This year’s edition of the Art of the West sale, hosted by Santa Fe Art Auction, will feature nearly 450 lots of fine Western artworks that celebrate the region’s rich heritage. Anticipating the Rodeo de Santa Fe each year, this popular sale foregrounds the rugged and wild spirit of the West with works by some of the area’s most influential artists, both classic and contemporary.
Billy Schenck, Skies Dashing About the Mesas, 1996, oil on canvas, 46 x 38 in. Estimate: 12/18,000
During the upcoming sale, collectors will find an impressive range of artwork, including historic pieces by Robert Daughters, Forrest Moses, Frank Applegate, Sheldon Parsons, Oleg Stavrowsky, Carlos Vierra, Alfred Morang and Louis Leon Ribak, as well as paintings by contemporary Western artists like Billy Schenck, David Barbero, Terri Kelly Moyers, Fran Larsen, Kim Wiggins, Malcolm Furlow, Gary Ernest Smith and Darren Vigil Gray. The auction will also offer a quality selection of bronzes, including sculpture by Carrie Fell, Gib Singleton, Dave McGary, Kim Seyesnem Obrzut, Glenna Goodacre, Dan Ostermiller and Herb Mignery.
Oleg Stavrowsky (1927-2020), Stop Look and Listen, oil on canvas, 22 x 18 in. Estimate: $4/6,000
In the realm of contemporary paintings, look to works like Schenck’s 1996 oil Skies Dashing About the Mesas, depicting clouds stretching across a desert sky with a saguaro cactus in the foreground. The piece is expected to sell for $12,000 to $18,000. “Pioneer of the ‘Western Pop’ movement, Bill Schenck stands as one of the most iconic Western artists of the 20th and 21st centuries,” says Gillian Blitch, president of Santa Fe Art Auction. “Skies Dashing About the Mesas is a dynamic painting that showcases the artist’s distinctive style, fusing Pop Art aesthetics with a photorealist sensibility. Schenck is a longtime resident of New Mexico whose work is held in over 50 museums as well as major private collections throughout the world.”
Forrest Moses (1934-2021), Desert Water at Abiquiu #3, oil on linen, 30 x 48 in. Estimate: $8/12,000
In addition, Gary Ernest Smith’s illustrative oil Western Homestead has a presale estimate of $3,000 to $6,000; Thomas Quinn’s 1999 watercolor Summer Passages is expected to bring in $5,000 to $10,000; and Forrest Moses’ painterly Desert Water at Abiquiu #3 is estimated at $8,000 to $12,000.
Kim Seyesnem Obrzut (Hopi), Untitled (Hopi Maiden), 2012, bronze, ed. 39 of 40, 8¾ x 12 x 10 in. Estimate: $3/5,000
Among the sculptural highlights in the sale is a 2012 bronze of a Hopi maiden by Hopi artist Kim Seyesnem Obrzut, molded in the artist’s distinct style, estimated to fetch between $3,000 and $5,000. A more abstract sculpture is Carrie Fell’s bronze Line Dancer, featuring a cowboy with impossibly large chaps, estimated at $5,000 to $7,000.
The Art of the West auction will take place in Santa Fe on Tuesday, May 5, and Wednesday, May 6. —
Santa Fe Art Auction’s Art of the West sale
May 5-6, 2026
Santa Fe Art Auction
932 Railfan Road, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(505) 954-5858
www.santafeartauction.com
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