Highlights from the Scottsdale Art Auction
By Kristin Hoerth
Sunset, Salt Lake by Albert Bierstadt.
This story was featured in the June 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art June 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
In early April, on a balmy spring weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the 15th annual Scottsdale Art Auction in Scottsdale, AZ. The huge showroom was packed with some 500 collectors and other art lovers over the course of two days. By the end of the action on Saturday afternoon, 94 percent of the 346 lots had sold for a grand total of $13.2 million, and there were plenty of highlights along the way.
One of the top lots in the auction proved to be Frank Tenney Johnson’s masterwork SMOKE OF A .45, which sold for $669,000 against an estimate of $600,000-900,000. The cinematic oil painting places its galloping horse and cowboy rider exactly in the middle of the square canvas and riding directly toward the viewer; the white smoke from his recently fired Colt .45 mingles with the white thunderhead visible just over his shoulder.
One of the biggest triumphs was the sale of Melvin Warren’s REMNANTS OF THE HERD for the world-record price of $497,250, nearly five times its low estimate of $100,000. Another record among deceased artists was $380,250 for Henry Shrady’s ELK BUFFALO, a 22-inch-tall bronze with a presale estimate of $200,000-300,000. Among living artists, two newly established auction records stand out: Logan Maxwell Hagege’s BREAKING THROUGH THE STORM for $234,000 (against an estimate of just $50,000-75,000) and Mark Maggiori’s ELECTRIC DESERT for $99,450 (against an estimate of just $20,000-25,000). These two relatively young western artists are in high demand.
Still more impressive sales included OFFERINGS ON THE WIND by Martin Grelle for $438,750 versus an estimate of $125,000-175,000. The 48-by-60-inch painting depicts a small group of Apsaalooke warriors making an offering of tobacco; it was one of six Grelle works that sold for a total of $886,350. ACROSS THE VALLEY by E. Martin Hennings—a lyrical landscape full of soft curves and colors, and one of my personal favorites in the sale—far exceeded its $20,000-40,000 estimate by hammering for $105,300.
Finally, perhaps the most crowd-pleasing sale of the day featured the smallest piece in the auction. Albert Bierstadt’s 6-by-9-inch oil SUNSET, SALT LAKE sold for a whopping $315,900, easily beating its estimate of $150,000-250,000. The tiny painting packed a major punch, impressing viewers with the romantic glow and sweeping panorama for which Bierstadt is famous. The artist saw the Great Salt Lake in the midst of his second expedition to the West, in 1863, during which he traveled with the writer Fitz Hugh Ludlow. In his book The Heart of a Continent, Ludlow wrote of this view, “Its elements of sublimity were many, but beauty was its most impressive characteristic.”
This story was featured in the June 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art June 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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