Why Mary Cassatt’s “Little Girl in a Blue Armchair” Is So Radical https://ift.tt/OoPEn7d

“I love to paint children,” Mary Cassatt once said. “They are so natural and truthful. They have no arrière-pensée (ulterior motive).” The American-born Impressionist became one of the most influential artists of 19th-century France with her refreshingly tender portraits of mothers and children painted in loose, tactile brushstrokes. Among her most famous paintings is Little Girl in a Blue Armchair (1878), now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The painting shows a young, tired-looking girl slouching in a large floral blue armchair, a small Brussels griffon dog resting in a matching chair nearby. She wears a bored expression, her limbs sprawled over the chair in exhaustion or exasperation. This frank expression captures Cassatt’s modern, secular approach to portraying children.

This year marks the centennial of Cassatt’s death in 1926 at age 82. In response, many museums are honoring her life and work. The Musée d’Orsay is opening “Mary Cassatt: Being Independent” (“Mary Cassatt: L’Indépendante”) on October 6th, an exhibition of nearly 80 paintings, pastels, and prints. The exhibition will travel to Boston in 2027. Meanwhile, the Art Institute of Chicago is currently hosting “Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism,” which looks at her career in the years after the final Impressionist exhibition of 1886.

To mark the centennial of her life, we’ve taken a closer look at Cassatt’s celebrated Little Girl in a Blue Armchair.

Cassatt collaborated with Degas to create this iconic work

La Petite Danseuse de 14 Ans, 1881
Edgar Degas
Théo Landel

Cassatt was born in 1844 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, to a wealthy American family. Initially, her parents resisted her ambition to become a professional artist, but by 1860, a teenage Cassatt had enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She moved to Europe in her twenties, eventually settling in Paris, where she would live for the rest of her life. Cassatt’s early works took inspiration from the Old Masters, whom she studied closely on painting trips through Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. Over the years, however, her brushwork loosened and her palette brightened, and she began experimenting with the asymmetrical compositions and unconventional croppings influenced by the nascent Impressionist art movement and the dawn of photography.

By 1877, Cassatt’s works had come into open conflict with the French art establishment and the official Salon rejected both of her submissions that year. That rejection spurred Edgar Degas to invite her to exhibit with the Impressionists, an invitation she accepted. Degas’s friendship with Cassatt shaped Little Girl in a Blue Armchair. The girl in the painting was the daughter of friends of Degas’s, but his contribution extended far beyond that.

“It was the portrait of a friend of M. Degas,” Cassatt wrote to the Parisian dealer Ambroise Vollard in 1903. “I had done the child in the armchair and he found it good and advised me on the background and he even worked on it.” Recent cleaning and infrared imaging at the National Gallery of Art have since confirmed his work on the canvas. Scholars believe Degas most likely reworked the oddly shaped patch of floor between the chairs and the play of light through the windows, and his influence has been traced through the painting’s asymmetrical composition, its bold pattern, and its tight, cropped framing—a debt to the Japanese prints he introduced Cassatt to.

The little girl enacts a rebellion against adult society

The psychology of the painting, however, is quintessentially Cassatt’s. The girl becomes an agent of disorder and rebellion in the tidy adult world she inhabits. Her body sprawls diagonally across the blue-and-white floral chair, cutting against the orderly lines of the upholstery. Her expression sits somewhere between boredom and open irritation, her gaze drifting sideways toward the little dog curled up in the matching armchair beside her. Her look might be one of envy. The dog, unlike her, is unencumbered by expectations. The girl is painted, not in a nursery where she might be at ease, but a fashionable drawing room, the domain of adult women. The girl fidgets under the constraints. Feminist writer Germaine Greer called the painting Cassatt’s “first real stunner,” which she saw “as an icon of the awfulness of being at once controlled by adults and ignored by them.” The composition reinforces this sense of claustrophobia, with chairs pressing in from every side. The girl’s averted gaze here becomes an assertion of her own independence—an autonomy Cassatt celebrates.

The painting caused a controversy when it debuted

Afternoon Tea Party, 1991
Mary Cassatt
Canopy Gallery

In the Omnibus, 1991
Mary Cassatt
Canopy Gallery

Cassatt took an interest in the lives of women and children well beyond the canvas. She was a feminist from an early age and spent her career depicting the “New Woman” of the 19th century. These women went out in society, receiving guests, going to the theater, and conquering the modern world on their own terms. Cassatt was one of these women as well. “I am independent!” she once declared. “I can live alone and I love to work.” Cassatt, unlike many of her era, did not reserve that sense of self-possession for adults. Art historian Griselda Pollock has called Little Girl in a Blue Armchair one of the most “radical” images of childhood because of its lack of sentimentality.

