February 1, 2024Kelsie JankowskiAmerican Art Records & Results: The Artists of the WPA — January 25, 2024 Read more about Records & Results: The Artists of the WPA — January 25, 2024 Swann Galleries opened the winter 2024 season with the fourth iteration of The Artist of the WPA. The timed online auction closed Thursday, January 25, with an 89% sell-through rate…
Read more about Auction Highlights: The Artists of the WPA — Timed Sale Closing January 25, 2024 December 18, 2023 Modern & Post-War Art Auction Highlights: The Artists of the WPA — Timed Sale Closing January 25, 2024 Highlights from the December 14, 2023 auction of Illustration Art.
Read more about The Artists of the WPA: February 16, 2023 Auction Highlights January 13, 2023 The Artists of the WPA The Artists of the WPA: February 16, 2023 Auction Highlights Swann Galleries will open the 2023 winter season on February 16 with the Artists of the WPA. The sale marks the house’s third annual presentation of this category. In keeping…
Read more about Swann Opens 2022 with Whirlwind Auction Celebrating the Artists of the WPA February 1, 2022 The Artists of the WPA Swann Opens 2022 with Whirlwind Auction Celebrating the Artists of the WPA The house opened 2022 with The Artists of the WPA on Thursday, January 27. The follow-up to an inaugural 2021 sale proved the staying power of this special offering with…
Read more about Harold Porcher’s Specialist Picks: The Artist of the WPA — January 27, 2022 January 24, 2022 The Artists of the WPA Harold Porcher’s Specialist Picks: The Artist of the WPA — January 27, 2022 Harold Porcher, Director of Modern & Post-War Art and lead specialist for the Artists of the WPA sale on January 27, 2022, shares three standout paintings from the auction. Aaron…
Read more about Artists of the WPA & the Dawn of a New American Identity December 20, 2021 The Artists of the WPA Artists of the WPA & the Dawn of a New American Identity The New Deal not only established a great legacy, but a greater generation of artists whose works defined the American spirit.
Read more about First Auction of Artists of the WPA at Swann Establishes Four Records February 9, 2021 American Art First Auction of Artists of the WPA at Swann Establishes Four Records The Artists of the WPA were on display in our February 4, 2021, auction. The multi-departmental sale was headed by Harold Porcher, the house’s director of Modern and Post-War Art,…
Read more about Harold Porcher Explores Mexican Muralists & Their Impact on the WPA February 1, 2021 The Artists of the WPA Harold Porcher Explores Mexican Muralists & Their Impact on the WPA The Whitney Museum of American Art’s recent exhibition, Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925-1945, was a comprehensive evaluation of post-revolution art in Mexico and the powerful influence it…
Read more about The Artists of the WPA: The Promise of a New Deal January 20, 2021 The Artists of the WPA The Artists of the WPA: The Promise of a New Deal On February 4, 2021, Swann offered: The Artists of the WPA. The first iteration of the multi-departmental sale, featured paintings, prints, photographs, posters, books and related ephemera by artists whose…
Read more about The Artists of the WPA: Auction Highlights February 2021 January 11, 2021 Swann The Artists of the WPA: Auction Highlights February 2021 We’re pleased to present this curated auction of WPA-era artwork, photographs, and related material. In the aftermath of the Great Depression, president Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and its related agencies represented an unprecedented investment in art and artists, setting the scene for the twentieth century’s art movements, and establishing the careers of diverse creatives, including women, Black artists, photographers, and muralists.
Read more about WPA Posters: Favorites from a Vintage Posters Specialist April 2, 2020 The Artists of the WPA WPA Posters: Favorites from a Vintage Posters Specialist In addition to the many murals, sculptures, paintings and photos commissioned by the Works Progress Administration during the 1930s and forties, graphic artists designed hundreds upon hundreds of posters for the agency, of which about two million copies were printed and only a fraction survived.
Read more about A Bright Light at a Dark Time: The WPA Handicraft Project November 22, 2016 Art Press & Illustrated Books A Bright Light at a Dark Time: The WPA Handicraft Project One unusual piece in our December 2016 auction of Art, Press & Illustrated Books was a six-volume folio of textiles designed and produced by the WPA Handicraft Project in Milwaukee,…
Read more about Auction Highlights: African American Art — October 3, 2024 September 4, 2024 African American Art Auction Highlights: African American Art — October 3, 2024 Our October 3 auction of African American Art features exceptional and innovative post-war painting.
