Eadweard Muybridge Retrospective at Corcoran Gallery

Eadweard Muybridge, Diverse group of 125 plates from the seminal Animal Locomotion, 1887. Sold for $81,000 on October 22, 2009.

Photographs by Eadweard Muybridge, who used a series of 24 parallel cameras with trip-wire triggers to photograph each stage of a horse's stride in order to determine whether or not a horse's legs completely leave the ground when galloping, have been successes at Swann's Photographs auctions throughout the 2009-2010 auction season. A group of 125 plates from his iconic Animal Locomotion series sold for $81,000 on October 22, 2009. 


Through July 18th, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. is hosting the first-ever retrospective of all of Muybridge's photographic work, featuring more than 300 objects, and including the only surviving Zoopraxiscope, his 1879 apparatus to project moving images. 

Nurse in Eisenstaedt's Iconic Photo Dies at 91

Alfred Eisenstaedt, V-J Day, Times Square, New York, silver print, 1945. Sold for $13,200 on December 7, 2004. 

While over the years, three different women have claimed to be the nurse in Alfred Eisenstaedt's iconic V-J Day, Times Square, New York photograph, the woman whom the photographer believed to be the woman embraced by an American sailor, Edith Shain, has passed away. On December 7, 2004, Swann sold a copy of this famous photograph, with Shain's signature and an inscription from her. It brought $13,200.  

Today's Top Lots: Modern Art & Jazz

Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Charles Alston and Beauford Delaney were among the top artists at today's Out of the Blue: Modern Art & Jazz auction at Swann. The African-American Fine Art auction's top lot was Norman Lewis's Bassist, an oil on canvas work from 1946 that sold for $48,000. The painting is one of the earliest abstracted jazz musicians that Lewis painted, and was the first to come to auction. 

Norman Lewis, Bassist, oil on canvas, 1946. Sold for $48,000.

Romare Bearden's oil monotypes depicting different jazz scenes were other highlights of the day, with Jazz Musician at Piano bringing $30,000. Trumpet Player sold for $24,000, rounding out the day's top three lots. The third monotype, Storyville: Special Request, brought $15,600.

Top: Romare Bearden, Jazz Musician at Piano, oil monotype, circa 1975. Sold for $30,000. Bottom: Romare Bearden, Trumpet Player, oil monotype, circa 1980. Sold for $24,000.

Jason Moran, Live at Swann

Last evening, Swann welcomed Blue Note pianist Jason Moran, in conjunction with Swann's Out of the Blue: Modern Art & Jazz auction, taking place tomorrow at 2pm. The sale, which unites African-American Fine Art and jazz music, was a perfect fit for Moran, who has scored compositions for video installations by contemporary artists Glenn Ligon and Kara Walker, and who grew up surrounded by John Biggers' artwork.

Modern Art & Jazz in the Wall Street Journal

Romare Bearden, Jazz Musician at Piano, oil monotype, circa 1975. Estimate: $15,000 to 25,000.

'Sale Shines Light on Unheralded Art Legacy' in today's Wall Street Journal discusses Swann's Out of the Blue: Modern Art & Jazz auction. Lauren Fedor writes of the link between Thursday's auction and the CareFusion Jazz Festival, also taking place in New York City this week, as well as the African-American Fine Art department's place in the art market. 

Romare Bearden, Back Porch Serenade, collage on masonite, with color inks and pencil, 1977. Estimate: $60,000 to 90,000. 

Romare Bearden is one of the most well-known artists in the sale, and his works, including three rare jazz monotypes and the collage, Back Porch Serenade, are expected to be among the sale's biggest sellers.

Ocean Liner Relics at Auction

Last week's Antiques column in the New York Times outlined the recent interest in salvaged material and memorabilia from doomed ocean liners. The piece mentioned Swann's March 4 sale of The Christopher Bou Collection of Ocean Liner & Aviation Memorabilia. The Bou Collection was just one of several ocean liner-related sales Swann has offered in recent years, and we may begin to offer annual auctions of this material.

African-American Fine Art Department Welcomes WBGO

Swann's African-American Fine Art department welcomed staff and donors from WBGO Jazz88.3FM this morning. The radio station is metropolitan New York's primary source for jazz, blues and R&B. With Thursday's auction, Out of the Blue: Modern Art & Jazz, jazz aficionados are previewing the artwork that connects the long-developed relationships between artists and jazz musicians. 

