This June, Heritage Auctions turns its attention to the many ways artists have pictured the American West. Across two sales, the June 18 Western Art Signature® Auction and the June 26 Texas Art Signature® Auction, the Dallas-based auction house gathers works that move from Indigenous modernism and classic frontier imagery to the coastal scenes and Hill Country vistas that have shaped Texas art collecting.
The auctions present a broad view of the West not as a single image, but as a subject continually remade by the artists who take it up. Among the leading works in the Western Art sale is Fritz Scholder’s Indian Sitting on Bed from 1974, a work that reflects the artist’s radical approach to contemporary Indigenous representation. Scholder, a member of the Luiseño Tribe, pushed against the romanticized depictions that had long framed Native subjects in American art, creating works that presented Indigenous figures as contemporary individuals rather than historic symbols.
“Scholder’s work feels more relevant than ever,” says Alissa Ford, Heritage’s Vice President of Western Art. “He challenged audiences to confront outdated narratives and see Native people as contemporary individuals. That conversation continues today, which is one reason collectors are responding so strongly to important works like Indian Sitting on Bed.”
The Western Art sale also includes G. Harvey’s Night Passage, a nocturnal scene of cowboys riding beneath a dramatic sky, and Richard Friese’s Monarch of the Whispering Pines, an 1891 wildlife painting that brings together careful observation and romantic grandeur. Each work offers a different entry point into the mythology, environment, and visual language of the West.
The Texas Art sale turns that lens toward artists whose work has helped define the state’s visual identity. Highlights include David Bates’ Floundering, a large-scale 1991 canvas that reflects the artist’s enduring connection to the Gulf Coast, as well as Fred Darge’s Resting, Three Brown Pelicans and Porfirio Salinas’ Creek and Hills, a Hill Country landscape by the artist whose bluebonnet-filled views remain closely associated with Texas collecting.
“Taken together, these auctions tell a broader story about the West and Texas through the eyes of artists who interpreted them in very different ways,” Ford says. “Whether it’s Scholder’s bold modernism, Harvey’s frontier narratives, Bates’ Gulf Coast imagery or Salinas’ beloved landscapes, each work offers a distinct perspective on the places, histories and cultures that continue to inspire collectors.”
In Scholder’s work, the West becomes a site of cultural correction and contemporary identity. In Harvey and Friese, it carries the atmosphere of frontier storytelling and natural spectacle. In Bates, Darge, and Salinas, Texas emerges through coast, wildlife, brushwork, and landscape. Seen together, the works trace a region through multiple eyes, resisting a single narrative in favor of many.
The paired sales arrive as Heritage continues to expand its reach across fine art and collectibles. Founded in 1976, Heritage is the largest auction house founded in the United States and the third-largest auction house in the world. In 2025, the company reported more than $2.15 billion in total sales, with consignments accepted across more than 50 categories. Its online platform now counts more than 2 million bidder members in 195 countries, with more than 7.4 million lots available through its free auction archives.
Heritage Auctions’ June 18 Western Art Signature® Auction and June 26 Texas Art Signature® Auction are open for bidding at HA.com.