But Cassatt’s frank depiction of childhood also put off viewers acclimated to more idealized imagery. She submitted the painting to the American pavilion at the 1878 Paris World’s Fair, and its jury rejected it. The decision infuriated Cassatt, particularly because Degas had worked on it. “I sent it to the American section of the big exposition, they refused it,” she wrote to Vollard. “I was furious, all the more so since he had worked on it. At that time this appeared new and the jury consisted of three people of which one was a pharmacist!”

Cassatt never knew what had turned the jury off of the work, but in the nearly 150 years since its creation, Little Girl in a Blue Armchair has earned a much warmer reception. The painting entered the collection of the National Gallery of Art in 1983, and has remained one of the most popular works at the museum since.

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/013iY4X

KAWS collaborates with Absolut Vodka on limited-edition bottle and painting. https://ift.tt/UROSIk1

KAWS has collaborated with Absolut Vodka on a new Artist Edition bottle. The design is inspired by a painting KAWS created for the project, with Absolut’s apothecary-style bottle featuring his signature “XX” motif and his signature Chum character on the front of the bottle and an image of the original painting on the back. “I am excited to join the lineage of great artists that have worked with Absolut Vodka over the decades,” KAWS said in a statement. “My goal is to allow art to meet people in unexpected places, and I hope my bottles will be enjoyed at gatherings around the world.”

KAWS, whose real name is Brian Donnelly, is known for his cartoon-like figures and artworks that sit at the intersection of street culture, fine art, and commercial goods. His works have been shown at institutions including the Brooklyn Museum, the Serpentine Gallery, and the Albertina Modern in Vienna. The Absolut partnership follows a string of brand collaborations for the artist, including a 2025 appointment as UNIQLO's first artist in residence and, this past June, a redesign of the packaging for Austria's Sacher-Torte to benefit a children’s charity.

The collaboration extends Absolut’s decades-long history of working with artists on its bottle. Andy Warhol painted “Absolut Warhol” in 1985, becoming the brand’s first artist-designed advertisement and prompting Warhol to recommend Keith Haring as a successor collaborator. Since the 1980s, more than 550 artists have contributed over 850 artworks inspired by the bottle, a collection now housed at Stockholm’s Spritmuseum.

“Our collaboration with KAWS reimagines the iconic Absolut bottle as a witty, unexpected work of art that feels at home on a collector’s shelf or at the center of a gathering with friends,” said Caroline Begley, Absolut’s U.S. vice president of marketing, in a statement. “By bringing KAWS’ remarkable vision to one of our most iconic assets, we’re creating a cultural statement piece that celebrates creativity, self-expression and the power of art to connect people.”

The Absolut KAWS Artist Edition bottle is available for pre-order at Absolut.com and will roll out to select U.S. retailers for a limited time while supplies last.

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/e5Df9nR

8 Contemporary Artists Inspired By René Magritte https://ift.tt/04qlk9f

The work of René Magritte needs little introduction. Since his death in 1967, he has become one of the defining painters of the 20th century, his work influencing generations of artists while also permeating the world of popular culture at almost every level. Referenced by everyone from The Beatles to The Simpsons, his visual vocabulary—bowler-hatted men, veiled faces, enormous apples, and levitating rocks—has left a profound mark on the worlds of advertising, graphic design, film, and photography.

No other artist fused the ordinary with the uncanny so seamlessly, or shifted so effortlessly between a sense of ambiguity, dread, and deadpan humor tinged with occasional vulgarity. His enigmatic paintings, such as The Treachery of Images (1929) or The Human Condition (1933), transform everyday objects, places, and figures into surreal, psychologically charged puzzles. Combining an almost hyperrealist style with jarring shifts of scale, trompe l’oeil illusions, and visual fragmentation, his works raise fundamental questions about the boundaries between reality and representation.

Now, a major new exhibition at Gagosian in London seeks to trace his enduring legacy on the art world. “This is Still Not a Pipe: The Afterlife of Magritte” (through December 12) brings together dozens of the artist’s key paintings and works on paper, setting them in dialogue with work by almost 50 contemporary artists.

As Jasper Sharp, the show’s co-curator, explained to Artsy, Magritte’s influence is by no means a recent phenomenon. “You have artists who were already making work in the ’50s thinking about Magritte, so his influence was already taking shape while he was still alive.” But the idea for the current show evolved when it became clear how great a shadow his work still casts in the 21st century. “Over the past few years, I've found myself having so many conversations about Magritte, unprompted by myself, with painters, filmmakers, and photographers.”

