There was a sparkle on much of the Prix de West as it celebrated its 50th year at the Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. The show was a bit fancier. The artists pushed themselves just a little harder with their artwork. Even some of the rugged cowboy-types ditched their Wranglers and went black-tie for the evening. The red carpet was rolled out to mark a milestone.
On June 17, hundreds of visitors descended on the Oklahoma City museum for the opening weekend, which included receptions, art demos and several speakers, including Greg Beecham, who spoke about his career as a wildlife artist. The main event took place June 18 during the by-draw sale, followed by an auction that achieved more than $600,000 in the course of an hour. Top auction lots included works by Logan Maxwell Hagege and Kyle Polzin that realized more than $60,000, and a Bonnie Marris mountain lion painting sold for $130,000. Total overall sales for the weekend were $3.8 million.
Kyle Polzin, Rough Passage, oil on canvas, 31 x 50”Over at the by-draw sale, bids were strong and a number of artists performed exceptionally well, including Carrie Ballantyne, Beecham, Eric Bowman, Scott Burdick, G. Russell Case, Tim Cherry, John Coleman, Glenn Dean, C. Michael Dudash, Teresa Elliott, Charles Fritz, Walt Gonske, Martin Grelle, Georga Hallmark, Jeremy Lipking, Z.S. Liang, David Mann, Ed Mell, Robert Peters, Daniel Smith and Curt Walters. Nearly half of those artists completely sold out of their exhibited work.
The top award, the Prix de West Museum Purchase Award was given to Polzin for his painting Rough Passage. After his win, he sat for an episode of the American Art Collective podcast. “I’m pretty speechless right now, honestly, as it starts sinking in. I’ve been invited back [to the Prix de West] about 10 years now, and every time I show here, it feels like it’s my first time,” Polzin said after his win. “The artists that show here are icons to me. So to have been presented this award and to feel like I’ve made it…this is the big one…it seems surreal.”
Other award winners were Huihan Liu for the Frederic Remington Painting Award, T. Allen Lawson won the Wilson Hurley Memorial Award for landscape work and the Robert Lougheed Memorial Award for his body of submitted work, Steve Kestrel won the James Earle Fraser Sculpture Award, Thomas Blackshear II won the Express Ranches Great American Cowboy Award for his June Western Art Collector cover piece Two Americans of the Old West, Ron Kingswood won the Major General and Mrs. Don D. Pittman Wildlife Art Award, Dean Mitchell won the Donald Teague Memorial Award for work on paper, and Curt Walters won the Jackie L. Coles Buyers’ Choice Award for an exceptional painting of Shiprock in New Mexico. —
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