Britain's Underground, the New York Times, and Yale Center for British Art

Frederick C. Herrick, London's Underground / Nightly Carnival, 1924. 
Sold on November 12, 2007 for $13,000.

Art for All: British Posters for Transit opened yesterday at the Yale Center for British Art. A majority of the posters, which were designed for the 1908 London Underground poster campaign that "not only encouraged ridership on the public transport system, but also helped to foster a civic identity for the city of London," came from the collection of Harry S. Hacker. Today's Antiques column in the New York Times describes how he got "caught up in a bidding war" at Swann, where he purchased Frederick C. Herrick's London's Underground / Nightly Carnival for double its $5,000 to $7,000 estimate.

Auctions Hit the Commercial Mainstream

Tell someone you work at an auction house, and people inevitably think of livestock auctions, with the auctioneer muttering numbers faster than most people can speak. While our auctions go by quickly—we average 100 lots per hour—there is still a natural ebb and flow to the speed of the event. Yet auctions seem to provide a constant source of entertainment, as evidenced by a new crop of commercials that take the auction to the mainstream. 

Here, a savvy elementary school student ups the ante of the age-old art of lunch trading by turning the event into an auction. Additionally, a new Miller Lite commercial replicates the Antiques Roadshow set. 

Gorky and Burkhardt

Arshile Gorky, Still Life with Table and Pitcher, pencil on cream wove paper, circa 1930s. Estimate: $4,000 to 6,000.

Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective, the recent show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, opens in Los Angeles at the Museum of Contemporary Art on June 6th. A concurrent exhibition, Burial of Gorky, focuses on the relationship between Gorky and his friend and mentor, Hans Burkhardt, who, when he left New York for Los Angeles in the late 1930s, brought with him the largest collection of Gorky's work outside of the artist's own collection. Burkhardt was also influential in helping Gorky gain acceptance by numerous West Coast curators and collectors.

The three Gorky pencil drawings in the June 8th American & Contemporary Art sale are all inscribed "By Gorky for Hans Burkhardt," and were gifts from Burkhardt to the current owner. 

The Roadshow in San Jose Tonight

Tune in to the Antiques Roadshow tonight to hear Swann Galleries President and Posters specialist Nicho Lowry discuss what MercuryNews.com is calling "a behind-the-scenes look at the incredible collection of political posters at the Hoover Institution on the Stanford University campus." This is the third and final episode of the show taped last summer in San Jose. 

Yesterday's Top Lots

Top: Edward Weston, Nude (Charis), silver print, 1935. Sold for $33,600. Bottom: Imogen Cunningham, Magnolia Blossom, silver print, 1925; printed late 1960s-early 1970s. Sold for $31,200.

Yesterday's Photographic Literature & Important Photographs auction was well-rounded, with both photographs and photo books comprising the top three lots of the day. The top two photography lots were Edward Weston's Nude (Charis), silver print, 1935, which sold for $33,600 and Imogen Cunningham's Magnolia Blossom, silver print, 1925; printed late 1960s-early 1970s, which brought $31,200, and which you can read more about here. 

The top photographic literature lot was Doris Ulmann's Roll, Jordan, Roll, signed and numbered by Ulmann and Julia Peterkin on the colophon and with an extra photogravure plate signed by Ulmann, 1933, sold for $28,800.

Doris Ulmann, Roll, Jordan, Roll. Text by Julia Peterkin, illustrated with 90 full-page, hand-pulled copper photogravures, 1933.

Walls Paper, Deconstructed

Gordon Matta-Clark, Walls Paper, limited edition with Matta-Clark's signature and edition notations 50/100 in ink, 1973. Estimate: $4,000 to 6,000.

Gordon Matta-Clark, whose work is featured in the Photographic Literature portion of Thursday's sale, brought an inspired and playful quality to his highly experimental and diverse art projects. All speak to a commitment to the constructed (and deconstructed) environment, as well as a willingness to not only speak art, but live and eat it. Matta Clark's mediums extended from chain saws and buildings to the photographic "printingredients" (food analogies fill his work). Because many of his projects were ephemeral, the camera served not only to document, but to reimagine and contextualize his artworks.