For Sharp, the explanation for this is twofold. “I think the reason that his works have such an enduring appeal is that they disclose themselves very quickly. But, like all really interesting art, they also work on a different level. They’re not completely understandable.” At the same time, his work is technically masterful, another source of inspiration for artists. As Sharp pointed ut, “Max Ernst famously described Magritte as a collagist in paint. Which is why he’s been so influential in the graphic design industry, the music industry, and the fashion industry. The way his works are constructed with different surfaces, different depths, gives so much potential to people who want to take his ideas and run with them.”

With this in mind, here are eight contemporary artists who share some affinity with Magritte’s themes and approach. The first four are featured in the Gagosian show, while the others are our own recommendations.

Lenz Geerk

B. 1988, Basel. Lives and works in Düsseldorf.

Tie III, 2024
Lenz Geerk
Roberts Projects

Man holding the night sky, 2024
Lenz Geerk
Roberts Projects

With their muted palettes and enigmatic subject matter, the paintings of Lenz Geerk exude a strong sense of Magrittean disquiet. Like the Belgian master, his work is steeped in art history, and the figures, objects, and places he depicts seem deeply rooted in the world of dreams. In Tie III (2024), a man in a suit stands stiffly against a bare wall, gazing at his tie unfurled on the floor at his feet, while in Man Holding the Night Sky (2024), a figure stands atop a rock, unfurling a black sheet emblazoned with stars. Cryptic and mysterious, Geerk’s work carefully balances what to reveal and what to withhold.

Dominique Fung

B. 1987, Ottawa, Canada. Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Look Steadily and Intently, 2021
Dominique Fung
Woaw

Born in Canada, but with ancestry in Shanghai and Hong Kong, Dominique Fung’s work is inspired by Asian artefacts encountered in museums during her youth. Reimagined through a contemporary lens, she liberates these objects from their colonial or imperialist histories, imbuing them with a new and complex life of their own.

Blending older traditions of European painting—whether Baroque, Rococo, or Renaissance—with a Surrealist streak recalling Magritte and Dorothea Tanning, works such as Stray Hair (2020) and Look Steadily and Intently (2021) have a dreamlike quality that hints at unsettling narratives just beyond our grasp. And, much like Magritte, her works operate on multiple levels. Combining elements of humor and the uncanny, their sensuous and exquisitely painted surfaces conceal more serious undertones lurking beneath.

Joseph Yaeger

B. 1986, Helena, Montana. Lives and works in London.

Joseph Yaeger’s paintings, like Magritte’s, are full of secrets. Opaque, voyeuristic, and enigmatically titled, they are charged with a noirish atmosphere of mystery and uncertainty, occupying an uneasy space somewhere between dreams and cinema stills (on which many of them are based). The faces of his figures are often veiled or obscured—by smoke, shadows, bandages, or another person’s hand—resisting any straightforward emotional or psychological interpretation. In particular, they recall iconic works by Magritte, such as The Lovers (1928) or The Son of Man (1946).

Working in watercolor on gesso, his works combine technical mastery with subtle hints of decay, their scarred and cracked surfaces dusted with studio debris, evoking a pervasive sense of dread or unease that underpins so many aspects of modern existence. New works by Yaeger will go on view at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo later this fall.

Isabelle Albuquerque

B. 1981, Los Angeles. Lives and works in Los Angeles.

Call Me, 2024
Isabelle Albuquerque
Newchild Gallery

Just as Magritte would sometimes depict the human form in fragmented, transfigured, or impossible states (as in Le Viol (1934/1945), in which a naked female torso merges with a woman’s face), Isabelle Albuquerque deconstructs the physical form to create formally complex sculptures with strong echoes of the surreal. Exploring women’s experience of desire, sexuality, and violence, she combines traditional techniques with contemporary technologies like 3D scans and lifecasts of her own body to create headless, truncated, or otherwise transmuted figures.

Often merging biological forms with manufactured, mundane, or mythological elements, her sculptures serve as prime examples of the ‘surreal object’, inviting any number of readings and interpretations. In the Gagosian show, her work Summertime Sadness (2024), in which a shock of fire-red human hair sprouts from a bronze cast of a dismembered arm, has definite affinities with Magritte. As Sharp pointed out, it was “the first object she suggested when we approached her for the exhibition.”

Kate Meissner

B. 1995, Sacramento. Lives and works in Los Angeles.

Kate Meissner’s highly saturated, theatrically lit oil paintings present a mysterious shadow world in which familiar scenes are made alluringly strange. The female figures she depicts are elusive, possessed of an eerie, plastic quality somewhere between human and mannequin. Their faces are always obscured, their bodies contorted and partially veiled by fabric, and their limbs either prosthetic or missing altogether.

