The economic indicators flashed all good news at Saturday night's annual benefit art auction, as the Missoula Art Museum yet again set records for attendance, gross receipts and profits at the event.
“Everything was up,” said Laura Millin, executive director of the MAM. “It was quite a phenomenal success.”
Despite the festivity of the evening, the shadow of recent losses to the arts community hung over the event. In the year since the last benefit art auction, two of the leading figures in Montana art - ceramicist Rudy Autio and painter Gennie DeWeese - passed away. Both had been major supporters of the MAM, contributing works to nearly every art auction over the years. Those works had typically sold for thousands of dollars apiece, contributing significantly to the overall financial success of the event, which provides a significant portion of the MAM's operating capital.
Millin explained to the audience during the event that, last summer, she met with Gennie DeWeese at her studio. DeWeese told her that she wouldn't be able to offer an artwork to this year's event, for the first time ever. But then, when the call for art went out, a massive, six-foot-wide painting arrived from DeWeese.
Likewise, after Autio's passing last summer, Millin said she presumed that the last of his artworks had passed through the auction. Last year, a large ceramic vessel by Autio sold for over $23,000.
But in the past few weeks, Autio's widow, Lela, decided to offer a large ceramic plate, titled “Mandala,” made in 2004 by her husband.
Those two works hung on the stage all night; and when they finally went up for sale, the bidding was fast and furious.
Jerry Toner, a professional auctioneer from Seattle working the event on his own birthday, noted as he started the bidding on DeWeese's painting that, “It feels weird not to have her in the audience tonight.”
The crowd grew reverently silent and remained so during bidding for the painting, erupting into cheers when it finally sold for $6,750.
Bidding on Autio's plate then began, with several bidders competing for the opening bid of $10,000. After a dramatic series of bids peppered by several starts and stops as the crowd collectively caught its breath, the plate sold for $27,000 - the highest price ever paid for an item at the MAM auction.
“What can you say about Lela's generosity?” mused Millin after the event. “She's an angel. We are so humbled by her generosity; she truly gave us another piece of herself with that piece by Rudy.”
Artists with deep ties to the community weren't the only ones to feel the love of the crowd on Saturday night. Several artists whose work appeared in the auction for the first time this year were rewarded with enthusiastic competitive bidding.
“This is overwhelming; how did I get here?” mused a bedazzled Karen McAlister Shimoda, an artist who moved to town only last summer. Her “Self Division,” a set of 20 tiny cellular-style ink-on-paper works, sold for $2,000 after fiercely competitive bidding.
“I just felt excited that I could be a part of this event with all these great artists from the Northwest,” said Shimoda. “Getting my work in the art museum, getting to meet artists whom I admire - that was great. Selling my art is really icing on the cake.”
All told, the benefit art auction and the Artini auction, a smaller event targeted at young collectors that was held at the MAM on Jan. 17, netted more than $200,000 in sales - the first time the two-century mark has been surpassed.
With expenses for both events lower than last year, overall income - profit - was higher than ever as well, totaling around $135,000.
“I'm always amazed at the generosity of support and the respect for the art at these events,” said Millin. “I heard such excitement about the collection this year; over and over, people said they thought it was the best auction we've done. It's always a great group show, a great collection of art. And people responded. It's yet again such a tremendous feeling of validation for what we do.”
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