Open Doors

The Santa Fe Art Auction breaks in a new facility with a $1.8 million art auction.

Lots of new features at this year’s Santa Fe Art Auction: new facility, new bidding platform and lots of new opportunities for collectors to own a part of the West during the winter sale in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Fritz Scholder (1937-2005), Untitled (Buffalo Spirit), acrylic on canvas, 80 x 70” Estimate: $80/120,000 SOLD: $146,250

“Santa Fe Art Auction was delighted to open the new doors to its massively expanded permanent facility at the Baca Railyard to a packed house on November 9, with well over 200 registered bidders in attendance and more than 1,100 registered online across 20 countries,” says Gillian Blitch, president at Santa Fe Art Auction. “While the auction house launched a new website with its own proprietary online bidding platform this year, allowing santafeartauction.com internet bidders the same preferential buyer’s premium as floor bidders, it continues to be available on major online platforms Invaluable, LiveAuctioneers and Bidsquare, and saw remarkable internet sales of some 60 percent of gross sales of $1.8 million and a sell-through rate, including post-auction sales, of 90 percent.”Joseph Henry Sharp (1859-1953), Untitled (New Mexico Portrait), oil on canvas, 16 x 20” Estimate: $50/80,000 SOLD: $40,950

Janet Lippincott (1918-2007), New Mexico Landscape, ca. 1969, oil on canvas, 48 x 48” Estimate: $15/25,000 SOLD: $35,100Lots from this year’s sale came from an assortment of private collections as well as the Patricia Janis Broder Collection, which achieved auction records for distinguished American Indian artists including Pop Chalee and Oscar Howe, whose abstract work Medicine Man sold within estimates for $29,250. The sale also featured a substantial group of Western American women artists, of which Janet Lippincott’s New Mexico Landscape broke an artist world record when it sold for $35,100, above a high estimate of $25,000.

The top lot was Fritz Scholder’s Untitled (Buffalo Spirit), estimated at $80,000 to $120,000, that sold for $146,250. It is now the second-best selling piece for Scholder at auction.Bob Wade, Pancho Villa, 1988, C-print color photograph, 26½ x 47¼” Estimate: $500/1,000 SOLD: $38,025

Other top lots were Joseph Henry Sharp’s Untitled (New Mexico Portrait) (est. ($50/80,000) that sold for $40,950 and Bob Wade’s C-print color photograph Pancho Villa. The 1988 photograph was expected to sell between $500 and $1,000, but sold for $38,025. Other top-selling lots were by Susan Hertel, George Carlson and Russell Chatham.—

Top 10 Lots: Santa Fe Art Auction, November 9, 2019 (with buyer’s premium)

Artist Title Low /High Estimate SOLD
Fritz Scholder Untitled (Buffalo Spirit) $80/120,000 $146,250
Joseph Henry Sharp Untitled (New Mexico Portrait) $50/80,000 $40,950
Bob Wade Pancho Villa $500/1,000 $38,025
Janet Lippincott New Mexico Landscape $15/25,000 $35,100
Susan Hertel Untitled (Interior with Dogs) $20/25,000 $33,345
Oscar Howe Medicine Man $25/35,000 $29,250
George Carlson Stillness in Moonlight $50/70,000 $29,250
Russell Chatham Evening Near Springdale $8/12,000 $29,250
Joseph Henry Sharp Chizchile, Navajo, 1905 $40/60,000 $26,325
Janet Lippincott Summer $8/12,000 $23,400