BUFORD, GA.- With 712 lots, Slotin Auction’s Fall Self-Taught Art Masterpiece Sale cuts a path wide and deep through the self-taught art field. There are museum-worthy examples by well-recognized artists including Adolph Wölfli, William Hawkins and Joseph Yoakum, soulful art chronicling the African-American experience in the Deep South by the likes of Sam Doyle and Clementine Hunter, artists representing the art brut movement in Europe and discoveries by living and deceased American makers receiving their first serious exposure.

Some artists are heavily represented, such as longtime Slotin favorite Howard Finster (16 lots), the Georgia preacher who turned to artmaking with his ministry, Miami street artist Purvis Young (10), spirit-stoking painter Sister Gertrude Morgan of New Orleans (6) and Crescent City wood carver-painter Herbert Singleton (4), a potent chronicler of racism and other social ills.

After more than 30 years in the business, Slotin Auction co-owner Steve Slotin understands the differences between auction houses and museums, but striding around his auction hall where artwork going on the block November 11-12 is hung floor to ceiling and fills shelves and glass display cases, he nonetheless makes a comparison.

“The examples we have on each artist could easily be in one of the best museums in the country,” Slotin says. “And the diversity that we have . . . you can see more artists that we have here than you could see in 10 folk art museums.”

That might come off as blowing one’s horn, not unlike Finster’s 50-inch-long painted wood cutout of a trumpeting angel included in the auction. But the truth is, many major museums have bought and sold folk art through Slotin Auction over the years, and this sale indeed boasts strong pieces that could land nicely in institutional collections.

Slotin can boast about blue-chip pieces because his auction house intensely works the network of folk art collectors who were acquiring during the 1960s and ‘70s, when the field was experiencing an early flowering. Back then, enthusiasts hunted America’s backroads looking to score works directly from the makers. Some collectors are now deaccessioning those pieces as they get older; others have passed on and their estates have entrusted Slotin to place works in the marketplace.

The latter is the case with the estate of Gary Davenport, a real estate executive who was a one-time partner of Robert Bishop, the Museum of American Folk Art director. Davenport stored hundreds of pieces in his New York townhome, doing the same when he later made Miami his principal residence.

“Our house was like a museum,” recalled Davenport’s partner Billy Kemp. “You didn’t see walls. There was no storage left under beds or behind doors or in lofts. Everywhere you looked there was art.”

Among pieces from Davenport’s holdings in this weekend’s auction are two prime works by Lawrence Lebduska, fantastical landscapes featuring horses and a safari of wildlife. Interest in Lebduska (1894-1966) is rising after he was featured in “Gatecrashers: The Rise of the Self-Taught Artist in America,” a recent touring exhibition organized by Atlanta’s High Museum of Art.

In a similar fashion, Slotin was able to secure five prime pieces by woodcarver Edgar Tolson, including an elaborate crucifixion scene, from the estate of fellow Kentuckian Skip Taylor.

“You had to be a true visionary to see this work as important in the ‘60s and ‘70s,” Slotin says of those collectors, “and to understand that it’s probably America’s greatest art form.”

Other finds in the Fall Self-Taught Art Masterpiece Sale include:

· Adolf Wölfli eye-popping geometric graphite and colored pencil drawing “Bangali Firework” (1926), a large example by the Swiss artist whose works aren’t often available.

·Prophet Royal Robertson’s “Eternalidad” a superhero-style portrait from the Louisiana artist who frequently depicted hallucinatory visions of space travel. The piece was salvaged from Robertson’s art environment after it was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

· Five appealing Eddie Arning cray-pas drawings on paper from the 1970s that include a bonus: the period magazine illustrations or photos that inspired the Texas artist.

While he’s included in a number of museum collections, an artist who Slotin believes is due more attention is Archie Byron, who also served as an Atlanta city councilman and help launch one of the first Black detective agencies in the U.S. Byron is represented in the sale by 1990s works "Country Scene" and "Mandela," nice representations of the low-relief sculptures he created, blurring the mediums of painting and ceramic sculpture.

His materials were simple: sawdust, Elmer's glue and water. “Being old fashioned, I didn’t throw anything away,” Byron once explained, conveying the ethos of a true folk artist in wonderfully simple terms.

Slotin Auction's Fall Self-Taught Art Masterpiece Sale will be held online via LiveAuctioneers.com, with phone and absentee bidding available. Information or to advance bid: slotinfolkart.com.