In Walls Paper, the project consisted of photographs of the crumbling interior walls of soon-to-be demolished Bronx tenement buildings. Matta-Clark then printed them in color on thin newsprint. The cropping and manipulation of color and tone transformed a gritty street into an imaged, and slightly magical place. This is not unlike Matta-Clark's best-known project, Splitting, in which he cut a house in Englewood, NJ in half and then cropped its corners. 

How do you Photograph a Snowflake?

Wilson A. Bentley, group of 5 photographs of snow crystals, gold-chloride toned photomicrographs from glass plate negatives, circa 1903-1910. Estimate: $8,000 to 12,000. And group of 5 photographs of frost studies, including a frozen grasshopper, dandelion, spider web, droplets and morning dew, gold-chloride toned photomicrographs from glass plate negatives, circa 1903-1910. Estimate: $6,000 to 9,000.


Toddlers learn that no two snowflakes are alike; yet the most inquisitive of young minds have been known to ask the question, "How do you know that?" Credit Wilson A. Bentley for the answer, as he was the first person to photograph a single snow crystal in 1885. By adapting a microscope to a bellows camera, Bently captured over 5,000 images of snow crystals in his lifetime, and discovered the now commonly-known fact that no two snowflakes are the same. 


Bentley wrote: "Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes or ['ice flowers,'] were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Each crystal was a masterpiece of design; and no one design was ever repeated." A group of five photographs of snow crystals, and a separate group of five frost studies, are each in Thursday's sale of Important Photographs & Photographic Literature. 

IFDA Does NYC at Swann

There's more to decorating a home than a comfy couch and a dining room table. Monday evening, May 17th, Swann is hosting the International Furnishing and Design Association as part of the 2010 IFDA Does NYC Festival. Swann's specialists will discuss why art purchases are an integral component in personalizing a space—large and small. Interested in attending? Contact ifdanyny@verizon.net or the phone numbers above. 

Benefit Auctions: Garrison Art Center, May 15th

This Saturday, May 15th, the "dynamic duo" George and Nicholas Lowry will head to Garrison, NY, to host the Artists on Location live art auction at the Garrison Art Center. The benefit auction, which features Hudson River School style paintings, is held every fall and spring. According to localputnam.com, "80 plus artists begin at 6am in their favorite Hudson Valley location, most often with a majestic Hudson River view, and return with the plein air paintings to the Art Center, where viewing begins at 3:30pm and the live auction at 5:00 sharp." 

A to VanDerZee

David Hammons, Untitled (Fly Swatter), wire mesh stapled on a wooden pole, 1992. Sold on February 23, 2010 for $66,000.  

Writers from Maine Antique Digest were in attendance at Swann's African-American Fine Art auction on February 23rd. From the audience, they witnessed first-hand the spectacle between competing bidders on the telephone and in the audience. While once upon a time, one had to physically be present to bid at auction, today, a majority of Swann's bidders buy items over the telephone or online. Yet the article "African-American Art from A to VanDerZee" notes that:


"This sale is one of the few that still have a social component, with plenty of people in the audience, some of them even willing to buy in person. 'We always have a great room,' said [Nigel] Freeman. 'We always have a lot of people there to see what happens. It was nice to see the top lot [Malvin Gray Johnson's Swing Low, Sweet Chariot] go to a room bidder, because we obviously have a lot of heavy phone bidding. So that and the bidding frenzy on the David Hammons'—which also went in the room—made it an exciting event.'"

Today's Top Lots: Early Printed Books

The Early Printed Books & Manuscripts from the Inventory of the late Lawrence Feinberg auction sold 97% of its offerings and $100,000 above its top estimate. 


The day's top lot, a collection of over 275 incunabula leaves, of which over 150 are catalogued and organized in Proctor order in 8 albums, from the 1460s-90s, sold for $38,400—its pre-sale estimate was $2,500-3,500. The lot went to a bidder in the room after a tremendous amount of phone and absentee bidding. 

A manuscript in Latin, by Flavius Eutropius, Breviarium historiae Romanae, from later 15th century Italy, had a pre-sale estimate of $800-1,200; it sold for $19,200.  

A manuscript of Greek Orthodox liturgy, instructions for priests written in Greek, likely from the 15th century, brought $14,400, well above its estimate of $600-900.


You may view all of the sales results here. 

Collecting: Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams, Hills Brothers coffee can with a sepia-tone reproduction of Adams's Winter Morning, Yosemite Valley, California, 1969. Sold in December 2007 for $1,080.

