Malcolm Furlow

Malcolm Furlow painted the Southwest at full voltage: riders and pueblo figures in electric pinks, turquoise, and cadmium, laid on with a house-painter’s bravado and a colorist’s ear. Before the art world knew him he was already famous in another field entirely — his San Juan Central model railroad is a legend of the hobby — and the same theatrical eye drives the canvases.

Revere Auctions provides free auction estimates for Furlow’s work: send photographs of the front, back, and signature and our specialists will respond promptly.

Who Was Malcolm Furlow?

Furlow was born in Texas in 1946, and his first career was design and illustration — including the spectacular model-railroad work for Model Railroader magazine in the early 1980s that made “Furlow” a household name among modelers: the San Juan Central project layout taught a generation how to build drama in miniature.

Painting took over from the mid-1980s. Settling in the Taos orbit of New Mexico, he developed his signature expressionism: Native riders, dancers, and pueblo scenes abstracted into slabs of neon color, closer in spirit to Fritz Scholder’s generation than to traditional Western realism — and priced, in his gallery years, for a broad public that loved exactly that.

He worked prolifically across four decades from studios in New Mexico and Colorado, and died in 2023. His canvases circulate widely, and the strongest have found a firming secondary market.

What Did Furlow Paint?

The signature Furlows are large acrylics of mounted figures, koshares, and pueblo women in saturated, arbitrary color — magenta horses, turquoise faces — with drawing submerged in pure chroma. Landscape and mission subjects appear in the same key.

Output was large and quality varies; the strongest canvases have genuine compositional power beneath the fireworks, and those are the ones the market rewards.

How Much Is My Malcolm Furlow Painting Worth?

Several things determine what a work by Malcolm Furlow brings at auction:

• Quality within the run — a prolific gallery painter — the canvases with real structure under the color stand well above routine ones
• Size — his big statement canvases lead the market
• Subject — riders and dancer subjects are the signature
• Condition — acrylic surfaces should be clean and unfaded
• Provenance — Taos and Santa Fe gallery history helps place a picture in his output

The honest answer is that no two are alike, and the difference between an ordinary example and an exceptional one is a conversation with a specialist, not a chart. Send us photographs through our free auction estimate form — front, back, signature, and any labels — and we will tell you what you have.

The Market for Furlow

Furlow trades actively at auction in the four figures, with large, strong examples reaching toward five figures in recent years. His audience is broad — Southwestern collectors, expressionism buyers, and no small number of railroad modelers who grew up on his name.

A free specialist estimate sorts the statement canvases from the routine — the difference matters here.

How to Sell a Work by Furlow

The strongest results for a Malcolm Furlow painting come at auction, where national and international collectors bid against each other. Revere Auctions offers free, no-obligation auction estimates: send photos and dimensions and our specialists respond with a current market valuation and a recommendation on how to sell. Consigned works are professionally photographed, cataloged, and marketed through our fine art auctions to a worldwide bidder base, and we regularly arrange shipping for consignors across the country. If you need a formal written valuation for insurance or estate purposes, our appraisal and valuation services team can help; you can also read more about how selling at auction works.

Related: American & Western paintings, our fine art department, appraisal services, free auction estimates.

Reviewed by the fine art specialists at Revere Auctions, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Malcolm Furlow: Frequently Asked Questions

How much is a Malcolm Furlow painting worth?

Typically four figures at auction, with large strong examples reaching toward five figures. Size and quality within his large output drive the range. Revere Auctions provides free auction estimates.

What is Malcolm Furlow known for?

Electric-colored expressionist paintings of Southwest riders and pueblo figures — and, in a separate life, the legendary San Juan Central model railroad features that made him famous among modelers in the 1980s.

Is Malcolm Furlow’s work like Fritz Scholder’s?

They share the expressionist, non-traditional approach to Native subjects; Scholder came first and commands a far higher market. Furlow’s best canvases are collected on their own colorist terms.

Where can I sell a Malcolm Furlow painting?

At auction with a house that reaches Southwestern art collectors. Revere Auctions offers free estimates and formal appraisals.

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