More than $3.2 million in sales achieved at the 2025 Prix de West opening weekend.
June 20 and 21, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum hosted the art sale weekend of its 53rd annual Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale. The event, which is the museum’s largest annual fundraiser to help support exhibitions and education programming, achieved more than $3.2 million in sales.
Included among the festivities of the opening event is the annual awards ceremony, which is one of the most prestigious in Western art circles. Two of the top honors from the weekend went to Utah-based artist James Morgan, who has been participating in the show for 34 years. His oil on linen painting WHITE ON WHITE was honored with the 2025 Purchase Award, which is selected by the Prix de West committee to purchase for the museum’s permanent collection.
The painting shows Morgan’s mastery of impressionistic style, as well as his skill in one of the most challenging artistic feats: painting a scene that is layered with white hues. In this case, the painting depicts a snow-covered marsh and a pair of trumpeter swans, where the light and shadows of the composition elevate the scene.
Morgan’s entire body of work for the show, which also included the three painting CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK / GEOLOGY 101; THE SEED STORE; and DAPPLED, was recognized with the Robert Lougheed Memorial Award. The prize goes to the best display of three or more works, as chosen by the participating Prix artists.
The Prix also recognizes artists with prizes representing specific mediums and genres of artwork.
The Frederic Remington Painting Award was bestowed to EAGLE’S WITNESS, by Huihan Liu; the Donald Teague Memorial Award, for an exceptional work of paper, was awarded to Joseph Bohler for his watercolor ANCIENT STORY TELLERS; and the James Earle Fraser Sculpture Award was given to John Coleman for his monumental bronze, VICTORY! PLENTY COUPS, measuring over 9 feet in height.
Steve Kestrel’s bronze OVER THE RAINBOW was awarded the Major General and Mrs. Don D. Pittman Wildlife Award. The Express Ranches Great American Cowboy Award, for the finest portrayal of cowboy subject matter, this year went to Bruce Greene for his sculpture THE HORSEMAN’S LOOP. Receiving the Wilson Hurly Memorial Award for Landscape was John Encinias for the oil on linen painting ON A WINTER’S DAY.
Patrons who are in attendance during the opening weekend have the chance to recognize their favorite work of art with the Jackie L. Coles Buyers’ Choice Award. For 2025, those who voted selected Curt Walters’s large Grand Canyon painting THUNDEROUS RESOUND: PLATEAU POINT, which measured a robust 50 by 60 inches.
Unsold art remains on exhibit and available to purchase through August 3.
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