Center for the Arts, Jackson, WY September 14
Offering works for every collector of the art of the American West—with special emphasis on wildlife, landscape and Indigenous subjects—the 18th annual Jackson Hole Art Auction will be held on Saturday, September 14, at the Center for the Arts in downtown Jackson, Wyoming. The auction happens live and online, and all works are on view prior to the sale preview in the auction showroom located at 130 E. Broadway in Jackson from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Topping a list of five major works by American wildlife master Bob Kuhn is DISTANT SOUNDS (est. $180,000-$250,000) featuring a pair of muscular wolves on a hilltop who have been alerted and wheel as one to try to discern what they have heard. THREE TROPHY RAMS depicts a hunter’s fantasy (est. $75,000-$100,000), a fox and hare spar in THEY DON’T EAT POST TOASTIES (est. $60,000-$90,000), a coyote seeks snacks in THE RUSTLE OF THE MICE (est. $75,000-$100,000), and African elephants circle up in PROTECTING THE FLANKS (est. $80,000-$120,000).
A striking Gerald Balciar sculpture, CANYON KING (est. $50,000-$75,000), depicts a cougar carved from a single block of Colorado Yule marble, while “Big Four” wildlife artist Carl Rungius’s stunning oil painting THE CHALLENGE (est. $250,000-$350,000) features a bull elk bugling to signal a gauntlet thrown in the face of the “king” of the distant herd. The Rungius features the artist’s signature unerring sense of animal anatomy and artistic composition, combining realism and impressionism to create a painterly masterpiece.
Paintings by the late great Ed Mell and perennial favorite Curt Walters highlight the Western landscapes on offer in the auction. Mell’s 1983 canvas STANDING ORANGE ROCKS, estimated at $60,000 to $90,000, finds the artist abstracting the geometry of the desert and sky as he pursued his personal, idiosyncratic style. Walters, meanwhile, finds himself in the long tradition of great interpreters of one of the continent’s most iconic natural wonders with his painting of the Grand Canyon, WINTER GRANDEUR REVEALED, with a presale estimate of $40,000 to $60,000.
Among a rich array of artworks depicting Indigenous subjects, Martin Grelle’s WINTER QUEST (est. $150,000-$250,000) places us firmly in the beauty of the moment when a small party of Natives crosses a sun-dappled, snow-flanked stream on an early or late winter day.
In the realm of portraiture, Paul Pletka’s MOHTAWAS (MEANING – WITHOUT A LOCK OF HAIR ON THE FOREHEAD), with an estimate of $25,000 to $45,000, grafts the classic pose and palette of early painters of Native American portraits such as Charles Bird King and Karl Bodmer with the exaggerated realism of 20th-century artists like Ivan Albright to create a profound and captivating image of a warrior. It is as if King or Bodmer wished to portray nobility, but the anger and ferocity of the subject overmastered the artists’ wish. That the two-fingered gesture may be a sign for “hunt” reinforces the power of the subject over both artist and viewer.
By contrast, the subject of John Nieto’s portrait HIS OWN CAVALRY JACKET (est. $12,000-$18,000) and the artist’s successful adaptation of Western, modernist facture to his own purposes tell a tale of not one but two victories won. —James D. Balestrieri
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This story appeared in the August/September 2024 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Subscribe today to read every issue in its entirety.
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