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Donald Teskey – Barns, Ballyglass/Ballycastle
Philadelphia based Dolan Maxwell will bring this acrylic on paper by Donald Teskey to The Winter Show which gets underway today in New York. The internationally known gallery specialises in fine prints and work on paper from the 1930’s onwards. With more than 70 leading international dealers the Winter Show runs at the Park Avenue Armory until February 1.
A photo by Herb Schmitz of Jimmy Hendrix and Eric Clapton in London in 1967.
From a collectible photograph of Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton outside the Bag o’ nails club in London in 1967 to a rare Dublin Queen Anne silver tankard the National Antique Fair at Limerick Racecourse on January 24 and 25 offers an all encompassing display for the curious antiquarian.
The photo, taken by Herb Schmitz, is one of many artworks at the Purple Onion Gallery stand. The Queen Anne c1702 Dublin tankard by David King will be at Weldon’s and Paul Butler of Kilkenny will bring a fine quality c1740 blunderbuss by Garret of London.
The fully indoor event offers a selection of art, antique furniture, vintage fashion, militaria, Persian rugs, ceramics, books, coins, banknotes, silver and all sorts of collectibles. It gets underway at 11 am next Saturday.
Weldon’s will bring this rare and fine Queen Anne tankard to the National Antiques fair in Limerick.
Pair of late 19th century French bleached cabinets
This pair of large late 19th century French bleached cabinets are at the stand of Christopher Hall Antiques at the winter edition of the Decorative Fair at Battersea Park in London from today until January 25. With around 130 exhibitors the fair offers a variety of stock from the 1700’s to 1979 and with works of art from antiquity to the present day. The foyer display at the entrance, created by the fair organisers, will look at the 1910’s to the early 1920’s when forms of modernism and early Art Deco mingle with the aesthetic and Art Nouveau of the fin de siécle era. Upstairs on the mezzanine LARTA, London’s annual antique rug and textile art fair, features specialist dealers in carpets, rugs, textiles and associated works of art from cultures with a strong tradition of woven art.
Late 18th/early 19th century Italian marble model of the Warwick Vase UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £6,033
This Italian marble model of the Warwick Vase – an ancient Roman marble vase excavated from Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli around 1771 – is at Woolley and Wallis on January 20 with an estimate of £4,000-£6,000. It was previously owned by Earl-Bishop Frederick Hervey, (1730-1803), Bishop of Cloyne, Country Cork Ireland and later the Bishop of Derry, until his death. The vase was housed at the estate he built, the historic Downhill House in Northern Ireland, and remained there until 1950 when the house was sold. It was then given as a gift to prominent Belfast solicitor and connoisseur Peter Rankin (1943-2015), who amassed a large carefully curated private collection and became a leading figure in the preservation and promotion of architectural and cultural heritage in Northern Ireland and beyond. He was a founder member of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society.
In Dublin the Contemporary Icons exhibition which has just opened at Gormley’s Gallery offers work by Andy Warhol, Banksy, Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Keith Haring, Dali, Miro, Hockney and more. There are more than 40 artworks on display including Trolly Hunters from 2007 by Banksy. James Gormley remarked that: “Bringing together this calibre of international names under one roof is exceptionally rare in Ireland”. The show runs until February 2.
Frederick Remington (1861-1909) – Argument with the Town Marshall. UPDATE: THIS MADE $11.847,500
High Noon at Christie’s at the Rockefeller Center in New York on January 21 sees the most valuable collection of Western American art in history come under the hammer. The low estimate for the William I Koch’s collection is $50 million (€42.9 million). This more than doubles the previous record for any Western American art auction.
Bill Koch, who won the America’s Cup in 1992 with the yacht America3, feels the time has come to pass on this history to other collectors passionate about the American west. “I have been fortunate to collect things that resonate with me, The treasures in this sale are among my favourites” he said.
