The year 2012 is shaping up to be an incredible one for Howard Terpning and the art collectors who admire his work.
At the Scottsdale Art Auction, held on March 31, Howard Terpning broke his all-time auction record with Captured Ponies, which hammered in at $1.7 million. Roughly a hundred lots earlier, the crowd thought the record had been surpassed when Mystic Power of the War Shield hammered in at $1.5 million. Terpning first broke the million-dollar mark when The Search for the Renegades sold for a $1.3 million bid at Coeur d’Alene Art Auction in 2006.
But the lucky few who walked away with a Terpning painting that day will not be the only fans dealt a special treat this year. Through July 1, the Autry National Center in Los Angeles will feature a dynamic retrospective of Terpning paintings. “The Autry show is incredible because the vast majority of Terpning’s artwork is in private collections, so it’s a unique opportunity to view his works,” says Wendy Wentworth, of Greenwich Workshop Press.
The last time collectors were treated to a Terpning retrospective was a one-month show at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis in 2001.
To coincide with the Autry show, Greenwich Workshop Press has released a book written by Howard’s artist friend, Harley Brown (see p. 61), called Terpning: Tribute to the Plains People. Inside, collectors share why they appreciate and respect Terpning’s portrayals of the Plains Indians, which particularly favor the late 18th-century period when their culture thrived with horses and buffalo.
“For us, it’s the combination of dignity and pathos that he incorporates into his images of the Native American,” notes collector Alan F. Horn, “images that communicate strength, honor, beauty, and freedom—values that we like to think reflect, even today, the best of America. They tell stories of a time gone by and of a people conquered (yes) but not diminished, a people in harmony with our earth, in a time of their own.”
In his artworks, Terpning makes a point not to portray battle scenes or violence. “I’d rather put my focus on the people than on the action for its own sake,” says the artist, whose Marine experience in WWII and as a combat artist in Vietnam has colored the compassion he feels for the struggles faced by Plains Indians.
The truest statement about collecting Terpning was shared by the CEO of ENSCO, Carl Thorne, and his wife, Rosella. John Geraghty, the Autry trustee who put together this year’s exhibit, once told them, “You will find living with one of his paintings a rewarding lifetime experience.”
Collectors earned more than $13.3 million from the sale of their Terpnings and other art at the Scottsdale Art Auction.
Photo Gallery
Six years ago, Charles M. Russell’s Indian Scout on Horseback sold for a $250,000 bid at Cowan’s auction of collectibles owned by Marge Schott, the deceased CEO of the Cincinnati Reds. This year, the oil on canvas hammered in at $600,000. That’s more than double your money; that’s a return of 140 percent!
Painted in 1938, a year before the death of the artist, Frank Tenney Johnson, When All’s Quiet is a fine example of the Western nocturnes that Johnson made famous; $500,000.
Astute collectors of Western art often get more bang for their bucks. Case in point: Howard Terpning’s 1977 masterpiece Captured Ponies bid in this year for $1.7 million. It last went up for bid at Coeur d’Alene Art Auction in 1995 and sold for $115,000. We don’t know if the oil exchanged hands in private sales along the way, but even so, that’s a nearly 1,400-percent return in less than two decades. Want to see an even bigger gain? Stuart Johnson, the owner of Terpning’s official art gallery in Tucson, Settlers West, says he sold this oil in 1977 for $7,250. Wow!
All images courtesy of Scottsdale Art Auction unless otherwise noted
Pay attention to the “meticulous spacing of the feathers” on this Crow bonnet, Harley Brown writes in his praise of this Terpning portrait, Leader of Men, which sold for $850,000. “Place your fingers over the feathers on his left shoulder to see how it reduces this remarkable design.”
All seven Terpning paintings up for sale at the auction sold. His Mystic Power of the War Shield went for a $1.5 million bid. These galloping Cheyennes shake their war shields at the sun and lean down to brush them against the grass, actions meant to invoke medicines that they hoped would deflect enemy bullets and arrows.
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