GUEST: This comes from my in-laws' estate. They were downsizing several years ago and left a lot of things that they didn't want anymore. And it appealed to me, just appealed to my heart. I just really liked it. So I don't know much about it other than it just appeals to me.
APPRAISER: Well, it is beautiful, and it is a really great example of this artist's work, so it immediately caught my eye, too. This is a piece by an artist, Gene Kloss. Gene Kloss is a woman.
GUEST: Why the changing of the name to a man's name?
APPRAISER: Well, she was a sort of bohemian artist. I think she wanted to not be judged as a woman. That might have been part of it. As an artist working in the '20s, she moved to New Mexico from Oakland, California. She was born in 1904 and established herself as an artist as a young woman. She was a trail-blazer. She had a career as a painter and moved to New Mexico to Taos in the '20s, and she is known for doing things just like this. This is a wonderful example of her work. And what we're looking at is an etching, an aquatint, by the artist. It's atmospheric, it has these wonderful chiaroscuro dark shadows, and that's the result of her printmaking technique. Etched lines are the lines that define the pueblo outline, and the aquatint is this beautiful gradations of this dark umber, but it really gives it the look and the feel...
GUEST: The feel, right, uh-huh.
APPRAISER: Exactly. She signed here, low right, "Gene Kloss," so typical signature. And here on the left, you can see the title, "Indian Pueblo." Indian pueblo, of course, is what we see here, and it's set in the mountains of New Mexico. This is from the early '30s. She had a long career. She worked...
GUEST: And worked her whole life?
APPRAISER: Yeah, '50s, '60s, '70s. She's really one of the best-known New Mexican artists.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: Really captured the feel and the richness of the mountain landscape. I don't know if you've been to New Mexico.
GUEST: Well, my in-laws went to the University of New Mexico, so I don't know if that plays into it, but it may be what drew them to this. But I have been to New Mexico, but briefly.
APPRAISER: Well, likely they picked it up at a gallery in New Mexico at the time, because she had a very successful career and her work is very sought after. So this is a quintessential Gene Kloss print of New Mexico that is very scarce. This has only come to auction once before. So at auction, you could see prices estimated at $4,000 to $7,000.
GUEST: Oh, gosh! Well, I feel good that I appreciated it, and apparently I'm not the only one.