Yesterday's Top Lots

Ernest Hemingway, Three Stories and Ten Poems, first edition, 1923. Sold for $21,600; Richard Blome, A Geographical Description of the Four Parts of the World, 25 engraved maps, 1670. Sold for $19,200.

Yesterday's multi-part sale, Maps & Atlases, Books with Plates, Ephemera, Literature, Art & Illustrated Books, Decorative Graphics, found success across the different fields, with top lots in each of the different sections. 

The day's top lot was a first edition of Ernest Hemingway's Three Stories and Ten Poems, 1923, which brought $21,600. Rounding out the top three were Richard Blome's A Geographical Description of the Four Parts of the World, which included 25 engraved maps from 1670, selling for $19,200, and Humphrey Repton's Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening..., 10 hand-colored aquantint engravings, 1794, which brought $14,400.

Humphrey Repton, Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening..., 10 hand-colored aquantint engravings, London, 1794. Sold for $14,400.

Bob Thompson and the 1960s New York Art Scene

Bob Thompson stood apart from most of his contemporaries in the early 1960s. On one hand, he was the epitome of a New York bohemian artist working in a Clinton Street studio with no heat or hot water; on the other, he was a figurative painter inspired more by the traditions of historical paintings found in museums than the newness of pop culture. 


In 1960, Thompson was very much a part of the avant-garde art community as a participant in some of the earliest happenings, and a close follower of the downtown jazz scene. He was one of the regular artists who went to the Five Spot, and his friendship with jazz musician and composer Ornette Coleman is well-documented. Thompson also included his favorite musicians like Coleman, Charlie Haden, Nina Simone and Steve Lacy in his paintings, which can be viewed in the June 24th sale, Out of the Blue: Modern Art & Jazz.

Top: Bob Thompson, Tribute to an American Indian, gouache, pastel and pencil on printed paper, 1963. Estimate: $8,000 to 12,000. Bottom: Bob Thompson, Steve Lacy, pen and ink on wove paper, circa 1959-60. Estimate: $2,000 to 3,000. 

Hill-Bennett-Clover Brooklyn View

J.W. Hill, New York, from Brooklyn Heights, aquatint view of the city, engraved by W.J. Bennett after a painting by Hill, 1837 [after 1900]. Estimate: $3,500 to $5,000.

The Decorative Graphics portion of tomorrow's auction features W.J. Bennett's aquatint engraving, New York, from Brooklyn Heights, after a painting by J.W. Hill, which depicts a couple with their young children, gazing at Manhattan from their prospect in Brooklyn. The plate for this aquatint came into the hands of the Currier & Ives establishment. Alexandra Peers, in The New York Observer, points out that Furman Street, St. Paul's, Trinity Church and the Fulton Fish Market are all visible. Read more about the print here. 

Miles Davis in Montreal and Jazz in NYC

Anthony Barboza, Miles Davis in Malibu, CA, digital Epson print, 1985. Estimate: $1,000 to 1,500. At auction June 24th.

Jazz events have hit New York hard. While the CareFusion Jazz Festival New York  officially begins on June 17th, other jazz festivals and concerts have popped up around the city. Read The New York Times' list of recommended concerts and events here. 

Outside of the U.S., the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts currently has an exhibit devoted to jazz legend Miles Davis. "We Want Miles": Miles Davis vs. Jazz provides visual and auditory exposure to Miles Davis's work.  

Costume Designer Edward Gorey

Edward Gorey, Costume Design for Jonathan Harker, Dracula, watercolor and ink on paper, 1977. Sold for $7,800 on June 8, 2010.

Costume designer Edward Gorey's original watercolor for Dennis Rosa's 1977 Broadway production, Dracula, sold for $7,800 in the June 8th American Art / Contemporary Art sale. Gorey won a Tony Award for his costume design, as well as an additional nomination for Scenic Design for the show. 

Particularly well known for his popular animated introduction to the PBS series Mystery and his playfully imaginative books, self-illustrated with a decidedly ominous Victorian and Edwardian air, Gorey is regarded as one of the greatest American illustrators of the 20th century. 

