The Prix de West show returns to its traditions
By Kristin Hoerth
Gone Fishin’ by Greg Beecham.
One of the western art world’s most anticipated and most prestigious events, the annual Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, returned this year to its traditional early summer timeframe and its in-person opening-weekend festivities after having to modify both in 2020. More than $2.5 million worth of artwork was sold; a portion of the proceeds go toward the museum’s exhibitions and programs. Nearly a dozen awards were announced as well, recognizing some of the most impressive artistic achievements among an exceptionally talented group of painters and sculptors—truly the best of the best.
This year’s Major General and Mrs. Don D. Pittman Wildlife Award went to Daniel Smith for THROUGH THE CALDERA, an acrylic painting of a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park. The Express Ranches Great American Cowboy Award was given to Eric Bowman for OVERLOOK, an oil painting in which a lone cowboy on horseback contemplates the vast landscape before him. The Donald Teague Memorial Award for the best work on paper was given to Joel R. Johnson for a watercolor titled SUNSET REFLECTIONS, and the Wilson Hurley Memorial Award for an outstanding landscape was presented to Skip Whitcomb for an oil titled MOSES COULEE MARES. This year, a special Directors’ Choice Award for Excellence was given to John Moyers for his monumental, 8-foot-long painting VANGUARD OF THE NORTHERN PLAINS.
Daniel Gerhartz won the Frederic Remington Painting Award for his large painting WAYFARING STRANGER, which was inspired by the traditional folk song of the same name and depicts a young girl surviving tragedy. Ross Matteson received the James Earle Fraser Sculpture Award for BLACK MERLIN, a bronze that captures a small, elegant type of falcon. Bonnie Marris won the Jackie L. Coles Buyers’ Choice Award for A COLD RECEPTION, an arresting close-up painting of a mountain lion. Scott Fraser’s body of work—four figurative paintings of distinctive young women—was selected by the participating artists to win the Robert Lougheed Memorial Award.
Finally, the biggest moment of the awards ceremony was the announcement of the Prix de West Purchase Award, which went to Greg Beecham for his oil painting GONE FISHIN’. The dazzling piece depicts a mountain lion who has jumped into the water, creating an explosion of splashes around him. The piece becomes part of the permanent collection of Prix de West artwork at the museum.
This Editor’s Letter appeared in the August/September 2021 issue of Southwest Art magazine.