in August, rather than June. The festive gathering was shifted from the show’s kickoff weekend to its closing weekend, then moved to an online experience; the sale was conducted purely by proxy bidding in mid-September. What didn’t change, though, is the core of the show itself: the collection of almost 300 artworks hung with care in the museum’s beautiful galleries, open to anyone fortunate enough to visit in person and available to art lovers around the world in both an online catalog and an impressive virtual tour.
Another thing that didn’t change: the presentation of the show’s usual slate of awards. This year the Donald Teague Memorial Award for works on paper went to Scott Burdick for a charcoal-and-acrylic piece entitled PONCA NATION. The Express Ranches Great American Cowboy Award was given to Carrie Ballantyne for YOUNG HAND, an oil painting featuring her daughter decked out in cowboy hat and chaps. The Major General and Mrs. Don D. Pittman Wildlife Award was presented to PLEISTOCENE MESSENGERS by Andrew Peters, an ethereal oil depicting a group of trumpeter swans. And the Wilson Hurley Award for Outstanding Landscape went to Ralph Oberg for A REMNANT OF WILDNESS, which shows the last bit of evening sunlight playing on a mountain peak.
Harold T. Holden was the recipient of the James Earle Fraser Sculpture Award for STRIKE LIGHTNING, an action-packed bronze capturing what happens when a cowboy has to deal with a horse spooked by Mother Nature. Kyle Polzin received the Frederic Remington Painting Award for his still life entitled BUFFALO DRUM, a detailed depiction of an elaborately decorated Native American drum. Matt Smith was chosen by his fellow participating artists to win the Robert Lougheed Memorial Award for the best body of work; his four paintings depict a variety of western landscapes in multiple seasons. Finally, the show’s most anticipated award—the Prix de West Purchase Award—went to Bill Anton for MAKESHIFT AMBULANCE, which will become part of the museum’s permanent collection.
This story was featured in the October 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art October 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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