What happens when an art collector downsizes? Wichitans are about to find out.

Wichitan Joe Goodwin, who has collected well over 500 original pieces of artwork created by local and regional artists, is having what one artist has called “the local art-buying event of the decade.”

During an estate sale running Thursday, Jan. 23, through Sunday, Jan. 25, Goodwin will sell off about 300 wall hangings and multiple sculptures and ceramic pieces as he downsizes from a nearly 1,500-square-foot home to a 900-square-foot apartment. The sale also includes part of Goodwin’s book collection ranging from art histories to mysteries, antique furniture, floor rugs and housewares.

But it’s the artwork that will likely draw browsers and shoppers, especially people looking to begin or add to a collection of locally produced art.

Juliana Greenberg, whose company Juliana Daniel is handling what she’s billed as “a most art-full sale,” said this is “undoubtedly the most art” she’s ever had offered in an estate sale. She and her staff have staged the items “like you’ve walked into an exhibition. We wanted to turn the house into a gallery,” she said.

Local artist Curt Clonts, whose work is in Goodwin’s collection, called the sale “the local art-buying event of the decade” in his artist’s perspective show that airs on Wichita’s NPR station, KMUW.

Goodwin, who is the head of the metals section at GSI Engineering, admits even he was surprised to see how much art he’s collected as he prepared for the sale. He hadn’t had room to display the entire collection in his home near College Hill, so several pieces were stored in a second-floor bedroom and more were stashed in a tiny cupboard above a hallway linen cabinet and in other places.

“When it all came out of storage, I went ‘whoa,’” Goodwin said.

He’s decided to never again put any artwork in storage.

As Goodwin walked through the home recently and cited the artists whose work he’s collected, it was like hearing a who’s who among Wichita artists: David Murano, Curt Clonts, Wade Hampton, Connie Ernatt, John Ernatt, Dustin Parker, Charlotte Martin, Christopher Gulick, Marc Bosworth, Leigh Leighton Wallace, Greg Turner and others.

Many are recognizable from their work with artists collaboratives called Fisch Haus and the Famous Dead Artists that came together in the early 1990s, when Goodwin started building his collection.

It was Goodwin who purchased the first piece of artwork Hampton ever sold about 27 years ago at a Famous Dead Artists show.

“I thought, ‘oh my god, I’m a legitimate artist,’” said Hampton. That first painting is among those being sold in the estate sale.

“It was a goal of a lot of local artists to be in Joe’s collection,” said Marc Bosworth, a fellow Famous Dead Artists member and the art director at Greteman Group. “Everyone appreciated his support of the local scene.”

As he’s moved into a smaller living space, Goodwin had to be selective in curating what he would keep.

He kept the most expensive pieces and, of course, his favorite piece: a 48-by-54-inch oil painting called “About Orange” by the late Shirley Glickman. Some pieces he intended to keep were returned to be put in the sale because they didn’t fit in at his new place.

“I don’t like to put up art if it doesn’t show well,” he said.

Considering the size of his apartment, Goodwin is still left with a fairly large collection: 100 wall pieces and eight sculptures and major ceramic pieces. He also took as much of his book collection that will fit in seven large bookcases.

“I hope they go to someone I know but other than that I hope they go to someone who appreciates them,” said Goodwin, of the pieces in the sale. “This collection has given me joy for 30 years and now I’m ready to share that joy.”

“I’m a little sad to hear he’s selling off his collection because some of us were hoping it would end up in a museum,” said artist Bosworth.

Goodwin has sold some pieces in the past, but nothing compared to the numbers up for sale now. With prices ranging from $50 to $1,500 and the typical estate sale practice of offering discounts on Friday (20% off) and Saturday (50% off), it’s likely the artwork pieces will find homes.

Goodwin didn’t begin collecting original art until 1990, when he moved back to Wichita after living for eight years in Dallas and a neighbor took him to a show at Gallery XII.

“I used to have reproductions and then I realized I could own original art for not much more cost than a reproduction. Art is so fantastic in Wichita and so affordable, so I started collecting and storing local art,” Goodwin said.

“I’ve told Joe he’s probably paid a lot of artists’ rent,” Hampton said. “I can’t even name another person who’s done what Joe did.”

Goodwin’s reputation as a local art aficionado led to him loaning out pieces of his collection and curating eight art exhibits in the Wichita area, including one three years ago at City Arts that was called “Joe’s Swan Song.”

For seven years, he coordinated the art auction for the Art Aid, a hair, fashion and art show that raised funds for those living with HIV/AIDS in the local community.

“I’d always liked art as a kid,” Goodwin said, recalling his grandmother often took him to the art museums in Kansas City when he was growing up in Garnett, Kansas, near Fort Scott.

At age 10, “I talked my parents into buying me the ‘Reader’s Digest Treasury of Great Art.’”

He lost the book — along with 67 art pieces — in a fire at his Midtown apartment in 2000. He later purchased a replacement. Hampton said he was among the artists who sorted through the artwork damaged in the fire, helping determine which pieces of art could be salvaged and which ones were a complete loss.

When Goodwin attended a Topeka high school, several works by renowned landscape artist Birger Sandzén were on display, which helped deepen his art appreciation.

“They were just hanging in the hallways and rooms.”

A member of the Wichita Art Museum and Wichita State’s Ulrich Museum of Art, Goodwin will still support local artists by attending shows and exhibitions, he said.

He’s just not planning to open his wallet to acquire more art — that is “unless there’s something spectacular that I can’t live without. It’ll happen.”

The estate sale will run 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24; and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25. The address for the sale will be published after 9 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 22 , on estatesales.net/KS/Wichita and facebook.com/julianadanielantiques and in the estate sales classified ad section in the Thursday, Jan. 23, issue of The Wichita Eagle.

This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 4:44 PM.