Dear Friends,

This year, as we selected the artwork to present in our summer 2023 catalogue, what quickly became apparent was the strong individuality of our featured artists. Each sought to capture a moment, a landscape, a culture in time. Moreover, while their images may fall into categories such as “Western” or “Southwestern,” the appeal of this artwork is much broader. Perhaps it is clichéd to refer to such artists as seminal, but over the years many have become just that. As such, the title Transcending Time seemed most fitting for this beautiful collection.

A case in point is our cover illustration, a work by Nicolai Fechin. His extraordinary rendering of the Taos Pueblo captures a lively moment at a place undeniably picturesque, but also historically significant. It is rare, one of the few examples of a Fechin Pueblo scene. As such the painting has been recently exhibited at the Taos Art Museum at Fechin House and Scottsdale’s Museum of the West.

It’s not often that we can offer a painting with single-family provenance, yet for this catalogue we are featuring several. The two brilliant desert redrock scenes by Edgar Payne came directly from the artist and descended through the family. Likewise, a quintessential 1906 Charles M. Russell painting –cowboys riding over a sage-covered plain – was also purchased from the artist and treasured by one family ever since.

Other significant works to highlight include three paintings by Frank Tenney Johnson. Two are nocturnes – nighttime scenes – an aesthetic scheme he explored frequently and made popular. We are also excited to include two watercolors of the Grand Canyon by Gunnar Widforss, a painter who has become more closely associated with this beautiful place than any other artist. Devoting much of his career to the complexities of that monument of ancient rock, Widforss never tired of its challenges. Thomas Moran, who was the first to offer some of the most glorious western landscapes to the American public, had a faithful partner in printmaker Louis Prang. Recognized as a master, Prang achieved unrivaled heights with his chromolithographs of fifteen Moran watercolors, two of which we feature in these pages. Julian Scott, hired to create images of Native American life for the 1890 U.S. census, submitted a panorama of scenes including landscapes, village life, and portraits, ultimately solidifying a well-deserved reputation as an eloquent artist of Pueblo peoples.

We have always regarded Gustave Baumann and Edward S. Curtis as icons of their respective genres. For the catalogue, we’ve chosen five of Baumann’s masterfully rendered color woodblock prints and three of Curtis’ most memorable photographs, including “Cañon de Chelly” and “Before the Storm.”

Finally, we celebrate the works of several important artists who enriched New Mexico’s heritage: Victor Higgins, E. Martin Hennings, Joseph Fleck, Gene Kloss, Emil Bisttram, Blanche Chloe Grant, Maynard Dixon, and also Fremont Ellis – one of Santa Fe’s famed Los Cinco Pintores.

We appreciate your continued interest and hope you will enjoy viewing these works, which never cease to inspire us.

Richard Lampert, July 2023