September 17, 2024Nicholas D. LowryVintage Posters A Look at Midcentury Modern Vintage Posters Advertising NYC Read more about A Look at Midcentury Modern Vintage Posters Advertising NYC In viewing mid-century modern posters depicting New York City, it is a curious surprise to find a direct graphic line drawn between 1947 and 1956, as four of the most…
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 Artist Profile: Edward McKnight Kauffer February 26, 2024 Vintage Posters Artist Profile: Edward McKnight Kauffer To look at the graphic design work of Edward McKnight Kauffer is to experience a master craftsman helping to propel modernism into the mainstream. He achieved the height of his creativity in the decades after World War I, bringing his creative, modern aesthetic to a fast-paced world that was eager to embrace his exciting new visual creations.
Read more about Auction Highlights: Vintage Posters & Graphic Design — February 29, 2024 January 23, 2024 Vintage Posters Auction Highlights: Vintage Posters & Graphic Design — February 29, 2024 This auction will be a combination of many of Swann’s most desirable poster-collecting categories, presenting an exceptional, curated selection of images relating to skiing, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, travel and advertising.
Read more about Artist Profile: William Addison Dwiggins May 16, 2023 Vintage Posters Artist Profile: William Addison Dwiggins William Addison Dwiggins was a multi-hyphenate artist: book designer, typographer, illustrator, writer, marionette maker. He rose to prominence through his advertising and publishing work in the 1920s, winning the Gold…
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 Collector’s Guide: Vintage Car Posters May 16, 2022 Graphic Design Collector’s Guide: Vintage Car Posters There has been exciting and novel automobile advertising for as long as there have been cars. From the earliest days of automotive history in the late nineteenth century through the…
Read more about Graphic Design: May 19, 2022 Auction Highlights April 14, 2022 Graphic Design Graphic Design: May 19, 2022 Auction Highlights This admired sale is coming together in a powerful way. This auction is led by one of A.M. Cassandre’s most memorable and scarce images, LMS / Best Way, 1928 — it…
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 Poster Designers: On Brand April 30, 2021 Vintage Posters Poster Designers: On Brand In the twenty-first century, when one thinks of contemporary posters and graphic design, the term “branding” may come to mind. Our daily lives are inundated with examples of branding—company logos, slogans & imagery—on TV, through social media, and of course, on posters. While the focus on digital branding is relatively new in the scope of art history, the idea of designers creating a brand identity for professional clients goes back over 100 years.
Read more about Selections from Letterform Archive April 21, 2021 Vintage Posters Selections from Letterform Archive At Auction May 12, 2021 This special offering of deaccessioned duplicates from the rich collection of Letterform Archive will bring to auction graphics, books, posters and examples of typography that…
Read more about Graphic Design: Auction Highlights May 2021 April 20, 2021 Vintage Posters Graphic Design: Auction Highlights May 2021 At Auction May 13, 2021 This auction is being held in tandem with Selections from Letterform Archive, at auction May 12. European Secession & Art Nouveau Lots 201 to 218…
Read more about Two Day Auction Event: Selections From Letterform Archive & Graphic Design April 15, 2021 Vintage Posters Two Day Auction Event: Selections From Letterform Archive & Graphic Design A two day auction event featuring Selections From Letterform Archive on May 12, and Graphic Design on May 13.
Read more about 2020: Year in Review December 23, 2020 Swann 2020: Year in Review In a year that was unlike any in our lifetimes, Swann’s specialists and staff proved to be as resilient and innovative as ever, bringing forward new and safe ways to…
Read more about Records & Results: June 2020 Fine Art Sales July 7, 2020 Swann Records & Results: June 2020 Fine Art Sales A Full Month of Fine Art Sales at Swann Delivers Record Prices Swann offered four sales of Fine Art this June, each one proving audiences are undeterred by the remote…
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 Photomontage & Photography in Vintage Posters June 9, 2020 Vintage Posters Photomontage & Photography in Vintage Posters The June 18, 202 Graphic Design auction featured an array of rare and influential examples of photography in posters. While the popularization of photography and the tradition of printing posters…
Read more about Graphic Design: Featuring Modernist Posters from the Vienna Secession to 1990s Political Images May 25, 2020 Vintage Posters Graphic Design: Featuring Modernist Posters from the Vienna Secession to 1990s Political Images This year’s Graphic Design auction presents exciting posters and materials ranging from the Vienna Secession to political posters of the 1990s. At the heart of the auction are posters from two exceptional private estates: stunning European Avant-garde design from the estate of Alexander Kaplen, and unparalleled Art Deco works from the estate of Jeffrey Aminoff and Kathleen Faccini, a collection that was assembled in the 1980s and 90s.
