Art History

On Monday, the portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama for the National Portrait Gallery were revealed. Painted by the renowned Kehinde Wiley and emerging Amy Sherald, respectively, the paintings are a stark departure from what we typically associate with traditional presidential portraiture. (Elaine de Kooning's JFK and Chuck Close's Clinton are other portraits hanging in the Gallery that have also represented a particular moment in art history that coincided with the presidency they depicted.) Unsurprisingly, the reception of the Obamas' portraits has been mixed. Are they successful, powerful representations of an historical moment - the first African American artists chosen to paint the portraits of the first African American First Family for the National Portrait Gallery - or were the artists' choices underwhelming and inappropriate? 

We asked our artists for their reactions to the paintings and collected their commentary below. 

Name your five favorite artists.

Now, how many of them were women? The National Museum of Women in the Arts guesses that there weren't too many, if any, female artists on your list. So, for Women's History Month, they've started a campaign called #5womenartists to get people talking about unsung artists. Since we are five women working at a gallery where roughly 80% of the artists we represent are female, it's a cause we feel passionate about. Here are five of our favorite women artists:

Every week, we'll be your guide as you navigate the world of buying art in our series, The Collector.

The art auction is one of the most alluring parts of collecting art for many people. Simultaneously the most visible market (with its splashy headlines and glamorous guestlists) and the most mysterious (with its secretive bidders and sellers and its behind-the-scenes whispering), the world of auctions can seem inscrutable. There's language to be decoded and research to be done and gossip to be sifted through. (If you've been following the news in the art world lately, you'll know that there are some very juicy things happening in the auction houses of New York.) But once you're in the know, bidding at an auction can be a fun, exciting, and satisfying way to collect art. (Or you may think it's frustrating, vapid, and a rip-off. But that's for you to decide!)

We're lucky to be in one of the city's biggest gallery districts, Chelsea, and love being able to stroll around our neighborhood to see all of the wonderful shows our neighbors are exhibiting. But it wasn't until relatively recently that Chelsea became so synonymous with the art world. New York's galleries have had a long and winding path, matching the ebb and flow of the growth of the city itself.