Read more about This Season’s Successes: Winter-Spring 2024 Auctions in Review July 15, 2024 19th & 20th Century Literature This Season’s Successes: Winter-Spring 2024 Auctions in Review In the 2024 Winter-Spring season, Swann Galleries continued to provide high-quality auctions of unusual and rare material. Several single-owner collections were featured, including Illustration Art: Featuring Highlights from the Collection…
Read more about Essential Modern & Post-War Art Terms & Movements — Part II April 22, 2024 Modern & Post-War Art Essential Modern & Post-War Art Terms & Movements — Part II Harold Porcher’s Illustrated Glossary of Modern & Post-War Movements II The post-war era of art, as an auction category, is simply a construct used to differentiate art movements occurring after…
Read more about The Art of the Harlem Renaissance, in Print and Plaster March 25, 2024 African American Art The Art of the Harlem Renaissance, in Print and Plaster The landmark exhibition The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism at the Met here in New York has brought deserved new attention to the visual art achievements of Harlem Renaissance. Many…
Read more about Mural Projects of the New Deal February 7, 2023 The Artists of the WPA Mural Projects of the New Deal In times of economic hardship, the United States government has stepped in to create jobs for the unemployed through federal programs. In such cases focusing on our country’s infrastructure is…
Read more about Romana Javitz: Champion of FSA Photographers October 14, 2022 Photographs & Photobooks Romana Javitz: Champion of FSA Photographers Romana Javitz was curator of The New York Public Library’s Picture Collection from 1928 to 1968, where she assembled one of the most historically important and artistically significant collections of twentieth-century photographs.
Read more about African American Art—Works to Watch in the Fall 2022 Sale October 3, 2022 African American Art African American Art—Works to Watch in the Fall 2022 Sale Director Nigel Freeman shares his top eight lots to watch in the October 8, 2022 sale. Jacob Lawrence’s Westchester Graduation Ball, 1951 In June 1951, Westchester African American community leaders,…
Read more about This Season’s Successes: Winter-Spring 2022 Auctions in Review August 22, 2022 19th & 20th Century Literature This Season’s Successes: Winter-Spring 2022 Auctions in Review The winter-spring auction season at Swann is a masterclass in marathon training, and the 2022 iteration proved no different with 20 auctions held between late January and the middle of August.
Read more about Artist Profile: Hughie Lee-Smith March 23, 2022 African American Art Artist Profile: Hughie Lee-Smith “I cannot begin to project the meaning of my work in specific terms, for [my] paintings, at their best, are multi-faceted visual complexes whose many aspects are pregnant with as…
Read more about Collecting Vintage Winter Sports Posters February 22, 2022 Vintage Posters Collecting Vintage Winter Sports Posters The modern Olympic Games were first held in 1896, with an appropriate historical nod to antiquity, in Athens, Greece. It wasn’t until 28 years later, in 1924, that the first…
Read more about 2021: Year in Review December 22, 2021 Swann 2021: Year in Review As we close out another successful year at Swann we look back at our record-filled sales.
Read more about Latin-American Modernists November 6, 2021 Modern & Post-War Art Latin-American Modernists The end of the nineteenth century brought the Machine Age. Many wonderful innovations such as electrification, the assembly line, skyscrapers, and radio broadcast made communication and travel faster, and products…
Read more about This Season’s Successes: Winter-Spring 2021 Auctions in Review August 26, 2021 Swann This Season’s Successes: Winter-Spring 2021 Auctions in Review Swann is so proud to have not only made it through the heart of the pandemic but also to have done so with grace, professionalism and more than just a modicum of success. Throughout it all we were able to keep our focus and not only continue providing the wonderful services we are known for but also to begin carving out new and exciting niches in brand new collecting areas.
Read more about Tour the June 2021 American Art Sale: 19th Century to Modern Art June 21, 2021 American Art Tour the June 2021 American Art Sale: 19th Century to Modern Art The American Art sale on June 30, 2021 will include notable works from prominent artists working in America beginning in the mid-1800s and continuing through the contemporary era. Below we…
Read more about Synchromism: Modern Art Conceived by American Artists May 14, 2021 Modern & Post-War Art Synchromism: Modern Art Conceived by American Artists When Paul Cezanne left Paris and the Impressionist movement to explore his independent concepts of capturing time and space on the two-dimensional picture plane through light, color, and form, he…
Read more about Photographs & Photobooks: May 2021 Auction Highlights May 5, 2021 Photographs & Photobooks Photographs & Photobooks: May 2021 Auction Highlights Exploring the thematic and visual diversity of the photographic medium, this auction covers twentieth-century masters as well as contemporary practitioners and items from the visual vernacular: albums, archives, and individual objects.
Read more about Bohemian Brothers: Beauford and Joseph Delaney April 19, 2021 African American Art Bohemian Brothers: Beauford and Joseph Delaney The Delaney brothers became well-known painters in the downtown New York art scene in the 1930s and 40s—while each followed their own distinct artistic path. Sibling artists both finding success in the New York art world is a scarce but not unheard of occurrence, yet there are very few African American visual artist siblings known today, and no other pair quite like Beauford and Joseph Delaney.
