On November 6, the Santa Fe Art Auction will offer nearly 350 lots of Western and Native American artwork to bidders when it presents the Annual Signature Live Auction. The auction is the largest and most important event for the auction house, which was started with this one annual sale, though in recent years it has has added additional sales that have expanded its offerings.
T.C. Cannon (Kiowa, 1946-1978), Tosca, A Remembered Muse, color woodblock,ed. 21 of 200, 19 x 15" Estimate: $4/6,000
“It’s the only event we have a live auctioneer in the room for and the only one we print a catalog for—our November signature sales are always a great time for us to offer some really amazing artwork,” says Josh Rose, senior vice president at Santa Fe Art Auction. “This year we will again offer a mixture of classic and contemporary Western art from some of the great modernists, the Transcendentalist Painters and Los Cincos Pintores, as well as pieces by prominent Native American artists.”
David Bradley (Chippewa), Call of the Wild, 1981, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24" Estimate: $4/8,000
Highlights for the sale include a stunning Dan Namingha abstracted landscape Reservation Storm (est. $6/8,000), an untitled work (est. $2/4,000) from Cherokee painter Leon Polk Smith, and two pieces by Chippewa painter David Bradley, the acrylic on canvas Call of the Wild (est. $4/8,000) and a mixed media piece, Ojibwe Lore (est. $6/9,000), that is made with a Minnesota license plate, among other items.
John Nieto (1936-2018), Matachine Dancer, pastel, 19 x 25" Estimate: TBA
“The Dan Namingha is really terrific because he paints with an abstract quality, but the landscape elements are still right there happening around all the abstraction,” Rose says. “The Bradley pieces are nice as well because they have a folk-art quality to them. We set the world auction record for him last year, so we expect these pieces to do quite well.”
Elsewhere in the sale will be a rare black-and-white landscape from Santa Fe artist Tony Abeyta. Untitled (Stormy Landscape), expected to sell between $3,000 and $5,000, is unusual for the artist not just because it’s black and white, but also because he uses a sgraffito technique, as if the lines are etched into the paint. Abeyta, a fixture all around Santa Fe, usually performs strongly at auction and at gallery shows in New Mexico—“He’s another one that we recently set a world auction record for, and we know his market is strong,” Rose adds.
Dan Namingha (Hopi-Tewa), Reservation Storm, acrylic on canvas, 55¼ x 501⁄8 x 13⁄8" Estimate: $6/8,000
Two T.C. Cannon woodblock prints will also be offered: Two Gun Arikara, showing a man seated in a formal chair, and Tosca, A Remembered Muse, showing a man and a woman at a table with a phonogram. The pieces will be sold separately and each has been estimated at $4,000 to $6,000.
Finally, the auction will also offer a rare pastel work from John Nieto. Titled Matachine Dancer, the work shows Nieto’s strong use of color and form to create a uniquely modern interpretation of Native American figures.
Tony Abeyta (Diné [Navajo]), Untitled (Stormy Landscape), oil on board, 8 x 10" Estimate: $3/5,000
In addition to the sale, the auction house will also offer programming around the event. “This sale is part of the circuit of Western auctions, and so we like to turn it into a full weekend of events, including receptions, lectures and discussions, brunches and more,” Rose says. “These artists have such a connection to Santa Fe, so we like to educate and inform our bidders while they’re here.”
November 6, 2021
Annual Signature Live Auction
Santa Fe Art Auction, 932 Railfan Road,
Santa Fe, NM 87505
(505) 954-5858, www.santafeartauction.com
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