Modern & Post-War Art at Swann May 22: Yvonne Thomas, Fernand Léger, Benny Andrews & more
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, May 8, 2025


Modern & Post-War Art at Swann May 22: Yvonne Thomas, Fernand Léger, Benny Andrews & more
Clara Etso Ugbodaga-Ngu, Man and Bird, oil on canvas, 1963. Estimate $20,000 to $30,000.



NEW YORK, NY.- Swann Galleries’ Thursday, May 22, sale of Modern & Post-War Art auction brings together many subcategories of Modernist art, offering a tremendous range of techniques and philosophies. Highlights by artists from nearly every continent come together to show that in work both abstract and figurative, experimentation and the influence of the era can be seen.

The influence of life on art can be seen throughout the auction with Jamini Roy’s Untitled (Christ), tempera on card, 1944 ($5,000-7,000). Roy was born in West Bengal India, now Calcutta, and studied at the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta, where he was taught practical Western illustration and fine art painting techniques. His mature style blends modernist simplification of forms with folk painting styles seen in work sold by street vendors in the Bengal region. Art influences across the Atlantic have existed as long as ships have made the voyage. Arshile Gorky borrowed from Cezanne, Picasso, and Matta before finding his unique expressive style. Hans Hofmann, an integral European Modernism practitioner, and instructor, moved to the United States, where he influenced multiple generations of artists. Hofmann is present with Untitled (Portrait of Mercedes Matter), ink on paper ($2,000-3,000). As the impact of Abstract Expressionism sent waves of influence across the Atlantic, Zao Wou-Ki, a Chinese artist who moved to Paris in 1948, seized on the similarities found in the expressive action painters’ works and those of the calligraphic works found in traditional Chinese art. Zao Wou-Ki’s Sans titre, color lithograph, 1967 ($2,000-3,000) is on offer.

Leading the sale is a 1961 oil-on-canvas by Yvonne Thomas ($30,000-50,000), Fernand Léger’s Untitled (Study for a Terrazzo Floor), ink and gouache, 1949 ($25,000-35,000), Benny Andrews’s Cradle, oil on canvas, 1967 ($20,000-30,000), Clara Etso Ugbodaga-Ngu’s Man and Bird, oil on canvas, 1963 ($20,000-30,000), a terracotta sculpture by Vu Cao Dam ($20,000-30,000), Saul Steinburg’s Window Upright Eiffel Tower Center, colored pencil on paper, 1979 ($15,000-25,000), and Mark Tobey’s Florentine Shadows, tempera on paper board, 1954 ($15,000-25,000).

Additional works to watch include Beverly Pepper’s circa-1983 steel-and-wood sculpture ($15,000-20,000), Charles Green Shaw’s Untitled (Biomorphic Abstraction), oil and sand on canvas, 1936 ($10,000-15,000), Peter Chinni’s 1960 bronze sculpture ($7,000-9,000), Jean Lurçat’s figurative work ($6,000-8,000), George Zachary Constant’s As Above, So Below, oil on canvas, 1962 ($6,000-8,000).

Exhibition hours are 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, and Monday, May 19, through Wednesday, May 21. Bidding is available through online platforms, absentee, the phone, and live in-person. Live online bidding platforms will be the Swann Galleries App, Invaluable, and Live Auctioneers.










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Modern & Post-War Art at Swann May 22: Yvonne Thomas, Fernand Léger, Benny Andrews & more

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