"The name Ansel Adams is synonymous with pictures of America's landscape. A photographic artist known for his beautiful images of Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks, his works remain as popular today as they were during his lifetime."


Daile Kaplan introduces Ansel Adams's photographs, coffee tin and coffee table books as collectible items in the May 2010 issue of Antiques Roadshow Insider. 


Kaplan then focuses on Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, saying that "there are pictures that come to embody photographic art, and Moonrise... is one of them. With the emergence of the first photography galleries in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Adams' name regularly appeared on exhibition rosters, and Moonrise came to signify photography as a form of self-expression. Collectors began demanding copies of Moonrise, and by the 1970s, Adams had a backlog of orders for the print." 

Madison Square Park Benefit Auction

Nicholas Lowry auctioning Antony Gormley's artwork.

On May 4th, Swann Galleries' principal auctioneer and president Nicholas Lowry helped mark the Eighth Annual Spring Dinner & Auction benefiting the Madison Square Park Conservancy. The non-profit group, dedicated to the beautification of Madison Square Park, raised over $440,000 for cultural programming and park maintenance. Swann Galleries is located just two blocks east of the park, which is currently hosting the exhibit, Antony Gormley: Event Horizon, which features 31 life-size iron and fiberglass body forms scattered throughout the park and atop the roofs of many buildings in the adjacent Flatiron District.  

Artcurial and a Calder Mobile

Alexander Calder, Untitled, circa 1952. Estimate: $660,000 to 930,000 at Artcurial.

One of Swann's International Auctioneers partners, Artcurial, is offering an Alexander Calder mobile, Untitled, circa 1952, that measures nearly 79 inches, in its May 31st auction. The mobile is on view to a New York audience Friday and Saturday only at Swann. 


The mobile is engraved with Calder's signature on one of the leaves, preceded by the words 'Pour Vilar'—the work comes from the estate of Jean Vilar who founded the Avignon Festival and was a close friend of Calder's.

For more information, please contact Martin Guesnet at +33 (0)1 42 99 20 31 or at mguesnet@artcurial.com. 

Cunningham's Magnolia Blossom

Imogen Cunningham, Magnolia Blossom, silver print, 1925; printed late 1960s-early 1970s. Estimate: $12,000 to 18,000.

Imogen Cunningham's life-long love for flora, combined with her keen understanding of line, textural contrast and lighting, bring forth the magnolia blossom's pure form and soft sensuality through shadow and depth in Magnolia Blossom. The photograph is a highlight in the May 20th Photographic Literature and Important Photographs Auction. 

While visiting her sister in Washington, D.C., Cunningham purchased a magnolia, the flower that later became the subject of many of her signature images. Since she felt that her feminine imagery separated her at a time when most photographers were male, Cunningham began formalizing her photographs through abstraction and tight cropping, demonstrating her understanding of modernism while simultaneously introducing a delicate eroticism to her imagery. 

Cartier-Bresson at Swann and MoMA

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Hyères, France, silver print, 1932; printed 1980s. Estimate: $7,000 to 10,000.

Henri Cartier-Bresson's photographs capture "the decisive moment," a term he coined for the second the lens captures an image indelibly on film. His photographs and photographic literature, including a first edition of The Decisive Moment, appear at auction on May 20th in Swann's Photographic Literature and Important Photographs auction. 

Once you've previewed Swann's photographs, you can view more of Cartier-Bresson's photographs right now at the MoMA, in Henri Cartier-Bresson: A Modern Century. The exhibit will then travel to the Art Institute of Chicago.  

Today's Top Lots--Modern Dance at Modernist Posters

Modern dance stole the show at today's Modernist Posters auction. Walter Schnackenberg's portfolio, Ballet und Pantomime, with 22 plates, 1920, was the day's top lot, bringing $19,200. Paul Colin's poster, Champs Élysées/ Les Féeries Fantastiques de la Loie Fuller, 1925, of Fuller, La Belle Époque's most acclaimed dancer, sold for $18,000. Read more here. 

View the Auctions Live

Did you know that you can view Swann's auctions live? Our auctions are streamed live at artfact.com, where you can see—and hear—Nicholas Lowry, Todd Weyman, and auctioneer-in-training Kimberly Grey at the podium.  


Check it out today at 1:30pm, when the Modernist Posters auction begins streaming live.