Scottsdale, AZ
Legacy Gallery, May 16
**UPDATE: The Scottsdale Art Auction has been rescheduled to take place on Saturday, June 13, in light of current local, state, and federal guidelines concerning public health. Click here for more information.
Maynard Dixon, Neolithic Afternoon, oil, 36 x 40. Estimate: $500,000-$700,000.
This story was featured in the May 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art May 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
THE RESPECTED Scottsdale Art Auction traditionally takes place in early April, “a great time of year” in Scottsdale, notes Jack A. Morris Jr., one of the three partners in the auction and owner of Morris Fine Arts in Hilton Head Island, SC. This year, due to public health concerns, the auction has been rescheduled for Saturday, May 16. There are also multiple ways to bid without attending: online via the auction’s website, through a newly developed app, by telephone, and by absentee ballot.
No matter what form the auction takes, it’s sure to be stellar. “We had many more consignment offers than we could accommodate,” Morris says. “We had a hard time culling them down.” This year’s offerings are on view now in the auction showroom, located on the second floor of Legacy Gallery. A full-color catalog is available, and all 350-plus lots can be seen on the auction’s website.
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- Frank Tenney Johnson, Tejon—My Palomino, oil, 20 x 16. Estimate: $80,000-$120,000.
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- Charles M. Russell, Where the Best of Riders Quit, bronze, h15. Estimate: $300,000-$500,000.
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- Joseph H. Sharp, Interior of a Buffalo Hunter’s Teepee, oil, 20 x 24. Estimate: $100,000-$150,000.
Morris cofounded the auction in 2005 with Michael Frost, owner of J.N. Bartfield Galleries in New York City, and Brad Richardson, owner of Legacy Gallery. Since then the event has attracted standing-room-only crowds with lively bidding and has set numerous sales records, including 18 new records last year alone.
This year’s edition boasts a remarkable selection of works by highly regarded western painter Maynard Dixon. The full 50-year span of Dixon’s career, from 1895 to 1945, is represented, conveying a strong sense of the artist’s development and range of subject matter over the years. “I don’t recall a sale that has ever had this scope of Dixons available, as well as [this level of] quality,” notes Morris. Dixon forged friendships with many fellow artists, including Charles M. Russell and Mexican muralist Diego Rivera; his wife was acclaimed Depression-era photographer Dorothea Lange. These connections “brought him into the sweep of American history, and his keen understanding of the currents of modernism, both here and in Europe, take his work far beyond the realm of western art,” Morris says.
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- William R. Leigh, Pony Express, oil, 28 x 22. Estimate: $600,000-$900,000.
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- Maynard Dixon, Trail Herd, oil, 30 x 36. Estimate: $400,000-$600,000.
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- Henry Farny, Indian Plains, gouache, 10 x 7. Estimate: $100,000-$150,000.
A very early cast of Russell’s sculpture WHERE THE BEST OF RIDERS QUIT, as well as Frederic Remington’s CHEYENNE from a 1908 cast, reflect the level of sculpture on the block this year, says Frost. Morris adds that several lots offer an equally rare opportunity for collectors of historic western paintings: a Frank Tenney Johnson nocturnal painting titled TEJON—MY PALOMINO, and important works by Taos Society artists Joseph H. Sharp, E. Martin Hennings, Bert Geer Phillips, Ernest L. Blumenschein, E. Irving Couse, Walter Ufer, and Oscar E. Berninghaus.
Richardson points out that top contemporary artists are also well represented in the lineup. Among them: painters Martin Grelle, Logan Maxwell Hagege, Mark Maggiori, and Kyle Polzin, and 20 members of the Cowboy Artists of America. As Morris puts it, “The quality of this show, in my opinion, is as good as we’ve ever had.” —Gussie Fauntleroy
contact information
480.945.0225
www.scottsdaleartauction.com
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- Martin Grelle, She Awaits Her Warrior, oil, 40 x 30. Estimate: $65,000-$85,000.
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- Logan Maxwell Hagege, Wherever the Wind Might Go, oil, 40 x 50. Estimate: $60,000-$90,000.
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- G. Harvey, Street Cars Along the Avenue, oil, 36 x 60. Estimate: $150,000-$250,000.
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- E. Martin Hennings, Rabbit Hunters, oil, 12 x 14. Estimate: $70,000-$100,000.
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- Mark Maggiori, Arizona Wonder, oil, 32 x 34. Estimate: $25,000-$35,000.
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- John Clymer, Thundering Hoofs, oil, 30 x 40. Estimate: $300,000-$400,000.
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- Z.S. Liang, The Captured Flag, oil, 40 x 60. Estimate: $50,000-$70,000.
This story was featured in the May 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art May 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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