Santa Fe Art Auction's Signature Sale

Session One will commence on Friday, November 7th, with offerings of over 100 lots spanning works on paper and Native American jewelry. Collectors can find a wide variety of paintings, prints + multiples, and drawings, from the timeless etchings and woodcuts of Gene Kloss, Gustave Baumann, and Howard Norton Cook to original works by Emil Bisttram, Andrew Dasburg, Gerard Delano, Quincy Tahoma, Pablita Velarde, T. C. Cannon, Ed Mell, and Luis Jiménez. An edition of the Indian Self-Rule Portfolio will be on offer, a suite of prints issued in 1983 and recognized as a collaborative milestone in 20th Century Native American printmaking—featuring works by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, N. Scott Momaday, Darren Vigil Gray, and David P. Bradley. Additional highlights include exquisite Native jewelry works, encompassing concho belts, cuffs, squash blossom necklaces, and a superb necklace by Chugach Aleut artist Denise Wallace, titled Hopi Woman (10,000 – 15,000). 

Highlighting Native American arts, Western paintings, and photography, Session Two will begin the auction on Saturday, November 8th. Offerings include a fine selection of Diné (Navajo) rugs and blankets, historic katsinam, and Native sculptural works and carvings, followed by bronze sculptures from Dave McGary and Gib Singleton. Several excellent Edward S. Curtis goldtones will be on the block, including his Prayer to the Stars, ca. 1909, a luminous print in a rare, large format of 14 x 17 inches (15,000 – 25,000). 

Also featured will be an excellent range of pottery works, including blackware vessels by Maria Martinez, Popovi Da, Tammy Garcia, and Margaret Tafoya, as well as early Acoma polychrome pots and a unique, sculptural wedding vase by Lisa Holt + Harlan Reano. Session Two continues with a strong lineup of paintings, including works by Helen Hardin, E. A. Burbank, Burt Geer Phillips, Raymond Jonson, Agnes Tait, Ila McAfee, Louisa McElwain, Joseph Imhof, Robert Daughters, Alfred Morang, and William Cather Hook. Not to be missed are a selection of Western bronze sculptures by Veryl Goodnight, Glenna Goodacre, Roxanne Swentzell, and more.

The Signature Sale will culminate with Session Three on Saturday afternoon. Santa Fe Art Auction is privileged to present European modernist works from the personal collection of John P. Coolidge, professor and director of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University from 1948 to 1971. One of the most influential figures in American museum history, Professor Coolidge was instrumental in reshaping the role of the museum in postwar America, and collected some of the most important names in modern art. This session will begin with paintings by Kurt Schwitters, Yves Tanguy, Alberto Burri, Leonor Fini, and Esteban Vicente from the Coolidge Cost Collection, followed by important modern and contemporary pieces by Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Tom Joyce, Donald Moffett, Beatrice Mandelman, and Jasper Johns.

A further highlight from this session includes edition 16 of Tamarind Institute’s Suite Fifteen, 1975 – 1977, an incredibly rare portfolio, one of which is held by the National Gallery of Art. Albuquerque’s Tamarind has long been renowned for its rigorous artist-printer collaborations, and this portfolio was conceived to mark its fifteenth anniversary—a collaboration between artists who had worked with Tamarind across its first decade and a half, representing a unique historical moment in printmaking history. Bultos by many of New Mexico’s most respected santeros will follow, as well as further offerings of Western paintings: collectors can find works by members of the Taos Society of Artists including Oscar E. Berninghaus, Joseph Henry Sharp, Bert Geer Phillips, Catharine Critcher, and Gerald Cassidy, as well as significant paintings by Willard Ayer Nash, Leon Shulman Gaspard, Thomas Hart Benton, Albert Bierstadt, and Ralph Blakelock. 

The Signature Live Sale will conclude with exceptional paintings and sculpture by some of the most respected Native American artists of the 20th and 21st Centuries, such as Tony Abeyta, Earl Biss, Allan Houser, C. J. Wells, Dan Namingha, Emmi Whitehorse, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Fritz Scholder’s Quake Fault, ca. 1970 is a monumental, abstract, and highly nuanced work by the artist, which is expected to garner significant attention at auction with an estimate of 70,000 – 100,000.

Santa Fe Art Auction will present Session One on Friday, November 7th at 1:00 pm, and Sessions Two and Three on Saturday, November 8th at 9:30 am and 1:00 pm. New Mexico catered refreshments will be offered throughout the three days of the sale.  A preview reception will be held on Wednesday, November 5th from 5 – 7 pm, with an open house on Friday, November 7th, from 9 am – 6:30 pm. 

Since its inception over 30 years ago, Santa Fe Art Auction now stands as the oldest, most venerable auction house in the Southwest, positioned in the contemporary Baca Railyard District of Santa Fe--the earliest capital city in the United States and long regarded as the region's largest art hub. With 16,000 square feet of modern open showroom space, Santa Fe Art Auction continues to embrace new technologies, expand its in-house expertise, and offer increasingly compelling collecting opportunities at auction.