Our May Second auction of Modern and Post War Art has a strong contingent of Surrealist work. A Max Ernst collage as well as drawings by André Masson and Francis Picabia start off the section, followed by several works by American surrealist artists from the collection of Philip J. and Suzanne Schiller. The Schiller collection focuses on Social Commentary by American artists. In 1995 an exhibition and accompanying catalog of the collection titled, “In the Eye of the Storm: An Art of Conscience 1930 – 1970: Selections from the Collection of Philip J. & Suzanne Schiller,” opened at the Terra Museum Of Art in Chicago then travelled to several other venues. The majority of the Schiller collection was acquired by the Columbus Museum of Art in 2005.

Gallerists Dorothy and Eugene J. Prakapas opened their New York Photography gallery in 1976. Their interests extended well beyond photography. Swann is pleased to offer works from their collection by Japanese sculptors, Minoru Niizuma and Tomihisa Handa, and painter Yoshio Sekine as well as works by German artists Walter Dexel and Karl Peter Röhl, and American modernist artists Paul Kelpe and John Sennhauser.

One example of a particularly influential American painter is Janice Biala. Our museums and galleries have begun focusing on so many important artists that were overlooked along racial or gender discriminatory lines. Biala is now celebrated with a Retrospective in 2013 held at Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College, CUNY, Flushing, NY, followed by shows at Tibor de Nagy Gallery, NY, 2018, McCormick, Chicago, 2020, and at Berry Campbell Gallery, NY closing this month, April 2024. A few other women artists in this auction are Irene Rice Pereira, Judith Rothschild, Sonia Sekula, and Edith Schloss.