March 26, 2019Kelsie JankowskiAfrican American Art Notes from the Catalogue: Howardena Pindell Read more about Notes from the Catalogue: Howardena Pindell Howardena Pindell is among the contemporary artists included in our April 4, 2019 sale of African-American Fine Art. Her work explores texture, color and structures often incorporating punched circles and…
Read more about Contemporary in 3D May 16, 2018 Contemporary Art Contemporary in 3D Our May 22 auction of Contemporary Art features a selection of recent sculpture and multiples by some of the world’s most famous living artists. Here are a few of our favorites.…
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 Walker Evans Print, The Only One of Its Kind April 13, 2018 Photographs & Photobooks A Walker Evans Print, The Only One of Its Kind The cover lot of our April 19 auction, The Knowing Eye: Photographs & Photobooks is the only known extant print of Walker Evans’s graphic silver print, River Rouge Plant, Detroit, Michigan…
Read more about Dream vs. Reality in the Civil War April 6, 2018 Printed & Manuscript Americana Dream vs. Reality in the Civil War Personal correspondence and manuscript material are always a highlight in our auctions of Printed & Manuscript Americana. On April 12, we’ll be offering a selection letters from Thomas Belknap, a clerk…
Read more about William Johnson’s Jitterbugs March 30, 2018 African American Art William Johnson’s Jitterbugs Two extremely scarce prints from William H. Johnson’s Jitterbugs series will make their auction debut with African-American Fine Art on April 5. The series was conceived and executed during Johnson’s tenure in New York…
Read more about Monet: The Master at 16 March 8, 2018 Prints & Drawings Monet: The Master at 16 Before the term “Impressionism” and the overthrow of the established art world, Claude Monet was just a creative teenager. A rare example of Monet’s early experiments with en plein air…
Read more about Erik Nitsche’s Modernist Vision February 23, 2018 Vintage Posters Erik Nitsche’s Modernist Vision One of many highlights in our March 1 sale of Vintage Posters is a run of posters designed by Erik Nitsche in a series of campaigns for General Dynamics. Nitsche’s…
Read more about Photographer Lewis Hine & The Invention of the Photo Story January 29, 2018 Photographs & Photobooks Photographer Lewis Hine & The Invention of the Photo Story Daile Kaplan Reflects on Lewis Hine’s Legacy Swann Vice President and Director of Photographs & Photobooks Daile Kaplan is the preeminent scholar of Lewis Hine. Her books on his work…
Read more about Arthur Luiz Piza November 14, 2017 Contemporary Art Arthur Luiz Piza Arthur Luiz Piza, a Brazilian mixed media artist trained in Paris, leads an ever-growing section of Latin American art in our biannual auctions of Contemporary Art. An especially unusual piece…
Read more about Alma Thomas’s Journey to Abstraction September 27, 2017 African American Art Alma Thomas’s Journey to Abstraction Alma Thomas is renowned for her brightly colored abstract works that seem to dance across canvas and paper, but how did she develop that iconic style? Two paintings that reveal…
Read more about A Nineteenth-Century Honolulu Gossip Rag September 25, 2017 Printed & Manuscript Americana A Nineteenth-Century Honolulu Gossip Rag The book arrived in Honolulu by ship from San Francisco on New Year’s Day, 1863, and soon caused a stir throughout the city. It begins by revealing the author’s intent…
Read more about Who is Françoise Gilot? September 12, 2017 Prints & Drawings Who is Françoise Gilot? The top lot in our September 19 auction of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings is a masterful lithograph by Pablo Picasso of his muse, Françoise Gilot. The following…
Read more about The Symbiotic Relationship Between Tattoos & Posters July 27, 2017 Vintage Posters The Symbiotic Relationship Between Tattoos & Posters An unusual lot in our upcoming auction of Vintage Posters features a colorful individual: Captain Costentenus, a Greek Albanian man tattooed from head to foot. Captain Costentenus was…
Read more about Abram Games’s Sultry Poster Causes a Stir July 17, 2017 Vintage Posters Abram Games’s Sultry Poster Causes a Stir Our August 2 auction of Vintage Posters features the largest — and best — selection of war posters we have ever offered. As England prepared to enter World War Two,…
Read more about Winslow Homer’s Personal “Bible” June 9, 2017 American Art Winslow Homer’s Personal “Bible” On a visit to his Prout’s Neck studio, Winslow Homer’s friend and fellow artist John W. Beatty picked up a dogeared book and asked him if he found it of…
Read more about Recently Rediscovered Watercolor by John Marin June 7, 2017 American Art Recently Rediscovered Watercolor by John Marin A recently rediscovered watercolor by John Marin will be making its auction debut in our June 15 sale of American Art. The work displays two features for which the artist…
