Capping off an exciting month of March in the Western art world was the Briscoe Western Art Museum’s annual Night of Artistsexhibition and sale in San Antonio, Texas.
Alfredo Rodriguez, To the Diggings, Gold Rush 1849, oil on linen, 30 x 48”
The event, which takes place in the heart of the Texas city along the famous San Antonio Walk, was well attended with collectors coming from all parts of the country to view and purchase 270 works from more than 80 artists. Featuring a wide variety of activities, including a live auction and lavish party, Night of Artists’ 2023 show brought in more $2.6 million, which includes $619,000 from the live auction alone. Those numbers make it the most successful Night of Artists in its 23-year history. Top sellers at the auction included George Hallmark’s Sombres de San Miguel that sold for $37,000; Bruce Lawes’ eagle painting Double Take, which realized $46,000; and Don Oelze’s Distant Smoke, which achieved nearly $49,000.
In the by-draw bid, sales again remained high with a sell-through rate at 68 percent. Purchases were still being made long after the opening weekend, with one collector returning to the museum to buy eight works that were still available.
Todd Connor, The Widow and the Widower, oil on canvas, 36 x 30”
“That kind of interest in the show is always important to us,” says museum president and CEO Michael Duchemin. “We’re also seeing our collectors evolving in really exciting ways. We’re having newer and younger collectors coming in and they are seeing how great the artwork is and supporting the show in exciting ways. And we also didn’t have some of our big heavy hitters here this year, including artists like John Coleman, Martin Grelle and Mark Maggiori, and even still we’re approaching record numbers with the show. It [illustrates] that the show is on track and the market is healthy.”
The opening weekend also featured two panels hosted by Michael Clawson, executive editor of Western Art Collector. Invited guests included artists Mary Ross Buchholz, Don Oelze and others. One guest was Beau Alexander, director at Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles, who started a discussion about the role that galleries play in the market.
“Beau was a lightning rod and he expressed a lot of things that made people start to think about the market. In the Western world there is a lot of backslapping, so much that there can sometimes not be enough critical evaluation, so I really appreciated Beau’s comments,” Duchemin says.
Award winners for the show were Alfredo Rodriguez, who won the Sam Houston Award for Painting for his work To the Diggings, Gold Rush 1849; Jason Scull won the James Bowie Award for Sculpture; Jeremy Lipking won the David Crocket Award for Artists’ Choice; and Mary Ross Buchholz won the William B. Travis Award for Patron’s Choice, which was sponsored by Western Art Collector. The most prized award, the museum purchase award, was given to Todd Connor for his work The Widow and the Widower.
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