INSIDE Wildlife Art • Jackson Hole Art Auction • National Museum of Wildlife Art september 2014
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AUCTION PREVIEW
AUCTION PREVIEW
Top Tier The eighth annual Jackson Hole Art Auction comprises a diverse selection of past and present masterworks of the American West.
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he highly anticipated Jackson Hole Art Auction returns Saturday, September 13, for its eighth year of presenting past and present masterworks of the American West. Offerings across all categories are particularly strong this year with emphasis on wildlife art as well as classic Western and contemporary works coupled with prime examples by the Taos Society of Artists. “The market is very healthy. There’s increased demand for quality works by collectors, and there’s increased interest in wildlife art and it continues to trend upward,”
says Roxanne Hofmann, managing partner of the eight-year-old sale. Held at the Center for the Arts in conjunction with the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival, the auction will have approximately 240 lots including works by Clyde Aspevig, John Clymer, Martin Grelle, G. Harvey, Frank Tenney Johnson, Bob Kuhn, E.S. Paxson, Kenneth Riley, Carl Rungius, Richard Schmid, Howard Terpning and many more. “We’re excited to once again have a major work by Cowboy Artist Martin Grelle. We’re the only auction house that has new work from
him every year,” adds Hofmann. Presented by Trailside Galleries in partnership with Gerald Peters Gallery, the live auction features a strong collection of work by wildlife masters, including Rungius’ Moose (est. $200/400,000) and Wilhelm Kuhnert’s Brüllender Löwe (est. $175/275,000). Several important works by Kuhn will be offered including Resting Cat (est. $250/300,000), Rocky Mountain High Bighorn Sheep (est. $60/80,000), and Red Fox on Patrol (est. $60/80,000). According to Hofmann, Kuhn’s Resting Cat was the last Prix de West entry the artist
Carl Rungius (1869-1959), Alarmed (Big Horn Rocky Mountain Sheep), oil on canvas, 30 x 40” Estimate: $200/400,000
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Charles M. Russell (1864-1926), Buffalo Hunt, 1901, watercolor on paper, 8⅜ x 16⅞” Estimate: $900/1,500,000
Jackson Hole
Howard Terpning (b. 1927), Major North and the Pawnee Battalion, oil on canvas, 36 x 58” Estimate: $800/1,200,000
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Frederic Remington (1861-1909), The Passion of Ah-We-Ah, ca. 1899, oil on canvas, 27¼ x 40” Estimate: $150/250,000
Gerard Curtis Delano (1890-1972), Dust of the Desert, oil on canvas, 32 x 40” Estimate: $400/600,000
Bob Kuhn (1920-2007), North Country, acrylic on board, 20 x 24” Estimate: $80/120,000
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completed in his lifetime, and it received the Major General and Mrs. Don D. Pittman Wildlife Award. Leading the classic Western lots is a 1901 watercolor by Charles M. Russell titled Buffalo Hunt, which is estimated at $900,000 to $1.5 million. The Taos Society of Artists is well represented with offerings by Oscar E. Berninghaus, W. Herbert Dunton, E. Martin Hennings, and a major Victor Higgins, titled New Mexico Sky, coming from a private Arizona collection. “We’ve been working on getting this painting for quite some time. It is very significant and major because it is a great example of Higgins’ work when he totally omitted the human figure,” Hofmann remarks. Highlights among the contemporary offerings include Terpning’s Major North and the Pawnee Battalion, a major historical painting completed by the artist in 1989. Estimated at $800,000 to $1.2 million, the 36-by-58-inch oil painting represents Terpning at his finest, illustrating his ability to transform a casual moment of camp life into an epic work of art. “We’re very excited to offer such a major historical painting. It’s one of the few pieces that has been allowed to come out of the Basha collection. The provenance is sterling; it went straight from the Cowboy Artists of America show in 1989 to the Basha collection, so it has never been on the market. It’s classic Howard Terpning; it’s a major historical work with actual historical figures— large figures—and complex composition and subject matter,” Hofmann says. New this year, the Jackson Hole Art Auction is introducing a Top Tier juried competition featuring a select group of 11 contemporary artists chosen by invitation. Criterion included artists having an auction
AUCTION PREVIEW
Top to bottom: Martin Grelle (b. 1954), Fires Burned Out, acrylic on linen, 48 x 36” Estimate: $60/90,000
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Bob Kuhn (1920-2007), Resting Cat, acrylic on board, 22 x 42” Estimate: $250/300,000 Friedrich Wilhelm Kuhnert (1865-1926), Brüllender Löwe, oil on canvas, 66¼ x 111½” Estimate: $175/275,000
AUCTION PREVIEW
Top to bottom: Victor Higgins (1884-1949), New Mexico Sky, ca. 1922-23, oil on canvas, 24 x 27” Estimate: $175/275,000
record of $50,000 or better post-recession. Top Tier artists are: William Acheff, John Banovich, Carl Brenders, Ken Carlson, Jenness Cortez, Martin Grelle, Z.S. Liang, Bonnie Marris, Tucker Smith, Mian Situ, and Morgan Weistling. A $10,000 cash prize will be awarded to the artist whose work is of significant merit, as determined by a threeperson jury: Peter Hassrick, Director Emeritus & Senior Scholar, Buffalo Bill Center of the West; Jerry Smith, Ph.D., Curator of American & Western American Art, Phoenix Art Museum; and Adam Duncan Harris, Ph.D., Petersen Curator of Art & Research, National Museum of Wildlife Art. The award will be announced prior to Saturday’s auction, during which all Top Tier paintings will be sold. “What differentiates the Top Tier from other juried competitions is there will be three academics from the museum field who will judge this competition rather than a peoples’ choice,” Hofmann notes.
Jackson Hole Art Auction
Where: Center for the Arts, 265 S. Cache, Jackson, WY 83001 Thomas Moran (1837-1926), Devil’s Tower, oil on canvas, 20½ x 16¼” Estimate: $1.2/2 million
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Information: (866) 549-9278, www.jacksonholeartauction.com
Jackson Hole
When: September 13, 2014
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