Cowboy art corrals collectors: with an upsurge in the popularity of Western art, dealers of cowboy paintings, sculptures and collectibles are roping in revenues

Art Business News, Feb, 2003 by Laura Meyers

There is a genuine bonanza these days in Western art. Collectors are stampeding to collect landscapes, wildlife paintings, pictures of horses, cattle images of Native American culture. But they are especially interested in the portraits of the true heart of the West: the American Cowboy (and Cowgirl), past and present.

Indeed, towns all around the country and Canada have been brimming with Stetsons and Wranglers, Rocketbuster boots, sterling inlaid spurs and leather, lots of fringed leather. There's a veritable fashion parade of carved belts with engraved silver-and-gold buckles set with diamonds and other precious stones in cities from Las Vegas to Alberta, Canada. These people are in search of Western living and Western art.

During Rodeo Days in Las Vegas, held the first two weeks of December each year, nearly 40,000 cowboys and cowgirls, some of them true-to-life ranchers and ranch hands, many more of the indoor enthusiast variety, swarm into Sin City to attend the National Finals Rodeo. Truth be told, they're also going shopping: these visitors pour more than $34 million in nongaming revenue into the local economy. And they spend a bucket of that cash at the annual Cowboy Christmas Gift Show, a showcase for hundreds of Western artists and craftsmen, and at the newly-launched Cowboy Artists and Photographers Art Show.

Two months earlier, many of the same well-heeled Westerners jetted into Cody, Wyo., an historic Rocky Mountain community on the edge of Yellowstone National Park, for its annual Rendezvous Royale, Western Design Conference and Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale. By the time of the auctioneer's final hammer, collectors had spent $522,135.

In January, many traveled again to Denver for the National Western Stock Show and Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale. Still others headed to Mesa, Ariz., for the annual High Noon Western Antiques Show and Auction. Or it's off to Los Angeles on Feb. 1 for the Masters of the American West exhibit and sale benefitting the Autry Museum of Western Heritage. Or it's Montana in March for an annual Western art expo and auction of original Western art supporting the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls. Or in July they head to Cheyenne for Frontier Days, or to the Calgary Stampede in Alberta, Canada, for the annual Western Art Show.

To these traveling enthusiasts and collectors, Western art is the real deal, and the cowboy is their hero.

Call of the Cowboy

"Cowboys represent an icon; a time when a man's word meant something," said artist David DeVary, who literally makes icons of his portraits of cowboys and cowgirls by adding gold and silver leaf to his paintings. In the world of Western art, the cowboy is a straightforward figure. "The good guys wear white hats," said DeVary. "The cowboy is a guy you can trust. He'll do what he says and says what he'll do."

"Cowboys stand up for what's right," added Antonia Clark, president/publisher at Toh-Atin Gallery and Publishing Company, which specializes in Western genre imagery and publishes work by John Fawcett, Chris Owen, Terri Kelly Moyers, Tim Cox, Loren Entz and Jason Rich, who all depict cowboys and the cowboy way of life in their art. "People are asking for more cowboy art and more Western art. After Sept. 11, we had the best year we ever had, and 2002 was even better. I guess, as our lives get more frantic and complicated, people are yearning for a simpler time and a simpler way of life--and that's embodied in the Western genre."

And prices are riding tall in the saddle. Living cowboy artists are routinely rustling up sales in the five and six figures for individual works. There's also a gold rush in the market for period Western realist masters, according to Eric Widing, head of Christie's American art department, who said pre-1950 Western painting is one of the fastest-growing sectors in American art. In 2001, a Charles M. Russell (1864-1926) painting set a new high at $2.3 million. Two years earlier a Frederic Remington (1861-1909) oil fetched $5.2 million.

Bronco Bustin' Sales

The annual round-up of results from the major Western art sales and auctions tell the same story. In Great Falls, for instance, last year's take from the sale of 300 pieces (which encompassed period works, including paintings by Russell, as well as works by living Western artists) was $1.45 million. Equally impressive: 1,000 people paid between $125 and $175 apiece to attend the auction and related reception. In Los Angeles a year ago, the Autry netted $1.4 million at its Masters sale. In Oklahoma City, the annual Prix de West sale supporting the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum has doubled its receipts since 1995; its June 2002 sale of 275 sculptures and paintings garnered $2.5 million.

The 30th annual Cowboy Artists of America show and sale at the Phoenix Art Museum hosted nearly 600 collectors in October, each paying $200 to $250 for the right to attend and bid on 135 works, some in editions, made specially for the event by the 27 living artists who comprise the CAA. The final tally: 151 works (including editioned bronzes) sold, with total sales of $2.1 million, up from $1.7 million in 2001. Nearly 40 percent of these works depicted cowboys, due in part to the show rules requiring the artists to portray a living subject, whether human or equine.