August 8, 2024Chloe LesserLGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Artist Profile: Lili Elbe Read more about Artist Profile: Lili Elbe Lili Elbe was a Danish painter, trans woman, and one of the earliest recipients of gender-affirming surgery in 1930. The child of Ane Marie Thomsen and spice merchant Mogens Wilhelm…
Read more about Auction Highlights: LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History — August 22, 2024 July 17, 2024 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Auction Highlights: LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History — August 22, 2024 Swann Galleries is excited to present the sixth iteration of the LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History. The sale will take place on Thursday, August 22, and will feature an exciting selection of fine art, illustration, photography, manuscripts & archives from the expansive range of the LGBTQ+ community.
Read more about 2023: Year in Review December 19, 2023 Swann 2023: Year in Review Swann Galleries continued to offer exceptional auctions of quality material in 2023. The year featured several collections, including a special selection of 100 works from the Stephen White collection in…
Read more about Records & Results: LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History — August 17, 2023 August 22, 2023 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Records & Results: LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History — August 17, 2023 The August 17, 2023, LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History auction was a testament to the growing interest in the newly defined area of collecting. In keeping with previous years,…
Read more about Tenderness in Queer Photography August 15, 2023 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Tenderness in Queer Photography When you think of queer photography what images come to mind? For a lot of people photographers like Robert Mapplethorpe or Peter Hujar come up, especially their more provocative works.…
Read more about 2022: Year in Review January 3, 2023 19th & 20th Century Literature 2022: Year in Review 2022 was a historic year for Swann in more ways than one. The house celebrated its 80th year of auctions, bringing with it the 70th anniversary of the first photography…
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 Beefcake Photography August 16, 2022 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Beefcake Photography Beefcake imagery was appropriated by the gay community for its own benefits to become a visual testimony of same-sex desire during the pre-Stonewall era.
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 Webinar August 16: A Conversation with the Memphis Brooks Museum August 10, 2021 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Webinar August 16: A Conversation with the Memphis Brooks Museum Monday, August 16 at 6PM ET Swann President Nicholas D. Lowry will be in conversation with Memphis Brooks Museum curator Dr. Rosamund Garrett and photographer Mark Seliger. They will discuss…
Read more about Upcoming Highlights: LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History—At Auction August 19, 2021 July 21, 2021 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Upcoming Highlights: LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History—At Auction August 19, 2021 This year Swann Galleries holds a third annual auction dedicated to the art, material culture, and history of the LGBTQ+ community, bringing to market both familiar artists as well as…
Read more about Play Ball!: The Unlikely Tradition of Baseball Ephemera at Swann April 1, 2021 Swann Play Ball!: The Unlikely Tradition of Baseball Ephemera at Swann With the arrival of baseball’s Opening Day, spring is truly here. Swann does not handle baseball memorabilia in the traditional sense, leaving the encapsulated gem-mint rookie cards and game-worn jerseys to…
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 August 2020 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Sale Brings $1M August 23, 2020 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History August 2020 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Sale Brings $1M Swann Sets New Auction Record for Tom of Finland The second iteration of Swann Galleries’ LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History sale on Thursday, August 13, 2020, was a resounding…
Read more about Artist Profile: Antonio Lopez August 12, 2020 Illustration Art Artist Profile: Antonio Lopez Antonio Lopez, the bold and blazingly talented fashion illustrator, designer, and stylist of the 1960s-80s was a true iconoclast. He broke racial and sexual barriers decades before it was considered…
Read more about Upcoming Highlights: LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History July 22, 2020 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Upcoming Highlights: LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Our second annual auction dedicated to the art, material culture, and history of the LGBTQ+ community features items by and from major figures and trailblazers; Richmond Barthé, JEB, Paul Cadmus, Antonio Lopez, Harvey Milk, Freddie Styles, Toyen, Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, David Wojnarowicz and more.
Read more about Forthcoming in August 2020: LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History January 30, 2020 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Forthcoming in August 2020: LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day, 1971. Upcoming at auction. Remembering & Creating History Swann Galleries’ inaugural Pride Sale in June 2019 was met with a full house and eager international…
Read more about Telling Queer Stories: The Challenges of Unearthing a History July 17, 2019 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Telling Queer Stories: The Challenges of Unearthing a History What are the inherent challenges in telling a history that is still being unearthed, and what can media and material objects add to that story? Against the backdrop of the…
Read more about Records & Results: The Pride Sale June 27, 2019 Swann Records & Results: The Pride Sale Historic Pride Sale at Swann Brings Market Premiers and Auction Records The Pride Sale on Thursday, June 20 offered a curated selection of LGBTQ+ art, photography, literature, autographs…
Read more about Notes from the Catalogue: Hank O’Neal & Allen Ginsberg June 17, 2019 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Notes from the Catalogue: Hank O’Neal & Allen Ginsberg The Gay Day Archive Today, at least a million spectators line the Pride parade route along Fifth Avenue each year. But in its earliest days, the celebration was a much smaller event…
Read more about Notes from the Catalogue: Candy Darling June 12, 2019 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History Notes from the Catalogue: Candy Darling “Every woman who wants to be beautiful should be beautiful” Among the many items up for auction in our June 20 Pride Sale, is an archive of personal effects of Candy Darling an enduring trans icon, American actress…
Read more about Cataloguing History: Why We Hold Specialized Auctions June 10, 2019 Auctions 101 Cataloguing History: Why We Hold Specialized Auctions Auctions offer a moment where the sometimes-incalculable significance of an object is quantified. The price is reached through collaboration: specialists, consignors, the market, and finally, bidders convene in the room,…
Read more about The First Auction of LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History at Swann May 29, 2019 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History The First Auction of LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History at Swann The Pride Sale An Exploration & Celebration of the Art, Influence & History of the LGBTQ+ Community We invited Eric Marcus, the founder and host of the Making Gay History…
Read more about The Pride Sale May 3, 2019 LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History The Pride Sale An Exploration & Celebration of the Art, Influence & History of the LGBTQ+ Community Our first Pride Sale, being held in the same month as WorldPride and the 50th anniversary…
Read more about Avery Willard Model Visits Swann April 15, 2014 Photographs & Photobooks Avery Willard Model Visits Swann New discoveries are often made during our auction previews. Sometimes a guest will identify a place depicted in a work of art, or recognize a name in an inscription. One…
Read more about Gay New York March 28, 2014 Photographs & Photobooks Gay New York Among the highlights of our April 17, 2014 auction of Vernacular Photography is a small archive of photographs and ephemera relating to cross-dressing and gay rights in New York City…