January 2019 Art News

This January, Sotheby’s celebrates trailblazing female artists from the 16th through the 19th century with The Female Triumphant, a group of exceptional works of art that will be offered in our Masters Week sales. In spite of extraordinary obstacles, talented artists such as Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, Fede Galizia, and Michaelina Wautier paved the way for future generations of artists everywhere.

In 2002, photographer and filmmaker Gillian Laub traveled to Mount Vernon, Georgia, to document the lives of teenagers in the American South. Laub photographed surrounding Montgomery County over the following decade, returning even in the face of growing – and eventually violent – resistance on the part of some community members. Southern Rites, on view at the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from Jan. 25-May 12, 2019, is a powerful and moving visual portrait of individuals struggling to confront longstanding issues of race and equality.
Thirty of the world's leading international art dealers will exhibit an outstanding array of drawings, paintings, watercolors, sculpture and oil sketches from the 14th to the 21st centuries during the 2019 edition of Master Drawings New York (MDNY) from Saturday, January 26th through Saturday, February 2nd.
"If one wants to succeed as an artist, one has to be prepared for a long sustained push... the faster you go up, the quicker you go down." Pioneering feminist artist Judy Chicago offers sage wisdom to aspiring artists.

Opening night of the 24th Annual L.A. Art Show was hosted by actor Kate Beckinsale last Wednesday, with “Bush” rocker Gavin Rossdale serving as Art Ambassador. Together they welcomed 120 galleries from 18 countries to the Los Angeles Convention Center, Jan. 23-27. 

The New York Academy of Art is pleased to present a major exhibition of works from one of its earliest supporters: Andy Warhol: By Hand, Drawings from the 1950s -1980s. Co-curated by Vincent Fremont, Warhol’s right-hand man for two decades and a founder of The Andy Warhol Foundation, and Academy President David Kratz, Andy Warhol: By Hand presents over 150 drawings by Warhol, one of the driving forces behind the creation of the New York Academy of Art. Many of the works have never before been exhibited in the United States.
Considered by many to be the father of modern high fantasy, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973), one of the world’s most beloved writers, introduced millions to the hobbits, elves, heroes and dragons of Middle-earth through his popular literary works, beginning with The Hobbit. Opening in New York January 25 at the Morgan Library & Museum, Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth is the largest collection of Tolkien material ever assembled in the United States.
Artist Jason Lazarus discusses the process behind his site-specific installation for SFMOMA, Recordings #3 (At Sea) (2014–16). Having collected found photographs for years, Lazarus describes his fascination with the human touch of the handwritten notes on the backs of many of these images.
The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) announces the completion of almost a decade of research, conservation efforts, and infrastructure improvements at the Tomb of Tutankhamen in Egypt, one of the best known cultural heritage sites in the world.
This January, Sotheby’s celebrates trailblazing female artists from the 16th through the 19th century with The Female Triumphant, a group of masterworks offered across our Masters Week sales. In spite of institutional obstacles, talented women like Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, Fede Galizia, and Elizabeth Gardner Bouguereau paved the way for future generations of artists everywhere. In this episode of Expert Voices, Old Master Paintings Specialist Calvine Harvey recounts the story of how Vigée Le Brun, the personal painter to Queen Marie Antoinette, used her royal connections to paint a striking portrait a visiting Indian ambassador.