Carl Oscar Borg, the Swedish seaman who jumped ship to become a painter in California at the beginning of the 20th century, went to his mailbox in August of 1909 and found a curious letter from Phoebe Hearst, the mother of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. “I am writing to ask if you will come to my mountain home near Shasta and stay until Sept. 12th,” Hearst wrote. “There are many lovely places where I think you will enjoy sketching.”
Howie Alper, left, with John Coleman in front of Warrior Spirit, Crazy Horse at Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West.
Borg, who had not yet discovered the Southwest at that point, took her up on the offer. When he arrived, he quickly realized he had not only met a new friend, but he had also gained a vital new sponsor in his career.
Supporters like Hearst are valuable and somewhat rare in the art world. Edward S. Curtis had J.P. Morgan. Leonardo da Vinci had the Medici family. Pablo Picasso had Gertrude Stein. Michelangelo had several popes.
And John Coleman, the Arizona sculptor of Native American subjects, has Howie Alper and his wife Frankie. The couple crossed paths with the artist early in his career and were smitten by his bronzes. During a fateful trip to Prescott, Alper agreed to buy every single No. 1 cast from Coleman. That was in 1994, and Alper is still going strong today. The Alpers have nearly 150 Coleman bronzes in their collection, and they have agreed to donate all of them to Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of West.
1804, The Newcomers, 2012, bronze, 37 x 24 x 18 in.
“I’m 76 and Howie’s 96. In many ways, I see him as a father figure. It’s hard to measure how much of an impact he’s had on my career, but it’s certainly been a lot,” Coleman says. “Through his enthusiasm and his guidance, he’s allowed me to grow and be successful. Everyone needs someone like him in their life, and then I realized how lucky I was because there’s not many people like him.”
“We have an unusual relationship,” Alper adds. “It’s mutually beneficial. He’s enriched my life as much as he’ll say I enriched his, and that’s one reason we’re very good friends.”
Lives With Honor, 2008, bronze, 27½ x 25 x 17 in.
The 1994 meeting between John and Sue Coleman and Howie and Frankie Alper nearly never happened. The Alpers had a home in Chicago at that time, but they had family in Arizona. During a trip to Prescott, they arranged a time to drop by and see Coleman’s studio. They had heard about his work from Frankie’s daughter-in-law, who was familiar with some of the artists in Prescott.
“I had married Frankie in 1982, and around that time we went to the Johnson Art Gallery in Wickenburg, Arizona. I bought a bronze there and it was my first experience with Western art. Frankie liked the West because she came from a large ranch between Prescott and Wickenburg, so the West was her territory,” Alper says. “In 1994, I had two friends who collected bronzes by Dave McGary. I loved the way they looked, and I wanted someone to appreciate in that way. That’s how I found John’s work.”
Howie Alper waves his new hat in front of John Coleman.
Once at the Coleman home and studio, Alper was not only impressed with the art, but the man who created it. After their visit, Alper walked down the steps of Coleman’s historic Victorian home near Downtown Prescott and suddenly spun around to tell the artist he would buy every new bronze he made with one condition: he wanted every first cast. Coleman remembers being practically speechless.
The coda to that story is the deal they worked out on shipping. The Alpers offered a proposition with a coin flip: heads, the Colemans would pay for shipping, or tails, the Alpers would split the shipping costs with them. In his book, The Art of John Coleman: Spirit • Lives • Legends (full disclosure: I am the author of the book), the artist recalls the coin came up tails, but it hardly mattered. “Howie and Frankie moved to Arizona soon after that and we drove the bronzes to them,” John said. “I don’t think Howie has ever paid for shipping. He’s worth it.”
The Healer, bronze, 34 x 12½ x 10in.
Since that time, Alper has purchased 145 Coleman bronzes, including numerous monuments. All of them, except for a handful of pieces that predate their agreement, are Cast No. 1. Alper has even gone back to acquire older pieces that escaped him.
“About a year ago, Sue Coleman emailed me and said one of her collectors had contacted her about a piece. They said, ‘Howard Alper may have missed this one.’ What Sue sent me was an eBay listing for a sculpture called Creation Passing, with a young girl and hands above her head as if she’s receiving a blessing. When I bought one, all I could get was a Cast No. 6,” he says. “So here it is 30 years later and No. 1 appears on eBay. I contacted the owner and negotiated for the piece. I bought it somewhere between his asking price and my initial offer. But now I have No. 1. Funny story.”
Mystic Smoke and Sacred Arrows, 2010, bronze, 39 x 19 x 16 in.
This kind of collecting from the Alpers is not unprecedented, but it’s extraordinarily rare, which makes it thrilling for both Coleman and the Alpers that the collection is going into a permanent collection in Arizona. Not only does it represent an entire collection of sculpture, but it also represents the body of work from one of the greats, Alper says. In 1994, he had no idea who Coleman would become. Imagine a scenario in which Alper is collecting every No. 1 cast and Coleman decides to go down a different path, stop making art altogether or, even worse, he starts making mediocre bronzes. For Alper, these what-if scenarios never entered his mind. “The detail and the beauty of his art, it was all there. I thought he was outstanding then, and he’s even better now,” he says. “I guess the part that surprises me now is that I didn’t know I was going to collect so many when I started with him. I didn’t have unlimited resources.”
Legacy, 2016, bronze, 20 x 8½ x 10 in.
Coleman and Alper are still very close, to the point that the sculptor allows his top collector to give him advice on his work and negotiate on his behalf, which happened recently when a monument, Victory! Plenty Coups, was placed at the Sigler Western Museum in Wickenburg, Arizona. Coleman finds his input and encouragement refreshing, so much so that he once brought Alper into one of his art workshops. “How do you find a collector? Well, you have to know what a collector looks like,” Coleman says. “So I had Howie join the class, and he gave his own seminar about the collecting part. He’s an inspiration to others.”
Two Ravens, 2014, bronze, 29 x 20 x 14 in.
And while Coleman’s work will live on for generations within Western art, Coleman’s friendship with Alper will be preserved within the collection at Western Spirit, which usually has 20 to 25 works on display at any time. Both men have encouraged the museum to loan the work to any museums that want it, so as much of the collection can be on view at the same time as possible.
“We’re proud that Western Spirit Museum is home to the world’s largest collection of John Coleman bronze sculptures, and we are deeply thankful to Howie and Frankie Alper for their incredible generosity,” says Todd Bankofier, CEO and executive director at Western Spirit. “Their donation of this collection will educate and inspire future generations for years to come.”
John and Sue Coleman, left, with Frankie and Howie Alper in 2016 at Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West.
One of the more amusing aspects of this story is the rest of the Alper art collection: art from Asia and Africa, Mayan art, and eclectic mixture of other items. Notice what isn’t listed? Other Western art.
“Just John Coleman,” Alper says. “The goal of my collection is to increase the prominence of his work so that he’ll take his place among the likes Russell and Remington. He’s already right there with them, which is only going to increase over time. He’s one of the greats.” —
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