On June 13, Bonhams will present its Native American art sale in Los Angeles. The 250-lot sale will include historic and contemporary artwork by Native American artists.
Highlights among the offerings are a number of important collections, including a fresh-to-market selection of Hopi katsina figures collected by Elizabeth Willis DeHuff (1886-1983) in the 1910s and 1920s.
Hopi katsina doll depicting Shalako Mana from the collection of Elizabeth Willis DeHuff (1886-1983) Estimate: $5/8,000
Elizabeth Willis DeHuff, circa 1925-30, with her collection of Hopi katsinam.
“An artist, educator and author, DeHuff is perhaps best known as an important contributor to the development of Native American easel painting in Santa Fe in the 1920s and 1930s, teaching from inside her own home as a result of the Bureau of Indian Affairs prohibiting arts training at the Santa Fe Indian School, where her husband was superintendent for a time,” notes auction specialist Ingmars Lindbergs. “Among her students were Hopi artists Fred Kabotie and Otis Polelonema, Velino Shije Herrera of Zuni, and Awa Tsireh of San Ildefonso Pueblo. Her teaching of painting to these students has been described as a seminal event in the development of the so-called ‘Southwest movement of Native American painting.’ While her collection of nearly 200 original drawings and watercolors by Pueblo, Navajo, Apache, Cheyenne and Kiowa artists is now at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, her family retained the collection of the nearly 40 katsinam that will be on offer in this auction.”
Diné (Navajo) classic serape, designed with serrated zigzag bands in cream and indigo enclosing serrated, zigzag and chevron devices on a primarily lac and a partial lac and cochineal-dyed red ground (about 70% cochineal and 30% lac) Estimate: $40/60,000
One of the carvings from the DeHuff collection is a Hopi katsina doll depicting Shalako Mana. The work is estimated at $5,000 to $8,000.
Other highlights in the sale include a selection of pottery from the personal collection of noted Los Angeles artist Anthony (Tony) Berlant, a founding member of the Mimbres Foundation, the Los Angeles-based archaeological conservancy attempting to protect vulnerable Mimbres sites. Berlant is also well-known for his pioneering work in promoting the artistry and craft of early Navajo weavings.
Mimbres black-on-white bowl, 15”, from the collection of Tony Berlant Estimate: $1,200/1,800
Lindbergs says the sale will represent many collecting categories. “Assembled in the 1980s and 1990s by gallerist and designer Yoshi Miyake, comes a broad and colorful selection of late 19th-century Plains and Plateau beaded footwear, with dozens of vivid examples on offer alongside a fine range of pipebags, dolls and related objects,” Lindbergs says. “Included among other singular objects coming from private collections is a classic Diné (Navajo) classic serape or wearing blanket.”
For more information about the sale, visit Bonhams’ website.
June 13, 2024
Bonhams’ Native American Art Sale
7601 W. Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 850-7500, www.bonhams.com
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