Often framed in tightly enclosed spaces such as doorways, nightclub booths, or peep-show stages, their compressed, claustrophobic settings evoke a palpable sense of unease while also hinting at unconscious or hidden desires. Blending the surrealism of Magritte with the body horror of filmmaker David Cronenberg, Meissner’s work fearlessly explores the complex emotional and psychological consequences for women of being on display, creating a potent cocktail of apprehension, dread, and curiosity.

Natalia Gonzalez Martin

B. 1995, Madrid. Lives and works in London.

Cascara II , 2024
Natalia Gonzalez Martin
Richard Saltoun

Painted on wood panels using egg tempera and rabbit skin glue, the exquisitely detailed paintings of Natalia Gonzalez Martin hark back to medieval icons, Renaissance altarpieces, and illuminated manuscripts. However, the atmosphere she creates within these confined spaces remains compellingly odd, infused with a healthy dose of Magrittean Surrealism, ambiguity, and eroticism.

Filtered through the lens of her Catholic upbringing, Gonzalez Martin renders everyday objects strange, poetic, or mystical. She often isolates body parts or objects, placing them in flat, shadowless voids, disrupting the viewer’s sense of reality. And, while her paintings sometimes hint at religious ritual and symbolism, their meaning is much more opaque, evoking both past and present, divine and secular, suggesting that there are other ways to exist within the world.

Zhou Song

B. 1982, Jiangxi, China. Lives and works in Beijing.

Wisdom Tree I, 2025
Zhou Song
Maddox Gallery

Holy Light, 2024
Zhou Song
Volery Gallery

A mind-bending mixture of hyperrealism and surreal flights of fancy, Zhou Song’s remarkable oil paintings explore both the anxieties and the sense of possibility engendered by an age of constant technological acceleration. In his work, natural and artificial elements are distorted and reconfigured in uncanny new forms as the world we know unravels before our eyes. In Wisdom Tree I (2025), for instance, pencils coil through trees like branches, while in other works, candles twist together like snakes, and a rabbit balances a tower of hats on its back.

His “New Nature” series (2020–26) is like Magritte reimagined for the post-human age, and borrows freely from the Belgian artist’s iconic repertoire of motifs. Men in suits, apples, bowler hats, and blue skies full of clouds all feature prominently. Indeed, Homeland (2020) is a direct homage to Magritte’s famous painting The Great War (1964).

Kristin Sanders

B. 1989, California. Lives and works in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Shell/Tool, 2023
Kristen Sanders
Asya Geisberg Gallery

Hand and Flint, 2023
Kristen Sanders
Moosey

Magritte’s work often explored the gulf between the physical body and the consciousness within it, and the vividly colored paintings of Kristin Sanders operate in a similar psychological space, reframing it for an era in which artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a reality. The world she conjures is one of mystery and uncertainty—a kind of fever dream in which past and future, human and mechanical, have merged, and the viewer is never sure exactly what they are seeing.

A sense of Magrittean surrealism pervades her work. In Stone/Shift (2023), the face of a humanoid robot is obscured by a piece of sheer silk, while in Body Thing (2023) a hand holds a fragment of a human face, its single eye staring helplessly out at the viewer. And A Sense of Reality (2023), in which a piece of flint hovers in mid air against a cloudy sky, makes a direct reference to Magritte’s The Castle of the Pyrenees (1959).

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/CLBuADY

Louis Vuitton launches Keith Haring handbag collection. https://ift.tt/QPpj2qN

Louis Vuitton has unveiled the eighth chapter of its Artycapucines collection, dedicating 13 new bag designs to the work of Keith Haring. Developed in collaboration with the Keith Haring Foundation, the collection features the late artist’s vibrant visual language—including his signature “Running Heart,” “Radiant Baby,” dancing figures, and exuberant graphic compositions. These motifs are translated into designs using different craft techniques, from traditional leather marquetry to cutting-edge laser printing.

Haring, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1958 and died in 1990, became one of the defining voices of New York’s downtown art scene in the 1980s, creating graphic works that moved fluidly between street art, gallery walls, and broader culture. His work, characterized by bold outlines, rhythmic figures, and a sense of collective joy, is some of the most recognizable in post-war American art. Beyond the art world, Haring’s imagery has retained a broad cultural presence. His figures have appeared on everything from UNIQLO T-shirts to stadium murals, and his work continues to be cited by a generation of artists, designers, and musicians.

The new designs continue the collaboration between the Keith Haring Foundation and the French fashion house. Earlier this year, Louis Vuitton presented clothing printed with Haring’s designs at its womenswear presentation at New York’s Frick Collection.

