The opening weekend of the Prix de West was highlighted by strong sales and the announcement of the 2023 award-winning art.
Over the weekend of June 9 and 10, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City was the place to be for collectors of Western art as it held the opening festivities for its annual Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale. Now in its 51st year, the two-days event was marked by the fixed-price sale, a live auction, artist demonstrations, seminars and the announcement of the award-winning artwork. To expand its reach beyond the museum walls, there were virtual live-streaming options that allowed people from anywhere to experience aspects of the show.
According to the museum, the Prix is its “largest annual fundraiser, hosting a live auction and a fixed-price sale that helps to fund Museum exhibitions and family programming.” The sale this year included almost 300 works by 92 artists including regular exhibitors like Curt Walters, Carrie L. Ballantyne, Jeremy Lipking and Kyle Polzin. A handful of newcomers joined the group this year, including Daniel J. Keys, Gladys Roldan-de-Moras, Don Oelze and Peregrine O’Gormley. The night of the sale, the museum sold $3,067,100 in art.
Pat Fitzgerald, president and CEO of the Cowboy, says, “Prix de West is such a significant event because it showcases diverse interpretations of the West by some of the most talented artists in the world. Every work of art displayed in the show tells a story, and it’s amazing to see a visual representation of the artists’ experiences and relationship to this very special culture.”
With such a diverse array of subject matter and high quality of techniques in the show, this year the Prix de West Committee had its work cut out for them in selecting the award-winning work. The top honor of the event, the Purchase Award, went to sculptor Walter Matia for his 38-inch bronze MOLLY IS A WORKING GIRL that will now reside in the museum’s permanent collection. Along with that distinction, Matia received the $25,000 purchase prize, a $5,000 award and the Prix de West medallion sponsored by Roberta M. Eldridge Miller.
Matia spoke of winning the award and his relationship with the West during the Saturday evening celebration dinner. He said:
“The West is a lot of things to a lot of people. To me, the West has always been behind a bird dog or in a stream with a fly rod or in some marsh looking at birds with binoculars. This is a part of what the modern West is. When the committee chose this piece, I was really happy because it spoke to a part of the West that I don’t think is always acknowledged: the role of hunters and fishermen, who opened up the West and are now conserving it.”
In her first time participating in the Prix, Roldan-de-Moras received the Frederic Remington Painting Award for her colorful work CHINAS POBLANAS, which sold during the fixed-price sale for $24,500. John Coleman received the top sculpture honor for his monumental bronze WARRIOR SPIRIT, CRAZY HORSE that stood over 8 feet: the James Earl Fraser Sculpture Award for exceptional artistic merit. Its commanding presence was also a standout to attendees, earning Coleman’s work another accolade with the Buyers’ Choice Award.
In the category awards sculpture continued to show its strength with Tim Cherry’s bronze AGAINST THE WIND receiving the Major General and Mrs. Don D. Pittman Wildlife Award and Blair Buswell earning the Express Ranches Great American Cowboy Award for finest portrayal of cowboy subject matter for his three bronzes in the show.
Joseph Bohler’s watercolor PRAIRIE ROSE, which sold during the fixed-price sale for $8,600, took home the Donald Teague Memorial Award for exceptional work on paper, while the landscape prize—The Wilson Hurley Memorial Award—went to Len Chmiel for his painting WEST I KNOW: SUMMARIZING SOLITUDE, UTAH. Rounding out the honors for the show was the Robert Lougheed Memorial Award, which went to Huihan Liu for the four paintings he exhibited at the event. Each work, including the 30-inch square painting HEADING TO CEREMONY, sold during the Saturday evening sale.
Art lovers interested in viewing the Prix de West can do so online or at the museum. All unsold artwork remains on display and available to purchase through August 6.
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