ST. LOUIS – Anasazi Castle is Curt Walters’ impressive and dramatic depiction of the most famous early Native American cliff dwellings and is featured in Waca Auctions’ 19th, 20th & 21st Century Fine Art Fall Auction on Saturday, Sept. 17.
Absentee and Internet live bidding with no buyer’s premium will be available through LiveAuctioneers.com.
Curt Walters (American 1950–) is recognized worldwide for his impeccable interpretations of the Grand Canyon and heralded by Art of the West magazine as “Greatest Living Grand Canyon Artist” in 1997. More recently Art of the West has named Walters as one of “Eight True Masters” saying, “many museums and collectors do not feel their collections are complete unless they include a Walters’ painting.”
Anasazi Castle is better known as “Montezuma’s Castle,” which was mistakenly named so by early white settlers to the area, and later declared a national monument in 1906 by Theodore Roosevelt. Walters’ body of work has documented environmental challenges of the vistas he paints and helps to preserve through his activism.
This 85-lot auction also features works by James Ayers, Laurence Sisson, Kennith Humphrey, Edgar Hunt, Bernard Steffan and Aaron Pyles.
A rare early oil by Joe Jones (below) shows the beginnings of the distinctively drawn figures for which he would become known. Painted when resources were dear and Jones used feed sacks for his canvas, which can be seen in the verso pictures. Self-taught, he quit school at age 15 to work as a house painter. This 1929 painting is the groundwork for his first award in 1931.
Jones gained the attention of St. Louis patrons who financed his travel to the artists’ colony in Provincetown, Massachusetts. A political activist as well as a painter, Jones organized art classes for unemployed youngsters, which he held in the old St. Louis courthouse in 1934.
From early 20th century to early 21st century, Kennith Humphrey’s Moonshine and Moonlight is a impressive and remarkable threedimensional construct. Born and working in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Humphrey has gained national and international recognition using his vibrant colors and bold rhythms to turn his life’s adversity into bold art.