Calder Mobile Sets French Record

Alexander Calder, Untitled, circa 1952. Sold for €2.3m at Artcurial on May 31st.

The Alexander Calder untitled mobile that was on view at Swann Galleries the weekend of May 7th set a French auction record for the artist, selling for €2.3 million on May 31st. According to The Art Newspaper, "the artist's market has remained steady despite economic fluctuations." Read more about the mobile here. 

Vintage Light Fixtures Spark a Trend

Vintage light fixtures, so hot right now. According to a recent article in The New York Times, exposed-filament bulbs—reproductions of Thomas Edison's first light bulb— are a current decorating trend in trendy restaurants throughout New York City and across the country. While most homes and offices have made the crossover to energy-efficient bulbs, the filament light "emulates candlelight and flatters both dinner and diner." 


But why stop there? Hearken back to the time before Mr. Edison's invention, when candles provided light, warmth and ambiance. These lighting fixture trade catalogues from Young Ewen & Co., Philadelphia, featured in the Ephemera portion of the June 17th auction, include 42 linen-backed hand-colored albumen photographic prints, circa 1888, of automatic spring extension lamps. The double-sided advertisement for lamp fixtures, which were to be filled with candles, are clearly back en vogue.  


Bradley & Hubbard, Young Ewen & Co. Philadelphia, trade catalogue with 42 linen-backed hand-colored albumen photographic prints, circa 1888. Estimate: $500 to 750.

Babar in Español

Laurent de Brunhoff, Illustration for Lesson 7 in Babar's Spanish Lessons, gouache, watercolor and ink on stiff illustration paper, circa 1965. Estimate: $1,200 to 1,800. 

Was childhood classic Babar a multilingual jack-of-all trades or a pachyderm imperialist? In this illustration from Babar's Spanish Lessons, which was originally published as the elephant's French lessons, Celeste, Flora, Pom and Alexander help The Teacher make a chocolate cake, with the ingredients spelled carefully in Spanish. Alexandra Peers in The New York Observer notes of the illustration, at auction in the Art, Architecture, Press & Illustrated Books portion of the June 17th sale, that "the plushy monarch's imperialist ambitions aside, he certainly was keen to proselytize Western languages."

Yesterday's Top Lots: American Art / Contemporary Art

Louise Nevelson's Maquette for Monumental Sculpture III, a welded black steel sculpture from 1977, was the top lot in yesterday's American Art / Contemporary Art auction at Swann. It brought $78,000—its presale estimate was $50,000 to $75,000. 

The sale's other two top lots were Willem de Kooning's lithograph with hand coloring in watercolor and gouache, The Devil at the Keyboard, 1976, which brought $40,800, and Guy Carlton Wiggins' Winter at the Plaza, oil on canvas board, circa 1950s, which sold for $31,200. 

Of the top 20 lots, 12 were from the Contemporary portion of the sale (5 of which were by Andy Warhol), while the remainder were from the American Art sale, showing the breadth of material collectors were interested in across the entire sale. 

New York Jazz Hot Spot

The CareFusion Jazz Festival New York lists Swann Galleries as a New York Jazz Hot Spot in anticipation of our June 24th auction, Out of the Blue: Modern Art & Jazz. The CareFusion Jazz Series is taking place from June 17 - 26 at various jazz venues throughout New York City. 

Author of Jared French Catalogue Raisonné Visits Swann

Nancy Grimes and friends reviews works by Jared French

Nancy Grimes, author of Jared French's Myths, the catalogue raisonne for the artist, stopped by the preview for Tuesday's American Art/Contemporary Art auction today. She reviewed the many works by French to be offered in the sale. Among these were sketches for his paintings, such as Poetry, below.

Hope, Progress, Change, Vote

Shepard Fairey, Hope, color offset lithograph, 2008. Estimate: $3,000 to 5,000.

Shepard Fairey's iconic images of Barack Obama, screened in red, white and blue with the simple words "Change," "Hope" and "Progress" are indelible images from the 2008 presidential campaign. Regardless of politics, no one can deny the powerful impact these straightforward images played in his election. Now you can own a piece of history when these prints go up for auction on June 8th as part of the American & Contemporary Art auction at Swann.  

Shepard Fairy, Progress, color screenprint, 2008. Estimate: $3,000 to 5,000.