Navajo Artist R.C. Gorman’s Estate Auction Set for August 08

Release Date: 2008-06-05

Media Contact: Peter St. Cyr, Griffin & Associates
(505) 319-3237
pstcyr@griffinassoc.com

Estate Auction makes available famed Navajo artist’s personal art collection and distinctive items from a lifetime of collecting.

 

TAOS, NEW MEXICO — It is already being called one of the most exciting auctions to take place in Northern New Mexico. The personal estate of famed Navajo artist and long-time Taos resident R.C. Gorman will be auctioned August 20-21, 2008.

 

“R.C. Gorman was not just a giant in the arts,” New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said upon learning of the artist’s death in 2005, “but he was a great spokesman for New Mexico and the Navajo Nation. He was a dear friend, who will be sorely missed.”

 

The event that is perhaps most sorely missed is R.C.’s annual Indian Market Show gala each August preceding the weekend market. This Augusts anniversary date will be a special time to honor R.C.’s memory.

 

The estate auction begins with silent bidding and preview Wednesday, August 20, from 5-9 p.m. at the Taos Civic Plaza Convention Center, 120 Civic Plaza Drive in Taos. A selection of auction items may be previewed at www.RCGormanGallery.com. On Thursday August 21, the silent auction and preview continue at 10 a.m. The live auction commences at 1:30 p.m.

And, R.C. Gorman’s Navajo Gallery at 210 Ledoux Street in Taos will feature a concurrent exhibition of the largest collection ever shown of the artist’s work, including items from his private inventory never before available to the public, along with six lithographs only released since his death.

 

R.C. Gorman, who passed away at the age of 74, helped chart a new course for a generation of American Indian artists. Prior to the late 1960s, many of those artists felt they had to express an antiquated image of native art favored by collectors. Gorman, however, was an iconoclast and his stunning figure studies celebrating Native American womanhood earned him a level of fame unheard of amid the desert landscape of the Navajo reservation he called home. In fact, it was The New York Times that dubbed him the “Picasso of American Indian art.”

 

He was born Rudolph Carl Gorman on July 26, 1931, in Chinle, Arizona. R.C.’s father, artist Carl Gorman, whose work will be represented at the auction, was a Navajo Code Talker during World War II.

 

R.C. studied art at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff then San Francisco State University. In 1958, he received a grant to study at Mexico City College, where he was deeply influenced by the work of Diego Rivera.

 

In 1973, R.C. Gorman was honored as the only living artist to be in the “Masterworks of the American Indian” exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

 

His friends included film stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. His work was collected by Gregory Peck, Andy Warhol, and others.

 

R.C. had sophisticated taste and a connoisseur’s eye for not only Native American art, but art from Africa and Asia.

The auction will include exquisite examples of Southwestern pottery, jewelry, rugs and fine furnishings from Gorman’s home, along with artwork by some of the most well known artists living and working in Taos.

 

Represented will be works by Ted Egri, the last of the Taos Moderns; local painter Ron Barsano; Navajo sculptor Robert Shorty; Hispano portraitist Miguel Martínez; Japanese abstract artist Michio Takayama; and renowned Native American artist Fritz Scholder.

 

Other highlights of the auction will include “The Gunslinger Series” by the late Taos artist Bill Gersh, a triptych of acrylic on canvas panels that occupied an entire wall in the Gorman home; and Sergio Bustamante’s assembled “Rhinoceros” with its rich bronze colored patina.

 

The silent auction will offer over 300 items. The live auction will feature up to 150. It is expected that there will be many very pleased collectors by Thursday evening.

 

From keepsakes to fine Southwest art to a full suit of armor, collectors of every stripe will have this event circled, in red, on their calendars!

 

Registration fee will be $25.00, which will be credited to the first purchase. Each registrant may bring one guest, but only registrants can bid. Due to the venue’s capacity, admission will be limited to 400 persons age 21 and older. Buyer’s premium is 15 percent.

 

For more information and press info:

Tammy Roybal
Navajo Gallery
(575) 758-3250
www.RCGormanGallery.com.
E-mail navajo@RCGormanGallery.com
Julia McTague, appraiser, 575-586-1471

 

High res images available online, www.RCGormanGallery.com

 

AUCTION FAST FACTS

R.C. Gorman Estate Auction
August 20-21, 2008

Taos Civic Plaza Convention Center
120 Civic Plaza Drive in Taos, New Mexico

 

Online preview of all auction items
From Monday, June 2, www.RCGormanGallery.com

 

Silent auction bidding and preview
Wednesday, August 20, 5-9 p.m.

 

Silent auction and preview continue
Thursday, August 21, 10 a.m.

 

Live auction
Thursday, August 21, 1:30 p.m.

$25.00 registration fee credited to first purchase

 

Admission limited to 400 persons age 21 and older

 

15 percent buyer’s premium

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