Scottsdale Art Auction

Over sixty original Maynard Dixon works of art from the prestigious A.P. Hays Collection leads the Scottsdale Art Auction’s annual live auction happening April 11-12 at Legacy Gallery in Old Town Scottsdale. At nearly 500 lots, the sale is the biggest yet for the regional auction house and will take place over two days in early April. The auction will begin Friday, April 11, with 178 lots, and then on Saturday, April 12, the sixty works from the Hays collection will hit the auction block at 10 am, followed by the remaining lots at 1 pm.

Abram Packer Hays Jr, known around the Scottsdale art scene as Abe Hays, is a prolific collector of Western art, artifacts, and historic items and opened Arizona West Galleries in Scottsdale in 1976. He previously donated his collection of historic western material to Western Sprit: the Scottsdale Museum of the West, where he served on the Executive Committee. Hays has loaned and assisted more than fifty museums in fourteen states, as well as Canada, with both art and artifacts from his collection. He also maintains collections of other prominent Western artists, including Carl Oscar Borg (1879-1947), Gunnar Windforss (1879-1934), Will James (1892-1942), and Lon Megargee (1893-1960).

Hays’ Dixon collection includes master oil paintings, drawings, watercolor and studies, many from Dixon’s travels in and around the Arizona area and some before Arizona even became a state. Notable works in the Dixon collection include Walls of Walpi ($75,000-$125,000); Desert Rocks No. 2/Camelback Mountain ($75,000-$125,000); Barn and Poplars ($60,000-$90,000); and Oasis ($50,000-$75,000). The Camelback Mountain landscape is a rare Dixon done in the Phoenix area and depicts the northwestern corner of the local landmark with its steep cliff faces and often unnoticed rocky precipices. The painting is dated 1925.