Santa Fe Art Auction Releases the First Selections of Rare American Indian Art From the Patricia Janis Broder Collection

Santa Fe Art Auction is honored to be exclusively representing the Patricia Janis Broder Collection, with the first selections from the noted art historian’s personal collection appearing in a Live Online Only sale on Saturday, April 20th, at 1pm Mountain Standard Time. Pat (1935-2002) was an avid horsewoman who stabled her horses in the hills of New Jersey, but became a passionate aficionado of the west, and most particularly the art and culture of the indigenous people of the region. Her first book was the groundbreaking classic, Bronzes of the American West (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., NY, 1974), which won the prestigious Herbert Adams Memorial Medal for “Service to American Sculpture” and Best Art Book by the National Academy of Western Art.

Lot 66, Vincent Mirabal (Chiu-tah), Cermemonial Sunset Dance, Gouache on Paper; Estimate $4,000-$8,000

Over the next 25 years she constantly toured and revisited the west, writing eight more art books. As she traveled and explored, she became familiar with local artists, their histories, beliefs and ceremonies, as well as museums, gallery professionals, and collectors. She also accumulated and collected the artworks that held her under their spell. Some Western ‘moderns’ – Doel Reed, John Sloan, Kenneth Adams among them - found their way into her home, but the great preponderance of her collection is in the work of the multitude of pueblo and indigenous artists she learned about, sought out, befriended and championed in her writings. Her last book, Earth Songs, Moon Dreams: Paintings by American Indian Women (St. Martin’s Press, NY, 1999) was a radical early focus on the contributions of Native American women from tribes across the United States, Alaska, and Canada , and many of the artworks from this and her other books are now showcased in this auction. In 1984 Broder was awarded the National Academy of Western Art Trustees Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to the West through her books and lectures.

Lot 24, Pena, Tonita (Quah ah), San Ildefonso, (1893 - 1949) Acrylic on Paper; Estimate $1,500-$2,500

Further highlights from her collection will be featured in Santa Fe Art Auction’s signature annual Live Auction on November 9, 2019. These will include important examples by each member of the Artist Hopid group she celebrated for their synthesis of tradition and innovation, as well as classics ranging from Julian Martinez and Pop Chalee to Oscar Howe and Charles Lovato.