Bruce Bettinger Collection & Paulina Everitt Art Auction

This auction brings together two very different but complementary collections. The first comes from the family of Bruce Bettinger, a well-known Kansas City collector whose interests reflected the region's artistic community and its creative history. The second features works originally acquired from the estate of Paulina Everitt, one of Kansas City's most respected regional artists.

Regional art forms the foundation of this auction, with an outstanding selection of original paintings, watercolors, prints, mixed media works, ceramics, sculpture, photography, and artist-made objects spanning much of the twentieth century. Collectors of Kansas City art will recognize names including Allan Winkler, Mike Randall, Michael Regnier, John Puscheck, James Woodfill, Jay Norton, Sandra Engstrom, Jim Leedy, Ken Ferguson, Lou Jane Temple, and other artists connected to the area's creative community.

The largest single group is devoted to Paulina Everitt, featuring dozens of original works in watercolor, oil, pastel, conte, and mixed media. Subjects range from Kansas City landmarks, New Orleans, San Antonio, Taxco, and rural Mexico to horses, barns, landscapes, gardens, village scenes, still lifes, and religious imagery. Several works date from the 1930s and 1940s, providing an unusually broad look at Everitt's artistic development over several decades. Also included are sketch collections, studies, and works depicting the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Truman Library, making this one of the strongest assemblies of Paulina Everitt material we have offered.

Among the individual highlights is an Andy Warhol signed newspaper page, an intriguing piece of Pop Art-related memorabilia that stands apart within the collection. Other notable offerings include Allan Winkler ceramic heads and mural studies, Mike Randall serigraphs including the 1985 Royals Championship print, Michael Regnier editions, Charles Krafft's ceramic UZI sculpture with accompanying book, James Woodfill kinetic light works, Alfred Frueh linocuts, Utagawa Toyokuni woodblock material, Brett Weston photography, Renée Stout's signed Tales of the Conjure Woman, and Leo Haas's 1947 concentration camp lithograph folio.

The catalog also extends well beyond original artwork with vintage international posters, film posters, political posters, Japanese woodblock prints, photographs, artist books, exhibition catalogs, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, and groups of prints and original works that offer opportunities for both collectors and decorators. From contemporary mixed media and studio ceramics to regional watercolor traditions and twentieth-century graphic arts, the auction reflects the broad collecting interests of Bruce Bettinger while presenting an extensive selection of works by Paulina Everitt that will be difficult to duplicate.

For collectors of Kansas City art, regional artists, original watercolor, oil painting, mixed media, studio ceramics, printmaking, photography, artist books, and twentieth-century American art, this catalog offers a remarkable cross-section of works assembled through decades of thoughtful collecting and stewardship. It is an opportunity to explore both the legacy of a respected local collector and one of the most comprehensive offerings of Paulina Everitt's work to come to auction in recent years.