Read more about Nahui Olin: Muse & Maker June 5, 2017 Art Press & Illustrated Books Nahui Olin: Muse & Maker Nahui Olin, the pseudonym of Carmen Mondragón, was a Mexican Surrealist active in the 1920s and ’30s. She hailed from the upper echelons of Mexican society, and fraternized with the…
Read more about A Personal Collection of Bernhardt Wall Books May 30, 2017 Art Press & Illustrated Books A Personal Collection of Bernhardt Wall Books Bernhardt Wall was an American illustrator active in the first half of the twentieth century. A selection of fine, early or test examples of his work were given to his…
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…
Read more about Notes from the Catalogue: Robert Motherwell’s Early Surrealist Period May 2, 2017 Contemporary Art Notes from the Catalogue: Robert Motherwell’s Early Surrealist Period Notes from the catalogue of our May 11 auction of Contemporary Art. Though Motherwell is known for his integral role in the New York school of Abstract Expressionism, the…
Read more about William Bradford & The Arctic Regions April 19, 2017 Photographs & Photobooks William Bradford & The Arctic Regions The following are notes from the catalogue for our April 20 sale of Images & Objects: Photographs & Photobooks. William Bradford, a celebrated American painter, was also a…
Read more about Los Angeles Assemblage Artists March 28, 2017 African American Art Los Angeles Assemblage Artists From the catalogue of our April 6 sale of African-American Fine Art. Assemblage emerged as a dynamic new art form in Los Angeles in the late 1960s. The…
Read more about John Augustine Washington III & Mount Vernon March 27, 2017 Printed & Manuscript African Americana John Augustine Washington III & Mount Vernon From the catalogue for our March 30 sale of Printed & Manuscript African Americana. The sale will feature a run of 16 lots of letters and ephemera from Mount Vernon…
Read more about Elizabeth Catlett’s Varied Mediums December 11, 2015 African American Art Elizabeth Catlett’s Varied Mediums An accomplished graphic artist and sculptor, Elizabeth Catlett was known for her poignant depictions of African-American life, Mexican life (after her relocation to Mexico following a grant from the Rosenwald…
Read more about Nicholas Lowry on Travel Posters from the Julius Paul Collection December 2, 2014 Vintage Posters Nicholas Lowry on Travel Posters from the Julius Paul Collection Swann President and Posters specialist Nicholas D. Lowry writes beautifully about the December 17 auction of Travel Posters from the Julius Paul Collection. Read on for his notes on the sale.…
Read more about Notes from the Catalogue: Diego Rivera’s Printmaking Career October 25, 2014 Old Master Through Modern Prints Notes from the Catalogue: Diego Rivera’s Printmaking Career Diego Rivera (1886-1957), the painter who helped establish the Mexico Mural Movement and was a leading figure in Social Realism, was born in Guanajuato in North-Central Mexico. In 1897, Rivera…
Read more about Notes from the Catalogue: Dr. Amalia Amaki on Dr. Richard A. Long October 7, 2014 African American Art Notes from the Catalogue: Dr. Amalia Amaki on Dr. Richard A. Long Dr. Amalia Amaki, noted art historian and artist, wrote the catalogue introduction for The Richard A. Long Collection of African-American Art. Dr. Amaki, a native Atlantan, received her Ph.D in…
Read more about Keep Calm and Poster On July 11, 2014 Vintage Posters Keep Calm and Poster On The image is so iconic, it’s been co-opted countless times, but in Swann Galleries’ upcoming Vintage Posters auction we have the original: a 1939 Keep Calm and Carry On poster. When…
Read more about The Armory Show at 100: An Introduction to the Catalogue October 16, 2013 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings The Armory Show at 100: An Introduction to the Catalogue This is the first in a series of posts about Swann’s upcoming November 5 auction titled The Armory Show at 100: America’s Introduction to Modern Art. The following essay by…
Read more about Notes from the Catalogue: Artist Jane Peterson May 31, 2013 American Art Notes from the Catalogue: Artist Jane Peterson Our June 13 auction of American Art features five unique works by Jane Peterson, an American artist born in Elgin, Illinois in 1876. Born into relative poverty, she showed artistic promise…
Read more about Notes from the Catalogue: John Randel’s Map of New York May 14, 2013 Maps & Atlases Notes from the Catalogue: John Randel’s Map of New York Among the highlights of Swann’s June 6 auction of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Historical Prints, Ephemera is a Final Commissioner’s Map of New York City by John Randel,…
Read more about Notes from the Catalogue: Picasso’s Dora Maar April 29, 2013 Old Master Through Modern Prints Notes from the Catalogue: Picasso’s Dora Maar Among the highlights of our May 1, 2013 auction of Old Master Through Modern Prints is a brilliant, richly-inked impression of Pablo Picasso’s aquatint, scraper, burin and drypoint, Femme au fauteuil II: Dora Maar.…