Santa Fe Art Auction presents its most anticipated event of the year with the two-day Signature Live Sale this November. Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the annual sale will offer nearly 300 outstanding lots that represent the best of Western and Native American art, with many historic works on the auction block. Santa Fe Art Auction was established in 1994 for a single, gallery-hosted auction each year. Since taking over as president in 2018, Gillian Blitch has helped transform the auction house into a standalone, state-of-the-art operation, featuring eight to 10 auctions per year.
Howard Norton Cook (1901-1980), Prismatic Night #1, 1951. Oil on canvas, 24 x 40¼ in. Estimate: $30/50,000
Among the historic works collectors can explore in this year’s Signature Live Sale is a gelatin silver photograph of Tony Lujan, shot by iconic photographer Ansel Adams. “Besides being a wonderful portrait in silver gelatin by one of the greatest photographers of the West in the 20th century, the subject captured here by Adams with such dignity is Tony Lujan, who famously married Mabel Dodge, possibly the most important patron of the arts in Southwestern art history,” Blitch explains. “Together, Mabel and Tony hosted every influential artist, poet and writer that visited Taos in the first half of the 20th century.” The photograph is expected to fetch between $5,000 and $8,000.
Ansel Adams (1902-1984), Tony Lujan. Gelatin silver photograph, 6¼ x 5 in. Estimate: $5/8,000
Other important lots of historic art in the upcoming sale include Howard Norton Cook’s 1951 oil Prismatic Night #1. The painting, featuring a series of geometric shapes that evoke the aesthetic of a mountainous landscape, has a presale estimate of $30,000 to $50,000.
Joseph Amadeus Fleck (1892-1977), Dona Teresa of Taos, ca. 1920. Oil on canvas, 301⁄8 x 253⁄8 in. Estimate: $5/10,000
In addition, Frank B. Hoffman’s oil September is estimated at $20,000 to $30,000; Joseph Amadeus Fleck’s circa 1920 portrait Dona Teresa of Taos oil has an estimate of $5,000 to $10,000; 20th-century painter and printmaker Barbara Latham’s oil Goat Herd is expected to bring in between $10,000 and $15,000; and William Penhallow Henderson’s 1915 pastel “Lunch at the Blackstone” (Alice and Alice) is estimated at $2,000 to $4,000.
William Penhallow Henderson (1877-1943), “Lunch at the Blackstone” (Alice and Alice), 1915. Pastel on paper, 9 x 12 in. Estimate: $2/4,000
As part of the upcoming auction, Santa Fe Art Auction will also present the Gregory Warren Nelson Collection of Taos, New Mexico. The Signature Live Sale is set for November 8 and 9.
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