Santa Fe Art Auction | June 24, 2023 | Santa Fe, NM

Master Stones

Original designs and stones from Charles Loloma will be the highlights of a unique sale at Santa Fe Art Auction

On June 24, Santa Fe Art Auction will offer a first-of-its-kind sale featuring stones and materials that once belonged to jeweler Charles Loloma. The materials will be offered within jewelry pieces created by contemporary Native American jewelry designers, who are honoring the iconic designer by keeping his stones alive and worn, as the artist intended.

Turquoise stones from the Charles Loloma collection.

Turquoise beads that will be included in a new work for the Inspired by Loloma sale.

The sale, titled Inspired by Loloma, acquired the stones directly from Charles Loloma’s collection. “The estate has been incredibly generous in sponsoring and driving this project. A select group of Native American artists was invited to make the first selections of gems and stones from the vast collection left behind in Charles Loloma’s workshop after he was injured and had to abandon his beloved studio in Hotevilla in the late 1980s, at the peak of his career,” says Gillian Blitch, auction president and CEO. “The stones represent the accumulation of a lifetime by the most significant and innovative Native jeweler of the 20th century.”

Hand-drawn designs for jewelry by Charles Loloma.

Coral from the Charles Loloma collection.

Artists who will be offering new works with Loloma’s stones include Kenneth Johnson, Cody Sanderson, George Rivera, Dezbah Stumpff, Tony Abeyta, Lyndon Tsosie, Zeke Argeanas, Pat Pruitt, Chris Pruitt, Maria Samora, Darryl Dean Begay, Rebecca Begay, Robert Begay, Piki Wadsworth and more.

“Each artist was offered the opportunity to initially select stones specifically and only for the purpose of creating anywhere from one special piece to a suite of jewelry, all inspired by Loloma—his legacy of innovation, his unique vision, his sense of color, his breakthrough from the pueblo to international stature, his lifelong reverence for Hopi culture and traditions, his unerring sense of beauty,” Blitch says. “The results will be a unique and remarkable collaboration between the jewelers of today and one of the great pioneers of their art. We anticipate no more than 100 lots will be offered in a unique, live auction hosted by Santa Fe Art Auction on June 24. There was a small number of unfinished items on Charles’ workbench which will be finished by David Tune and Dezbah Stumpff in the truest form of artistic collaboration. Ten percent of all proceeds will be donated to the Charles Loloma Memorial Scholarship at the esteemed Institute of American Indian Arts, where Charles was a founding instructor in 1962, serving as the institute’s first director of the department of plastic arts.”

Coral from the Charles Loloma collection.

Bisbee turquoise from the Loloma collection.

The Georgia and Charles Loloma estate is thrilled at the opportunity to offer these works to collectors. “The destiny of a mined gemstone is to find its purpose in the artist’s hand. This project, under the auspices of Santa Fe Art Auction, is designed to open the portal to new Original Creative work, uniquely expressed by the artist using these stones from Charles Loloma’s workbench,” the family said in a statement. “It is our family’s way of celebrating the creative genius of Charles’ lifetime of work.”

June 24, 2023
Inspired by Loloma
Santa Fe Art Auction, 932 Railfan Road, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(505) 954-5858, www.santafeartauction.com