Highlights of the new 13-piece collection include the Capucines Nano Running Heart, a minaudière, or vanity case, crafted in silver-tone metal and set with more than 12,000 hand-placed rhinestones; and the Capucines MM Genesis, inspired by a Louis Vuitton suitcase hand-customised by Haring in 1984. The Capucines East-West Mini Maze, is brought to life through intricate bead embroidery, and the Capucines BB Figures feature Haring’s dancing figures on pristine white Taurillon leather, his characteristic black outline integrated into the bag’s architecture.

Louis Vuitton’s Artycapucines Collection, which launched in 2019, now comprises more than 50 designs by artists including Takashi Murakami, Tschabalala Self, Urs Fischer, and Park Seo-Bo. All 13 pieces from the Haring edition will be released as limited editions in Louis Vuitton stores worldwide from January 1, 2027.

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/dAiHwbU

Art Basel Miami Beach announces 272 exhibitors for its 2026 edition. https://ift.tt/OFvWQ63

Art Basel Miami Beach has announced 272 exhibitors, from over 40 countries and territories, for its 2026 edition. The fair takes place December 4th through 6th at the Miami Beach Convention Center, with invite-only VIP days on December 2nd and 3rd.

This year, the fair will introduce a substantially reconfigured showfloor, presenting a more focused gallery lineup across roughly 12 percent less floor space and organizing the fair around four hospitality plazas rather than five. The main Galleries sector will feature about 10 percent fewer exhibitors, with blue-chip galleries once grouped now distributed throughout the show.

“The redesign begins with the galleries: how their artists and programs are presented, and how collectors encounter them,” said Bridget Finn, director of Art Basel Miami Beach, in a statement. “Our exhibitors have reinforced the value of a more focused environment, and the smaller footprint is a deliberate choice in service of that. Each presentation will have room to command attention.”

More than 30 galleries are participating in the fair for the first time, most through the project-based sectors Nova, Positions, and Survey. Galleries from Latin America and the Caribbean are represented in depth. Brazil once again forms the show's third-largest national contingent at the fair with galleries including Raquel Arnaud, Simões de Assis, Nara Roesler, and A Gentil Carioca participating. Galleries from Los Angeles and Chicago are also well-represented this year, along with an increased presence of galleries from South Florida.

Zero 10, Art Basel's initiative for art of the digital era, returns with “Generation,” its largest presentation yet, bringing together 19 projects from 22 galleries and platforms. Curated by Karen Archey with Eli Scheinman, the exhibition includes work by artists such as Jon Rafman, Refik Anadol, and Sarah Meyohas. Former Christie’s head of Digital Art Nicole Sales Giles has joined Art Basel as Zero 10’s first global head, tasked with shaping the initiative's evolution as a year-round platform.

Beyond the convention center, the Turrell Art Foundation and Art Basel, supported by Pace Gallery, will unveil a significant new outdoor body of work by James Turrell, free to the public. In Collins Park, Public Art Fund will present “Between Tides,” a participatory exhibition of artist-designed ping-pong tables. The Art Basel Awards also return in partnership with BOSS, with the Gold Awardees to be revealed at the Art Basel Awards Night on Thursday, December 3rd.

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/j3WrmLB

Rare $3 million David Hockney painting of his dog heading to auction at Christie’s London. https://ift.tt/mDOtehB

A rare painting by David Hockney of his beloved dachshund Stanley is heading to auction at Christie’s, where it carries a high estimate of £2.5 million ($3.3 million).

The work, Dog Painting 17 (1995), shows Stanley curled up asleep on a cushion and is one of more than 40 paintings Hockney made in 1994 and 1995 for his “Dog Series,” devoted entirely to his two dachshunds. It is the first painting from the series ever to come to auction. “This is such an exciting painting for us,” said Tessa Lord, Christie’s head of postwar and contemporary art. “The rarity is kind of extraordinary.”

Christie’s believes only six paintings from the series are in private hands, with the rest held by the David Hockney Foundation. The consignor acquired the work after it appeared in a “Dog Series” exhibition at the L.A. Louver gallery in Venice, California, a show that reportedly drew 7,000 visitors in four days. According to Hockney, many brought their own dogs along.

Stanley, named after silent film star Stan Laurel, was chosen as a puppy by Hockney in 1987 and rarely left his side. He later adopted a second dachshund named Boodgie. The dogs became fixtures of Hockney’s famously social Hollywood Hills home, where, according to his authorized biographer Christopher Simon Sykes, the artist was untroubled by their lack of house training. One friend, Jonathon Brown, recalled the dogs relieving themselves in Hockney's shoes, and, on one occasion, on the floor of actor Dennis Hopper’s Frank Gehry–designed house in Venice. Hockney's response, as Brown told it, was characteristically unbothered, “Oh, it'll be dry in the morning, luv, and you can just pick it up.” Hopper, Brown said, “chose silence, but he looked like murder.”

