Western Art Show Offers Varied Works
The advertising design for this weekend’s Spokane Western Art Show and Auction is a holster full of paintbrushes and a cartridge belt loaded with paint tubes. Art of the American West in its myriad forms stampedes throughout the WestCoast Ridpath Hotel for a three-day run starting today at 10 a.m.
“We have a very wide range of work,” said show promoter Don Walsdorf, “everything from abstract to zebra in subjects, and also the hard-core Western-type work.”
More than a hundred artists, galleries, and dealers will shoot from the hip with booths and rooms full of paintings, cast bronze sculptures, beadwork, artifacts, weaving and scratchboard.
This year’s featured guest artist is Utah resident Edward J. Fraughton, who is nationally known for creating monumental bronze statuary of Western subjects. Visitors can meet the artist and see his work in the Walsdorf Gallery on the Ridpath street level.
Another highlight is Andean weaver Martina Masquiza, who will demonstrate Quichua weaving techniques.
Walsdorf hosts his seventh edition of the annual rendezvous, billing it as “the continuation of the 25-year tradition” of the original Spokane Western Art Show, which was begun in 1970 by the defunct Museum of Native American Cultures. The MONAC collection was acquired by Cheney Cowles Museum, and a selection of it is displayed now at RiverPark Square.
CCM provided discount admission coupons to Walsdorf to distribute to his show’s visitors and artists.
Main events will take place in the Empire Ballroom, and all events are free to the public. Today the show runs until 10 p.m. At 6:15 p.m. there will be a crowd-pleasing Quick-Draw. Twenty artists compete to finish an artwork within 60 minutes. The works are then auctioned to the enthusiastic onlookers.
Saturday hours are also 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Walsdorf says that items for the evening’s big auction will be displayed for preview all day and include “deceased art” by Ace Powell and Nancy McLaughlin. A Quick-Draw and Quick-Finish happens at 6:15 Saturday evening. At 7:15 p.m. auctioneer Colonel Jack Raty raps his gavel to start the main auction of 100 items. Raty has presided over all the Spokane Western Art Shows, thanks to an act of the state.
The first auction was set for Feb. 20, 1970, and organizers knew they wanted Montanan Raty to call it. But they discovered there was a statute on the books prohibiting out-of-state auctioneers from working in Washington State. On Feb. 19 the statute was amended, and Raty has been calling the auctions since.
Sunday’s hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and veteran show-goers know that this is a good day to strike excellent bargains with artists.
“I think probably every medium and every subject matter is represented in this year’s show,” said Walsdorf. “We’ve expanded by 10 exhibitors total and didn’t accept back some of the people from last year,” he said, “So that’s boosted the overall quality of the show.”