Museums have a reverent quality. Those great halls and quiet galleries, they are grand cathedrals to celebrate our shared art and culture. Museums also call out to our past, mark the present and foretell the future. They are monuments to who we are, but also who we will become. 

Museums are sacred institutions. And one of those great institutions in the Western art world is the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma. Its most important annual event is the Prix de West, which it has hosted since 1973. This year’s show, the 50th Prix de West, will celebrate the museum, the artists who fill its galleries and the genre of Western art itself. Howard Post, Saleyard Crew, oil, 40 x 30”

“The show exemplifies so much that we love, and this year will be especially important as we celebrate 50 years of the Prix de West,” says Dan Corazzi, who is the committee chair for the event and one of the key organizers. “And from what I’ve seen from the artists, they are making every effort to mark the 50 years with some remarkable pieces that speak to the high level of art that the Prix de West presents every year.”

The event kicks off on June 2 with the opening of the Prix de West exhibition, but the big celebration will take place June 17 and 18 as artists, collectors and guests meet in Oklahoma City to participate in the sale and its complementary events, including various seminars, receptions and awards ceremonies. John Coleman, Crazy Horse, 1876, oil on canvas, 48 x 29”

Glenn Dean, They Paused Under the Monolith as the Sun Slowly Faded in the West, oil, 24 x 24”Seminars include “Rarified Atmospheres” with artists Len Chmiel, Steve Kestrel and Randal M. Dutra on June 17 at 9:30 a.m., which will then be followed at 1 p.m. by “Personal Reflections: From NAWA to Prix de West” with Edward J. Fraughton, an artist who was at the first event in 1973 when it was associated with the National Academy of Western Art. Then, at 2 p.m., Martin Grelle will lead a discussion titled “The Journey.” On June 18, starting at 10 a.m., Greg Beecham will host an artist talk. Beecham won the 2021 Prix de West Purchase Award. Following that talk, there will be art demonstrations from Scott Burdick, Andrew Peters, Scott Tallman Powers, Sandy Scott and Matt Smith. Ed Mell, Canyon Flow, oil on linen, 18 x 22”

Other artists in attendance represent a who’s who of the Western art world: Bill Anton, John Banovich, Tom Browning, George Carlson, G. Russell Case, John Coleman, C. Michael Dudash, Josh Elliott, Teresa Elliott, Bruce Greene, Logan Maxwell Hagege, George Hallmark, Oreland Joe, T. Allen Lawson, Z.S. Liang, Jeremy Lipking, Ed Mell, Dean Mitchell, John Moyers, Terri Kelly Moyers, Kyle Polzin, Howard Post, Grant Redden, R.S. Riddick, Sandy Scott, Curt Walters, Morgan Weistling and many others. Kyle Polzin, Rough Passage, oil on canvas, 31 x 50”

Tim Cox, A Noble Breed, oil on Masonite, 24 x 36”

In addition to the 2022 commemorative bolo (this year made by Gerald Balciar) that is offered to special guests, and available for purchase in the gift shop, this year’s show will also feature a hardcover catalog that will examine the Prix de West and its epic 50-year run. Corazzi interviewed several artists for the book, and all heaped praise on the museum and its long-running show, as well as pointed out the importance of a show of this caliber. 

“Prix de West is such an important part of my life as an artist,” Terri Kelly Moyers tells Corazzi. “It is always an honor to do work that will hang in such an important museum for the run of the show. It allows us to create major pieces that will be viewed by a great deal of people—collectors, museum visitors, students of art.”Charles Fritz, The Acoma Faithful at Sunrise, oil, 24 x 20”

Grelle, who has won the museum purchase award twice, told Corazzi that winning the coveted award the first time was one of the major highlights of his career. “Receiving the Prix de West Purchase Award was huge for me! I had been keeping up with the Prix de West awards since they first started them in 1973 (the year I graduated from high school) and to hear them announce that I had won the award at the 2002 show was overwhelming. It is something I will never forget, and it was the same feelings all over again when I won it the second time just three years later,” Grelle says. “Receiving the award immediately had an impact on my career, and along with being voted into the Cowboy Artists of America in 1995, which was also my first year to be invited to the Prix de West, it was one of the most significant events in my life as a professional artist.”Logan Maxwell Hagege, Sagebrush Grows Free, oil on canvas, 44 x 68”

Josh Elliott, Summer Toil, oil, 30 x 36”

Eric Bowman, Riders at Eventide, oil, 42 x 50”This year’s artists are celebrating the anniversary by bringing a phenomenal collection of work. One of those artists who pulled out all the stops is Josh Elliott, who produced a themed body of work with each painting titled after a season. “I tried something a bit different. The four pieces are related to each other and create a sort of story arc. I am calling the group the Seasons of the Big Sky suite,” Elliott says. “My intention was to convey some sentiments from the Bible and the idea that for everything there is a season. There are elements of symbolism and some of the titles have references to concepts in the Bible. The order I will have them hung at the show is Summer Toil, Autumn Rest, Winter Mourning and Spring Renewal.”Greg Beecham, Double Vision, oil on linen, 30 x 40”

Bill Anton, She’ll Be Comin Around the Mountain, oil on linen, 35 x 35”

Bill Anton will be showing a classic image of a cowboy chasing down a stray cow in his work She’ll Be Comin’ Around the Mountain. “Some unbranded cattle become expert escape artists and wild as deer,” he says of the work. “This cowboy knows her hangouts and won’t miss this time!”

Tim Cox will also be showing a large and important work titled A Noble Breed, showing a rider with a group of horses under ethereal light that cuts through the clouds. “I enjoy painting horses and skies probably more than anything else I paint,” Cox says. “When I started this painting I had a completely different sky in this painting; it still had the rays of light, but they were going down instead of rising. It didn’t emit the mood I was looking for so I scraped it all off and did this one. This is what I wanted to create with that feeling. I wanted to leave it up to the viewer which was the noble breed—the horses or the cowboy.”John Banovich, Under a Wolf Moon, oil on Belgian linen, 44 x 100”

Tim Cherry, Against the Wind, bronze, ed. of 18, 20 x 11 x 4”

All of the work in the Prix de West will be available for purchase on June 18 with a fixed-price, by-draw sale, as well as a live auction. —

Prix de West
June 2-August 7, 2022
Art Sale Weekend, June 17-18
Seminars and luncheon, June 17, 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
Cocktail reception, June 17, 6 p.m.
Artist talk with Greg Beecham, June 18, 10 a.m.
Seminar luncheon and awards presentation, June 18, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Artist demonstrations, June 18, 1-2:30 p.m.
By-draw sale, June 18, 6 p.m.
Awards presentation, live auction and closing celebration dinner, June 18, 7 p.m.

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
1700 Northeast 63rd Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73111, (405) 478-2250
www.nationalcowboymuseum.org 

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