March 2, 2021Swann NewsPhotographs & Photobooks Dorothea Lange & Photography as a Tool for Social Change Read more about Dorothea Lange & Photography as a Tool for Social Change Dorothea Lange‘s iconic photographs from her time documenting for the Farm Security Administration, as well as her international travels, resonate through the decades since. Here we provide insight to the…
Read more about Fine Photographs: March 2021 Auction Highlights February 18, 2021 Photographs & Photobooks Fine Photographs: March 2021 Auction Highlights Fine photographs by Diane Arbus, Julia Margaret Cameron, Robert Frank, Adam Fuss, Dorothea Lange, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Irving Penn, portfolios by Ansel Adams, Berenice Abbott, Eugène Atget, Paul Strand, and more.
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 American Art 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: 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 Etched in History: Printmakers of the Federal Art Project April 2, 2020 African American Art 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 WPA Posters: Favorites from a Vintage Posters Specialist April 2, 2020 Vintage Posters 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 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 The Social Document: Dorothea Lange’s ‘Migrant Mother’ April 1, 2020 Photographs & Photobooks The Social Document: Dorothea Lange’s ‘Migrant Mother’ Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother is widely recognized as the most popular social documentary photograph of all time. During the course of her 40-year career, Lange’s style as a photographer proposed…
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 #5WomenArtists: Deborah Rogal’s List March 26, 2018 Photographs & Photobooks #5WomenArtists: Deborah Rogal’s List We’re jumping into Women’s History Month to offer a week of #5WomenArtists, inspired by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. We asked some women of Swann to tell…
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 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 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…