During a 1903 trip to New York City, Charlie and Nancy Russell were visiting artists Will Crawford and John Marchard when the sound of yelling voices and breaking glass filled the night air. Gunshots soon followed. Charlie, a true citizen of the Wild West and unfazed by the commotion, remarked, “Seems like old times.” The next morning, the Russells gazed up high at bullet holes in the windows, the only victims of what may have been a labor dispute. “Them fellers sure must have been shootin’ at tall men,” Russell said.
During my own trip to New York City in January, I suddenly found myself on 42nd Street near Sixth Avenue. This is where, according to Nancy Russell and actor William S. Hart, the Russells heard the late-night gunfight. It’s now the location of Bryant Park and the New York Public Library’s flagship Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. The city has changed so much that it’s impossible to imagine what Charlie and Nancy had seen from that same location 123 years ago.
I was in New York City for the auction of the William I. Koch Collection at Christie’s. Not only did the sale feature new world records for both Charlie Russell and Frederic Remington, the auction also achieved more than $84.1 million in sales, the most ever for a Western auction. In the days following the sale, as I visited galleries and shows in Manhattan, the talk of the art world was swirling around this sensational sale. Everyone suddenly wanted to talk about Western art, which achieved stunning results in, let’s face it, a challenging economy.
Christie’s was the latest sale, but it wasn’t the first: the last year has seen incredible results from auctions, museums, fairs and galleries in places like Jackson Hole, Scottsdale, Denver, San Antonio, Dallas, Santa Fe, Los Angeles and other locations. Dozens of new records, thousands of bidders, huge responses—the works. Western art is resilient. Whether you’re on horseback in the middle of the Mojave Desert or standing on 42nd Street in Manhattan, Western art is a vital part of American art’s past, present and future. You and I have known that for a long time, but now so do others.
Michael Clawson
Executive Editor
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