Surgeons OverSeas Benefit Auction - November 30 at Swann

Swann Galleries is proud to be hosting the annual fundraiser for Surgeons OverSeas on Wednesday, November 30, at 6:30 pm. In addition to a presentation by SOS founders Drs. Peter Kingham & Adam Kushner, the evening will include a benefit auction by Swann President Nicho Lowry. Among items up for grabs are a Tour of Rockefeller Center, a three-night weekend in South Hampton, an original Salvador Dali print, and NY Giants tickets. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres will also be served.

Surgeons OverSeas, the flagship program of the Society of International Humanitarian Surgeons, aims to provide support to local surgeons, hospitals and ministries of health to assist them in developing long-term surgical capacity. Tickets are still available for this event, which supports very worthy cause - they can be purchased on-line, here.

Barbara Kafka Book Signing: The Intolerant Gourmet

Swann is pleased to host a book signing by best-selling cookbook author--and recipient of the James Beard Foundation lifetime achievement award--Barbara Kafka.


Kafka will be signing copies of her latest book, THE INTOLERANT GOURMET: Glorious Food without Gluten & Lactose.


Please join us for gluten- and lactose-free hors d'oeuvres on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 6 to 8 pm. (Books will be available for purchase)

RSVP to 212-254-4710, ext. 305 or rsvp@swanngalleries.com

Thursday's Top Lots: American Art & Contemporary Art

Last week's American Art / Contemporary Art auction resulted in new records and strong prices all around, with both sections bringing strong prices. The top lot was Robert Gwathmey's excellent Prologue II, a large oil on canvas that sold for $72,000, an record price for the artist at auction. Prologue II and his Southern Farmer, which went for $43,200, were the top two lots in the American Art portion of the sale.

Robert Gwathmey, Prologue II, oil on canvas, 1962.

Wayne Thiebaud's Blighted Area is the earliest work by the artist to ever come to auction. The piece - made before Thiebaud started painting the vibrant candy for which he is known - was painted circa 1955 and brought $45,600, the top lot among the Contemporary Art.

Wayne Thiebaud, Blighted Area, oil on board, circa 1955.

Another major item was a group of drawings by Robert Mangold. Arc Studies: 4 Drawings, 1974, color pencil drawings on paper which explore material, shape, line and color, sold for $31,200.

Robert Mangold, Arc Studies: 4 Drawings, color pencil on paper, 1974.

Robert Gwathmey Paintings in Tomorrow's American Art Auction

Tomorrow morning’s auction of American Art features strong examples of drawings and paintings by a wide range of artists. Some of the most striking works in the sale are by noted Southern artist Robert Gwathmey (1903 – 1988). Two pieces in particular, Prologue II and Southern Farmer, are the largest figural works by the artist to ever come up at auction.

Robert Gwathmey, Prologue II, oil on canvas, 1962. Estimate $60,000 to $90,000.

Gwathmey is known as one of the most celebrated painters of African-American life in the rural South. An outsider to the African-American communities he depicted, his observational and figurative works are rendered without sentimentality, imbuing an unromanticized dignity into his subjects. His high level of empathy was aided by his own time working on a tobacco farm in North Carolina.  He recalled, “Harvesting tobacco is difficult… I picked tobacco because I wanted to know the whole story… I couldn’t sit there and make a sort of representational [painting] and calling it priming tobacco, if I hadn’t done it myself.”

Robert Gwathmey, Southern Farmer, oil on canvas, 1966. Estimate $40,000 to $60,000.

As an artist, he was heavily influenced by Picasso, whose influence can be seen in the tobacco leaves in Southern Farmer, and also largely influenced through his life’s travels. As a young adult he worked on a ship, stopping in ports in Europe and the Americas, and visited museums along the way. His style may also have been influenced by his visits to European cathedrals, and he mentioned at one point that “after visiting the cathedral in Chartres I was willing to believe that the stained glass there was the finest visual art expression ever.”

Full Frontal Warhol Screenprint to be Auctioned for Charity

AndyWarhol, Untitled (Sex Parts),  screenprint printed in black on a green cloth, man's work shirt, circa 1980

Among the many fine Warhol pieces in tomorrow's auction of Contemporary Art, is an Untitled screenprint printed in black on green cloth, circa 1980 depicting a man's penis--a well endowed one at that.


The fabric comes from a man's work shirt, the print is 14 by 11 inches, and the work is signed by Warhol in ink.


Proceeds of the sale of this lot will benefit the Lifelong AIDS Alliance, a Seattle-based non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of thousands by providing health insurance, healthy meals, housing, education and dignity to people living with HIV/AIDS. LLAA is the Pacific Northwest's leading AIDS service organization.

Friday's Top Lots: Rare & Important Travel Posters

Friday’s Rare & Important Travel Posters sale was a tremendous success, and a host of new and returning collectors came out in unexpected force to bid on the scarce and desirable lots.

White Star Line / Titanic (detail), New York, 1912.

The top four lots all set auction records with their very strong prices. A White Star Line / Titanic poster from 1912 advertising third-class tariffs on the ill-fated ship’s return voyage sold for $72,000.

Montauk Beach, New York, circa 1929.

Montauk Beach, circa 1929, a poster by an unknown designer, marks the development of Montauk in the late 1920s as a destination for the wealthy, and evokes the spirit of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby. Friday’s sale was the first time this poster has been seen at auction, and it brought $31,000.