Read more about Looking Ahead to Fall 2020 September 4, 2020 Swann Looking Ahead to Fall 2020 Since the middle of March it has been hard to look ahead. Outside of the universal mantra of “I can’t wait for everything to return to normal,” far too little thought has been given to what’s next. Now, at the summer’s end, it’s time to take a deep breath, and with guarded optimism dare to look ahead at what lies in store for us this fall. Or whatever season it is.
Read more about Interview: On the Guerrilla Girls June 15, 2020 Vintage Posters Interview: On the Guerrilla Girls Donna Kaz is a writer, director, choreographer and activist, who has led the theatre troupe, “Guerrilla Girls on Tour” for the past two decades. A Guerrilla Girl herself, who has written a memoir entitled UN/MASKED, Memoirs of a Guerrilla Girl On Tour, Lauren Goldberg, our vintage poster specialist, asked Donna to unmask yet again and share some insight into her own experiences with the movement.
Read more about Cultural Cross-Currents: The Indian Space Painters April 8, 2020 Modern & Post-War Art Cultural Cross-Currents: The Indian Space Painters The Indian Space Painters may be the modern artists most closely associated with Native American art. In Haida and Tlingit art, these American modernists found anthropomorphic interlocking subject matter that lent itself to the Surrealist abstraction they were already emulating in their own paintings.
Read more about What You Should Know About Collecting Exhibition Posters April 8, 2020 Vintage Posters What You Should Know About Collecting Exhibition Posters Lauren Goldberg, our vintage poster specialist, takes us through the ins-and-outs of what to look for when collecting an exhibition poster.
Read more about Etched in History: Printmakers of the Federal Art Project April 2, 2020 The Artists of the WPA Etched in History: Printmakers of the Federal Art Project As jobless Americans eventually found work with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal Works Progress Administration (WPA), George Biddle, an artist and childhood friend of the president, pushed for significant government…
Read more about Beyond Migrant Mother: Five FSA Photographers to Know April 1, 2020 Photographs & Photobooks Beyond Migrant Mother: Five FSA Photographers to Know While Dorothea Lange—and her portrait of Florence Thompson, Migrant Mother—has become one of the most well-known photographers to come out of the Great Depression and the Farm Security Administration’s photography…
Read more about A Puerto Rican Archive of Graphic Design February 6, 2020 Vintage Posters A Puerto Rican Archive of Graphic Design Our winter-spring 2020 sale of Vintage Posters on February 13 is set to feature an extensive archive of over 350 posters by Puerto Rico’s most renowned painters, designers and graphic artists. Here Nicholas D. Lowry, the house’s vintage posters director, touches on the featured artists and the movement that brought these works to light.
Read more about Artist Profile: Aaron Douglas October 7, 2019 African American Art Artist Profile: Aaron Douglas New York was waiting for Aaron Douglas, though no one knew just how much, including the artist himself. By the time he arrived in 1925 he had no idea what was waiting, not the lifetime of work and certainly not the eventual reputation as the Harlem Renaissance’s father of African-American art.
Read more about Artist Profile: Norman Lewis August 30, 2019 African American Art Artist Profile: Norman Lewis Norman Lewis was an Abstract Expressionist painter associated with The Irascibles who developed as a painter as the New York Modern Art scene grew. Here we discuss Lewis’s rise from the margins to art market center.
Read more about #5WomenArtists – Lauren Goldberg’s List March 29, 2018 Vintage Posters #5WomenArtists – Lauren Goldberg’s List As part of Women’s History Month, we’re offering a week of #5WomenArtists, inspired by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. We asked some women of Swann to tell us…
Read more about Works from Will Barnet’s Estate at Auction November 1, 2017 Prints & Drawings Works from Will Barnet’s Estate at Auction American artist Will Barnet is known for his intimate, foreshortened views of women with cats, but his oeuvre, spanning nearly a century, reveals a diverse and multifaceted artist who transcended…
Read more about Sense of Play: Will Barnet’s Nude with Cats May 21, 2014 American Art Sense of Play: Will Barnet’s Nude with Cats Among the highlights of our June 12, 2014 auction of American Art—and the image that graces the catalogue cover—is Will Barnet’s Play, a watercolor and oil on paper from 1975. Barnet…
Read more about The Chicago Renaissance: Eldzier Cortor, Hughie Lee-Smith, & Charles White October 18, 2012 African American Art The Chicago Renaissance: Eldzier Cortor, Hughie Lee-Smith, & Charles White Figurative artists Eldzier Cortor, Hughie Lee-Smith and Charles White stayed true to their roots in social realism as their work evolved in the post-war decades. Unlike contemporaries Charles Alston, Norman…
December 2, 2009 Photographs & Photobooks Ansel Adams’s ‘Moonrise’ at Auction December 2009 Ansel Adams’s position in the pantheon of master photographers is assured by his magisterial studies of the American landscape. Swann is pleased to offer Moonrise Over Hernandez in two iterations—a…