Hockney began painting Stanley and Boodgie at a difficult moment, after losing several friends to AIDS-related illness and, in particular, following the death of his close friend, the curator Henry Geldzahler, from pancreatic cancer. Hockney later said he had wanted “desperately to paint something loving.” Lord described the “Dog” Series” in similar terms, saying “He felt such a loss of love; this was kind of a catharsis for him.”

Of Dog Painting 17 specifically, she pointed to its “incredible spontaneity” and “fluidity of brushstrokes,” noting the texture built up beneath the cushion and “that slight flick of the ear that really animates Stanley.” She added: “I love the fact that there is this kind of innocence to it, but it is so much more than that. There’s a universality to it… It's so much more than just a portrait of a dog.”

Hockney was hardly alone among artists in finding inspiration in a pet dachshund—both Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso doted on the breed. Picasso's dachshund Lump appears in his studies for his painting Las Meninas (1957), and Warhol was frequently photographed with his own. ”

“Dog Painting 17” carries an estimate of £1.5 million to £2.5 million ($1.99 million to $3.3 million) and will be sold on October 14, during Frieze Week in London, following the artist’s death this past June at 88. The painting will go on public view, free of charge, at Christie's London galleries beginning October 8th.

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/veuViAf

What Sold at The Armory Show 2026 https://ift.tt/Ux8ET1N

The Armory Show wrapped up its 2026 edition on Sunday, September 27th, following four days at the Javits Center that brought some 50,000 visitors to the fair. This year’s edition arrived later than usual on New York’s art world calendar, shifting from its traditional early September slot to the end of the month, and expanded to 242 exhibitors from more than 30 countries. Under director Kyla McMillan, the fair also grew its Presents and Solo sections, devoted to emerging galleries and single-artist presentations, respectively.

There were several other firsts. The fair debuted Armory After Hours (a carnival-inspired procession through the aisles led by a DJ and live percussionists), and staged its largest prize program to date. That included new acquisition initiatives with Pérez Art Museum Miami and the Bronx Museum, the latter of which acquired Zoë Pulley’s Elegance No. 1 (2026) for $14,000 from Superposition Gallery, one of Artsy’s best booths from the fair.

Elegance No. 1, 2026
Zoë Pulley
Superposition

Spring (81), 2026
Zoë Pulley
Superposition

This year’s edition featured sales across a particularly wide range of price points. The most expensive disclosed transaction was a Jackson Pollock painting sold by Hollis Taggart for between $3 million and $3.5 million, while several galleries reported seven-figure sales by artists including Joan Mitchell, Tracey Emin, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The fair also placed an emphasis on the Caribbean and its diaspora, with booths and large-scale installations addressing migration, memory, and regional identity, including presentations by artists such as Gio Swaby, Kachelle Knowles, Lizania Cruz, Joshua Nazario, and Bony Ramirez.

“The energy at The Armory Show this year was palpable,” McMillan told Artsy. “Collectors, dealers, curators, and visitors alike returned with optimism and excitement for the fall art season. We saw this translate into enthusiastic attendance throughout the fair. From opening day, galleries reported a buoyant energy that led to incredibly productive conversations and sales over the course of the fair.”

Here, we round up sales reported by galleries at the fair.

Top sales at The Armory Show 2026

Untitled, 1951
Jackson Pollock
Hollis Taggart

In addition to the Pollock sale, Hollis Taggart also reported:

• Basquiat’s Untitled (Figure Holding Up Fish) (1981) for $1.4 million–$1.6 million.
• Michael West’s Untitled (1947) for $180,000–$220,000.
• Pablo Atchugarry’s Untitled (2026) for $150,000–$200,000.
• Stuart Davis’s Quinciette (1964) for $120,000–$140,000.
• Karel Appel’s Untitled (1973) for $40,000–$50,000.
• Norman Carton’s Green Landscape for $10,000.

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery—another of Artsy’s best booths from the fair—sold a painting by Joan Mitchell for “more than” $2 million to a private collection. Further reported sales included:

• Two works on paper by Benny Andrews for $50,000–$100,000 each.
• A bronze by Richmond Barthé for $100,000–$250,000.
• A collage by Louise Nevelson for $100,000–$250,000.
• A mixed-media collage by Hannelore Baron for $10,000–$25,000.

Almine Rech’s reported sales were led by two Scott Kahn paintings for between $400,000 and $500,000 each. Further sales included:

• Two Larry Poons paintings for $250,000–$400,000.
• A George Condo work on paper for $200,000–$225,000.
• A Tom Wesselmann work on paper for $150,000–$175,000.
• A Joe Andoe painting for $90,000–$110,000.
• A Taryn Simon work for $30,000–$40,000.

