W elcome to Michael Duty Fine Art. We offer a wide variety of services, all designed to fit the individual needs of each client. In my thirty-eight years as a museum director, writer,appraiser, auction specialist, and consultant, I have been privileged to work with many gifted and talented people—artists, collectors, museum professionals and patrons–all were united by a passionate interest in art and history. It is those relationships that underpin everything that we do here. Our services are based on those long standing relationships and the expertise developed over a career spent in the fields of American and American Western art. We offer custom tailored services to collectors, artists, and organizations. Whether the goal is to find just the right work of art for a home or business; the appraisal of a single work of art or an entire collection; or guidance on how best to manage a collection, or an artist’s career, we can be of assistance. We give each customer, whether a beginning collector or seasoned veteran, the same care and attention. Please browse the site and let us know how we can help you.
Michael W. Duty
Career Highlights
Michael W. Duty founded Michael Duty Fine Art,LLC. in 2011. He has over three decades of experience in the fields of American Western Art and History. Prior to launching his firm, he held management posts at several major art and history organizations and also served as the Interim managing director of Fine and Decorative Arts at Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas, Texas, where he also established that firm’s department of Art of the American West and served as its first director.
He has consulted for numerous museums including the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, and the Center for Texas Studies at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.
He began his museum career at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth and served as that museum’s first director of public relations and development. He was the Executive Director of the Rockwell Museum of Western Art in Corning, New York and began the Center for Western Art there. He was the founding director of the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, Indiana and oversaw the construction and launch of the museum. While in Indianapolis, he was a co-founder of MuseumsWest, a consortium of leading museums of American Western Art and History in the United States and Canada. He also served as the executive director of the California Historical Society in San Francisco, the official state historical agency of California. In 2001, he returned to his native Texas to become the executive director of the National Western Art Foundation in San Antonio, Texas.
He has written numerous books and articles on a wide variety of topics. His book entitled, “The Cowboy Artists of America,” won the Western Heritage Award in the art book category presented by the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. His book, “Western Traditions: Contemporary Artists of the American West,” won the best book on the Southwest award at the inaugural New Mexico Book Awards.
A frequent lecturer, he has participated in numerous symposia, including ones at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California; the University of Texas at Arlington; the Royal College of Art in London, England; and the C.M. Russell Center for the Study of Art of the American West at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.
He has organized over 60 museum exhibitions at museums across the country. He has expertise in both historic and contemporary art, and specializes in the art of the American West.