Art of the Southwest Gains Global Market: From New Mexico to New York, from the Netherlands to the Orient, the Demand for Southwest Art Is Heating Up

Hart, Jane, Art Business News

Both artists and gallery owners agree that the concept of "Southwest art" is hardly a purist notion. "Southwest art" is an umbrella term that includes a collection of art that is as vast and varied as the places in the world that now sell i this genre. Jewelry, pottery, paintings and sculpture created by both traditional and contemporary artists of the Southwest may be found in the region's well-known art destinations such as Santa Fe, Taos, Scottsdale, Sedona and other locales. But increasingly, consumers can find Southwest art in galleries around the world. A collector can stop in a gallery in New York and buy a Native American Indian piece of pottery just as easily as they can purchase a painting of the desert landscape in Santa Fe.

Artists and art dealers alike agree that the market for purchasing Southwest art is more global than ever before.

What It Is

The Southwest consists mainly of Arizona and New Mexico. Texas and Oklahoma are generally considered part of the Southwest as well. And Colorado, Utah and Nevada are also often included.

The foundation of traditional and contemporary art created in this region is certainly influenced by the traditions of indigenous cultures and also Spanish populations that have inhabited these areas. But Southwest art today has become about much more than Native American jewelry or landscapes of the desert cacti, and it encompasses a wide range of expressive creations that includes new translations of Southwest culture by contemporary artists using a variety of mediums.

"Although 'Southwest art' used to refer to landscapes and genre paintings of cowboys and Native American peoples of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, it has gradually come to encompass much more," according to Wolfgang Mabry, Fine Art …

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Publication information: Article title: Art of the Southwest Gains Global Market: From New Mexico to New York, from the Netherlands to the Orient, the Demand for Southwest Art Is Heating Up. Contributors: Hart, Jane - Author. Magazine title: Art Business News. Volume: 33. Issue: 7 Publication date: July 2006. Page number: 46+. © 2009 Summit Business Media. COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale Group.

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