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 Tadanori Yokoo: Pop Visionary April 6, 2020 Vintage Posters Tadanori Yokoo: Pop Visionary Internationally-renowned graphic artist and designer Tadanori Yokoo, who has been called “the grandmaster of Japanese pop-psych art,” got his start as a stage designer for avant garde theatre in Tokyo. It is no wonder why his eventual foray into poster design resulted in graphics that are unfailingly theatrical and dramatic—drawing on Psychedelia, mysticism, Pop culture and Japanese imagery.
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 2010-19: The Decade in Review January 13, 2020 Swann 2010-19: The Decade in Review The 2010s brought Swann a number of notable moments including memorable sales, the establishment of two new departments, and the celebration of the 75th anniversary of our first sale. Here we take a look at some of favorite highlights from the last ten years.
Read more about Sergio Trujillo Magnenat: A Pioneer in Colombian Graphic Design July 24, 2019 Vintage Posters Sergio Trujillo Magnenat: A Pioneer in Colombian Graphic Design Featured in our August 7 sale of Vintage Posters is a rare selection of four advertisements for the first Bolivarian Games by Sergio Trujillo Magnenat. The images are characterized by…
Read more about Records & Results: Graphic Design June 5, 2019 Vintage Posters Records & Results: Graphic Design Charles Loupot Reaches New Heights in Swann Graphic Design Auction debuts for Tadanori Yokoo Our auction of Graphic Design on May 23 offered a selection of vintage posters by…
Read more about Dramatized Sales Methods: How to close a sale in 1930 May 14, 2019 Vintage Posters Dramatized Sales Methods: How to close a sale in 1930 The art of salesmanship has long been dissected in search of methods to effectively and efficiently hook customers and close a deal. Our upcoming Graphic Design auction on May 23…
Read more about Graphic Design March 1, 2019 Vintage Posters Graphic Design At Auction May 23 Complete Catalogue Graphic Design continues to be a favorite among our poster auctions, with work by important designers like A.M. Cassandre, Charles Loupot, Ludwig Hohlwein, Jean…
Read more about Records & Results: Graphic Design May 9, 2018 Vintage Posters Records & Results: Graphic Design Our auction of Graphic Design on May 3 offered vintage posters that defined the styles of the twentieth century. In a highly-curated selection of just over 250 lots, the highlight…
Read more about How Car Posters Drove Graphic Design April 25, 2018 Vintage Posters How Car Posters Drove Graphic Design In the dawn of the motor car, most automobile purveyors relied on a “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality, touting ever-evolving technology and styles to drive car sales. A selection…
Read more about A Look Inside the Catalogue: Graphic Design March 30, 2018 Vintage Posters A Look Inside the Catalogue: Graphic Design At Auction May 3 Graphic Design This auction celebrates innovation in the field of graphic design, with a colorful offering of vintage posters, along with a coterie of fine…
Read more about Records & Results: Spring 2017 June 16, 2017 Swann Records & Results: Spring 2017 The spring 2017 season at Swann Galleries marked the 75th anniversary of our first auction. On March 27, 1942, Benjamin Swann held an auction dedicated to rare and antiquarian books.…
Read more about Records & Results: Graphic Design June 1, 2017 Vintage Posters Records & Results: Graphic Design Our May 25 auction of Graphic Design offered a cornucopia of inspired works spanning fin de siècle Art Nouveau masters to modernist posters. The top lot of the sale was Col…
Read more about Graphic Design in the Vienna Secession May 23, 2017 Vintage Posters Graphic Design in the Vienna Secession This post includes notes from the catalogue of our May 25 auction of Graphic Design, featuring an extensive selection of works out of the Wiener Werkstätte, the design school for the…
May 3, 2013 Art Press & Illustrated Books Christine von der Linn on Irving Oaklander Thursday, May 9th, our sale of Art, Press & Illustrated Books will feature the inventory of the late Irving Oaklander, known to all who sought rare books about graphic design,…