Gert Sellheim, Australia / Surf Club, Melbourne, circa 1936.

Gert Sellheim’s modernist Australia / Surf Club, circa 1936, doubled the previous record for any poster promoting Australia, selling for $24,000.

Tom Purvis, Cruden Bay, London, circa 1925.

A golf poster designed by Tom Purvis, one of two posters Purvis designed for the Scottish golf destination, sold for $18,000. Cruden Bay, circa 1925, set a record for any poster designed by Purvis sold at auction.

Posters for the Windy City

Among the many advertisements for tempting domestic and exotic locations in Friday's Rare & Important Travel Posters auction, is a particularly fine selection of images promoting Chicago.

Ervine Metzl, Chicago, 1924.

From 1924 are two images for Chicago Rapid Transit intended to draw visitors to the city's attractions: Ervine Metzl's evening view of buildings obscured by trees, which is reminiscent of the Beggarstaff brothers' cut-out collage style; and Willard Frederic Elmes's unusually large poster depicting a statue of war hero and politician John Alexander Logan that sits in Grant Park.

Hernando G. Villa, Chicago World's Fair 1933.

There are also five posters for the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, which had the theme "A Century of Progress." These include Weimer Pursell's exceedingly rare Wings of a Century, which was designed to promote the Railroads on Parade pageant; Hernando G. Villa's design featuring a male figure with a laurel wreath on his head, indicating that it may have been a repurposed image from the 1932 Olympic Games; and a poster of the popular Skyride attraction by an unknown artist.

Unknown designer, Skyride, 1933.

Yesterday's Top Lots: Art, Press & Illustrated Books / 19th & 20th Century Literature

Yesterday’s auction of Art, Press & Illustrated Books / 19th & 20thCentury Literature saw activity in all sections of the catalogue, and for every successfully sold item, there were numerous underbidders. 

Andy Warhol, 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy, signed artist's book.

The top lot in the Art, Press & Illustrated books section was an inscribed and signed copy of 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy by Andy Warhol, an artist’s book of 18 lithographs by Warhol, one of 150 copies produced. Among many quirky details surrounding the book are that Warhol hosted “coloring parties” to color in the cats, and the fact that it actually only contains 16 cats named Sam, despite its title. It sold for $45,600.

Beatrix Potter, Mrs. Rabbit with basket and umbrella in the forest, ink and watercolor drawing, 1927.

In keeping with the animal theme amongst top lots, another major item was an original Beatrix Potter illustration:Mrs. Rabbit with basket and umbrella in the forest, an ink and watercolor drawing after Potter's original iconic image published in The Tale of Peter Rabbit, London, 1902. In 1927 Potter re-drew fifty versions of her illustrations and offered them for sale to raise money for the National Trust. This particular drawing brought $14,400, a record for one of these scarce images of Mrs. Rabbit.

James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris, 1922.

The top lot among 19th & 20th Century Literature was a 1922 copy of James Joyce’sUlysses, which sold for $14,400. Number 349 from an edition of 750 copies printed on handmade paper, it was published by Shakespeare and Company in Paris and was originally sold by book dealers Davis & Orioli.

Penises and Pompadours: The Erotic Art of Franz von Bayros

Thanks to John Larson of Swann's books department for this eye-opening post!

Frans von Bayros, Original pen-and-ink drawing, most likely a design for a bookplate, circa 1915.

Decadent! Erotic! Phantasmagoric! Fin-de-siècle grotesqueries! Gents and ladies disporting themselves, occasionally with a zealous attention by attending friends from the animal kingdom! The provocative work of Austrian artist Franz von Bayros (1866-1924) garnered all of these responses, though simple outrage was no doubt the most prevalent.

Erzählungen am Toilettentische von Choisy Le Conin, illustrated title-page and 15 erotic plates by Bayros, privately printed for subscribers, circa 1908.

On Tuesday, November 8^th at 1:30 pm, Swann Galleries will be offering a nice sampling for sale, spread among several lots, of Franz von Bayros’ erotic illustrations as part of our Art, Press, & Illustrated Books / 19^th and 20^th Century Literature sale.

Der Amethyst, with plates by von Bayros, Aubrey Beardsley (shown), Alfred Kubin, Félicien Rops, Maurice Besnaux, and others.  Number 746 of 800 copies privately printed for subscribers, Vienna, 1906-06.

Typically, for an artist dealing with such imagery, von Bayros produced work under several pseudonyms, most notably Choisy Le Conin, and was hounded by authorities for much of his life for his “indecent” art. Yet it has been often pointed out that, unlike some other decadent or erotic art, von Bayros is keen to suggest the primal joy of sex, even while indulging an imagination that allows for the inclusion of such taboo or “exploitative” subjects as sadomasochism and bestiality.

Marquis de Sade, Le Bordel de Venise, 8 plates and 2 vignette pochoirs of orgy scenes by Couperyn [pseud. of George A. Drains],  Paris, 1921.

For more information, including detailed descriptions and auction estimates for the von Bayros material and similarly themed erotic books and illustrations, view our online catalogue.  The sale's preview exhibition is open Friday, November 4, 10-6; Saturday, November 5, 10-4; Monday, November 7, 10-6; and from 10-noon Tuesday, November 8, the day of the auction.