Edwynn Houk Gallery sold a László Moholy-Nagy gelatin silver print for $320,000, as well as a Ron Norsworthy print for $9,500.

Robert Mapplethorpe, 1983
Andy Warhol
MARUANI MERCIER GALLERY

Maruani Mercier sold Andy Warhol’s Robert Mapplethorpe (1983) for between $250,000 and $350,000. It also sold Jaclyn Conley’s Drawing in Green (2026) for $30,000–$35,000, Morning Woman (2025) for $8,000–$12,000, and Von Wolfe’s The Dollhouse and the Dusk (2025) for $80,000–$100,000.

Marc Straus reported more than 20 sales, ranging from $8,000 to $250,000, with works acquired by six museums. The gallery sold five chair sculptures by Lucia Hierro for $85,000 each, three of which went to museums.

More key sales from The Armory Show 2026

Almost Grown, 2001
Peter Doig
Galerie Maximillian

Gazelli Art House placed a painting by Lilly Fenichel with a private European museum for “around” $200,000.

Galerie Maximillian sold Rashid Johnson’s Untitled (Large Mosaic) (2025) for “around” $175,000 in the first hour of the fair. It also sold Jonas Wood’s Five Bonsais (2024) for “around” $125,000 and Peter Doig’s Almost Grown (2001) for “around” $45,000.

Nara Roesler sold a Sheila Hicks work for $120,000–$280,000. The gallery also placed Abraham Palatnik’s W-600 (2014) for $60,000, Marco A. Castillo’s Wakamba con facciones cartesianas 2 for $50,000, and two works by Manoela Medeiros for $9,000 and $22,000 each.

Mennour “nearly sold out” its booth, selling eight paintings by Dhewadi Hadjab for $110,000 each.

Miles McEnery Gallery’s sales were led by Inka Essenhigh’s Matisse’s Window (2026) for $110,000–$120,000. Other works included:

• Karin Davie’s Trespasser no. 2 (2025) for $80,000–$90,000.
• Two Jacob Hashimoto works for $75,000–$85,000 each.
• Tom LaDuke’s The River Doesn’t Move Like That (2026) for $55,000–$65,000.
• James Siena’s Hayes Pond (2026) for $35,000–$45,000.
• Raffi Kalenderian’s Christine Reading (2025) for $14,000–$24,000.

Matisse's Window, 2026
Inka Essenhigh
Miles McEnery Gallery

Trespasser no. 2, 2025
Karin Davie
Miles McEnery Gallery

Ludorff sold Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure: Small Head (1980) for €100,000 ($113,890), alongside two Josef Albers screenprints for $11,000 and $13,000, an Imi Knoebel for $22,000, a Katharina Fritsch resin work for $17,000, and a Frank Stella lithograph for $12,000.

Galerie Forsblom sold Hashimoto’s Ignition (2026) for $65,000, as well as three works by Iria Leino, two for $55,000, and the third for $62,000. Works by Rauha Mäkilä and Susanne Gottberg sold for $10,000 and $11,500, respectively.

Southern Guild sold an undisclosed number of works, including one by Roméo Mivekannin for $56,000 and another by Zanele Muholi for $52,000. It also sold a work by Amine El Gotaibi for $34,000, and one by Adebayo Bolaji for $28,000.

Aki Gallery reported approximately $210,000 in total sales from its presentation of works by Yang-Tsung Fan, Yih-Han Wu, Wei Lu, Willy Verginer, and Tsuchiya Yoshimasa.

Untitled, 2026
Pieter Vermeersch
P420

Ignition, 2026
Jacob Hashimoto
Galerie Forsblom

P420—another of Artsy’s best booths—led sales with Irma Blank’s Abecedarium, 7-2-91 (1991) for $160,000. The gallery also sold:

• Blank’s Gehen, Second life C-2, aprile 2018 (2018) for $12,000.
• Three Adelaide Cioni works for $5,000 each.
• Pieter Vermeersch’s Untitled (2026) for $35,000.
• Shafei Xia’s A toast to the past (2026) for $7,000.
• Xian Kim’s Object 401 (2026) for $15,000.

Other notable sales from The Armory Show 2026

Galerie Thomas Fuchs reported more than 30 sales, including three paintings by Rainer Fetting for $67,000–$85,000 each, five paintings by Yongchul Kim for $5,400–$21,600 each, 11 works by Carlo Krone for $1,700–$9,200 each, and 16 works by Logan T. Sibrel for $3,300–$16,500 each.

Rukaj sold paintings by Lester Johnson for $95,000, Roy Kiyooka for $65,000, Friedel Dzubas for $27,000, and William Perehudoff for $25,000.

