Lot 235
**First Time At Auction**
A. Kelly Pruitt (American, 1924-2009). Native American Settlement, oil on canvas, n.d. Signed on lower right. A dynamic painting by American painter, sculptor, illustrator, and author A. Kelly Pruitt depicting a Native American encampment or settlement comprised of rows of tipis scattered with figures on foot and on horseback. Thick layers of impasto emphasize the piles of snow that cover the ground, as several cloaked figures dance around a campfire and others sit in conversation and observe. The light blue of the sky contrast the natural brown and gray tones of the figures, conveying the frigid feeling of the cold winter air against the warmly wrapped Native Americans. Pruitt's bold strokes and minimal detail portray the Western landscape with all the intensity and immediacy for which his work is well-known. Size of painting: 29.5" W x 19.5" H (74.9 cm x 49.5 cm); of frame: 35.25" W x 25.25" H (89.5 cm x 64.1 cm)
"To be a cowboy was A. Kelly Pruitt's childhood dream; a dream that he realized early in his life. He started breaking horses when he was twelve and helped bring many a trail herd from Mexico across the Rio Grande at Presidio, TX where he and his family lived during his early years.
His first paintings were done on scraps of rainbow sandstone found on the Boquillas Ranch, where he worked, in Arizona, near the Grand Canyon. It was there that he was discovered by a man who ran the El Travarre Hotel and Kelly's painting career was launched. That was the humble beginning of his success and renown as one of the premier Western painters of our time.
Kelly's work is graced by a natural talent and draws from the creative river of the Great Spirit, unhampered by formal art training and the opinions of professors. He painted what he knew and loved and it shows in his work; it is fresh, immediate, and, like Kelly, full of the intensity and spirit from which it derives. Kelly, like his work, was untrammeled by conformity. For most of his life he preferred to live under the stars, in the endless expanse of nature sheltered only by a tipi or a gypsy wagon." - Pawnee Jewell
Provenance: private Cripple Creek, Colorado, USA collection
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#184144
- Condition: Signed on lower right. Painting in excellent overall condition. Set in wooden frame with cardboard backing and suspension wire on verso for display. Some nicks, abrasions, and water staining to wood and fabric of frame. Accompanied by envelope and letter that records the trading of other paintings by A. Kelly Pruitt between collectors.
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| $300 | $999 | $50 |
| $1,000 | $1,999 | $100 |
| $2,000 | $4,999 | $250 |
| $5,000 | $9,999 | $500 |
| $10,000 | $19,999 | $1,000 |
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| $100,000 | $199,999 | $10,000 |
| $200,000 + | $20,000 |