Oscar Howe hits six-figure numbers, twice
Oscar Howe, the Yanktonai Dakota painter known for his stunning twists on cubism, produced staggering results at the June 6 Art of the American West sale in Monrovia, California. The auction, presented by John Moran Auctioneers, realized more than $876,000 in sales, but the stars of the auction were two Howe works, “Camte waste, no no wa” (“Good Heart Forever”) and “Koda, Nape Ciuza” (“Friend, I Shake Your Hand”).
Prior to the sale, Howe’s top three auction records were $58,000, $25,000 and $20,000. The John Moran works each estimated at $12,000 to $18,000. Fireworks were not expected at the sale. But then the pieces, both gouache on paper, took off.
First came “Koda, Nape Ciuza” (“Friend, I Shake Your Hand”), which flew past its estimates before closing at $225,000, breaking the Howe auction record. Then, one lot, later, was “Camte waste, no no wa” (“Good Heart Forever”), which soared even further to $325,000, more than 18 times its high estimates.
“We indeed set a record in yesterday’s Art of the American West auction for the two Oscar Howe works we had,” the auction house noted after the sale. “In fact, we smashed the existing record by over $150,000, and then we broke our own new record by over $100,000 just a lot later.”
Hayden Hunt, specialist at the auction house, remarked that the Howes received a lot of attention in the weeks leading up to the sale and there were murmurs that they would achieve new records for the artist. “The strong and exciting bidding for these works shows that the market is red hot for contemporary works by Western Artists,” Hunt says, “and especially Howe, who, as a Native American, has long been overlooked by the art market at large.” —
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