Everard Read sold a Caryn Scrimgeour painting for $68,000, a work by Gerhard Marx for $30,000, and a Mary Sibande sculpture for $12,000.

Anat Ebgi sold Marisa Adesman’s Tug of War (2025) for $60,000 and Stargazer (2026) for $50,000, alongside three Marc Dennis paintings for $20,000, $28,000, and $55,000. It also sold two Tammi Campbell works for $25,000 each, an Erin Wright painting for $18,000, six Olive Diamond ceramics for $9,000–$18,000 each, and additional works by Anabel Juárez, Simon Haas, Ileana Garcia Magoda, and Veronica Fernandez for $4,500–$9,000 each.

Alzueta Gallery sold nine Maria Yelletisch paintings for $5,000–$15,000 each, five Claudia Valsells paintings for $2,500–$15,000 each, two Jordi Alcaraz resin works for $25,000–$30,000 each, and a Guim Tió Zarraluki painting for $35,000–$40,000.

Alisan Fine Arts sold works by Yang Yong Liang and Wesley Tongson for $25,000–$30,000 each, as well as two Li Hong Wei works for $16,000–$20,000 each.

Spinello Projects sold 13 works by Elliot & Erick Jiménez for prices ranging from “below” $10,000 to $20,000 each, in addition to an institutional placement in New York for $30,000–$50,000.

Suppoment Gallery sold six Hye Jo Kwon works for $3,000–$5,000 each, a Kong Mi Sook painting for $15,000, four Yoo Mi Seon works for $5,000–$15,000 each, and an Inseob Lee work for $7,000–$9,000.

EDJI Gallery placed the majority of the works it presented by Killion Huang, priced from $1,200 to $10,000.

As well as Zoë Pulley’s Elegance No. 1 (2026), Superposition sold Pulley’s Sandra (81) and Solid Winter (81) for $6,000 each.

Victoria Miro sold 18 works priced between $20,000 and $70,000 each by artists including Clare Woods, Tal R, Celia Paul, and Doron Langberg.

TERN Gallery sold three Gio Swaby works for $18,500–$65,000 each, alongside four Kachelle Knowles works for “around” $5,000 each. JO-HS sold three Morten Slettemeås paintings for “around” $20,000 each.

De Buck sold “multiple” large-scale paintings by Gommaar Gilliams in the $20,000–$30,000 range, along with works by Devan Shimoyama for $20,000–$60,000 and a Shirley Yang Crutchfield work for $10,000–$20,000.

Additional sales at The Armory Show 2026

Other sales reported by galleries at the fair included:

• Harper’s sold Marc Dennis’s Dragonslayer (2026) for $75,000.
• Perrotin sold six works by Kathia St. Hilaire for between $5,000 and $45,000 apiece.
• Vielmetter Los Angeles reported 10 sales ranging from $2,500 to $48,000.
• Gallery Dasun sold Choi Young Wook’s Karma (2026) for $46,000.
• K Contemporary sold four Diego Rodriguez-Warner paintings for $18,000–$75,000 apiece.
• Newchild Gallery sold out its booth of Andrew Sendor works, priced between $17,500 and $85,000.
• Fridman Gallery sold two new Nate Lewis works for $20,000–$40,000 each, a Remy Jungerman panel for $37,000, and three Laurena Fineus works for $6,000–$16,000 each.

The Chattering, 2026
Diego Rodriguez-Warner
K Contemporary

Dolores in Silk Under Slow Trees, 2026
Diego Rodriguez-Warner
K Contemporary

• Catharine Clark Gallery sold eight works from its Katherine Vetne solo presentation for between $1,500 and $20,000.
• Tanya Weddemire Gallery sold seven paintings by Austin Uzor and O’Neil Scott for between $8,000 and $14,000 each.
• EBONY/CURATED placed six ceramic vessels by Lisa Ringwood for $6,000–$9,000 each.
• Mindy Solomon Gallery placed nine Yanira Collado works for $2,000–$20,000 each.
• re.riddle sold five Summer Mei Ling Lee works for $5,000, $5,500, $7,500, $10,000, and $11,300 each.

Self Potrait: K.A- 18.07.26, 1-3, 2026
Kesewa Aboah
Hannah Traore

Forget Me Not, Series, 2, 2026
Kesewa Aboah
Hannah Traore

• Hannah Traore sold out its entire booth, where works were priced between $2,500 and $27,000.
• Yiwei Gallery placed six works for $7,000–$16,000 each.
• Pangée sold the “majority” of its booth, with works priced between $5,000 and $16,000.
• Andrew Reed Gallery sold three Gonçalo Preto paintings for $4,500–$6,000 each.

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/Ejxzvr2