Charles Marion Russel (1864-1926) – The Sun Worshippers. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Visions of the West is split into two auctions, an evening sale next Tuesday followed by High Noon on Wednesday. There are masterworks by Frederick Remington, Albert Bierstadt and Charles Marion Russell in a collection that is acclaimed around the world.
Remington’s sunset painting Coming to the Call is estimated at $6 million – $8 million (€5.1 million – €6.8 million). Other titles of art by Remington like The Broncho Buster, Argument with the Town Marshall and Coming through the Rye, set the scene firmly in the wild west.
Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945) – Wild Bill Hickok at the Cards. UPDATE: THIS MADE $2,210,000
Another work of great interest is Wild Bill Hickok at the Cards by N C Wyeth, patriarch of the Wyeth family of artists. It shows American legends Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok in a card game gone wrong.
Alfred Jacob Miller’s The Buffalo Hunt dates to around 1850 while G Harvey’s Texas Oil Patch from 1981 focuses on the booming oil industry, the basis of much of the wealth of the billionaire businessman.
The old adage caveat emptor (buyer beware) should never be far away from the mind of any collector, big or small. When it comes to Bill Koch it is a case of the seller beware. This keen collector of art and wine demands that it must be what it says on the tin. He has served several high profile lawsuits against sellers, the most notable related to the sale of wine purported to have been owned by Thomas Jefferson. This case is reported to have been settled for $3 million (€2.58 million) in 2014.
UPDATE: The total for both sales exceeded $84 million.
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) – Mountain Lake. All images courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2025. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Tony O’Malley (1913-2003) – Untitled. UPDATE: THIS MADE 950 AT HAMMER
This carborundum print by Tony O’Malley is lot 7 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Off the Wall online art auction which runs until January 19. It is signed with the artists initials and numbered 22/40. The estimate is €400-€600. More than 450 lots will come under the hammer in a sale that features artists like Graham Knuttel, Markey Robinson, Cecil Maguire, Elizabeth Cope, Majella O’Neill Collins, Louis le Brocquy, Elizabeth Brophy, Maurice Wilks, Jane O’Malley, Frank McKelvey and many more. The catalogue is online.
The UK’s first museum exhibition devoted to works on paper by Lucian Freud is at the National Portrait Gallery in London from February 12-May 4. It will explore the artist’s lifelong preoccupation with the human face and figure from the 1930’s to the early 21st century. The focus will be on Freud’s mastery of drawing in all its forms, from pencil, pen and ink to charcoal and etching. A selected group of paintings will open up the dynamic dialogue between his practice on paper and on canvas. Ahead of the show the Gallery has acquired twelve new works from the estate of Lucian Freud including eight etchings. One of them, pictured here, depicts his fashion designer daughter Bella Freud. Bella in her Pluto T-Shirt dates to 1995.
One twist to this year’s annual Turner exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland is the inclusion of artists who found inspiration in Turner. The January show of the 31 watercolours by the master in our national collection is like a meeting of old friends after a two year gap.
The pictures were in Scotland last year when, to mark the 250th anniversary of Turner’s birth in 1775, the National Gallery exchanged their Turner’s with the National Galleries of Scotland. Both institutions benefitted from the generous bequest of wealthy English collector Henry Vaughan who stipulated that the delicate watercolours could be displayed only in January when natural light in these parts is at its lowest. So they are now out of storage until the end of the month.
The exhibition – titled Turner as Inspiration – is enriched by the inclusion of watercolours and prints by artists who found inspiration in Turner’s mastery of light, colour, and atmosphere. Works by Hercules Brabazon (1821-1906), William Callow (1812-1908), John Faulkner (1835-1894) and James H. Burgess (1819-1890) highlight Turner’s influence, while Irish artists Jennifer Lane (b.1952) and Niall Naessens (b.1961) pay homage to his enduring legacy. Together, these works underscore how Turner continues to inspire new artistic generations.
Bequeathed in 1900 the Turner watercolours have been displayed every year since 1901 with the notable exception of the pandemic year of 2021 and 2025. Another good reason to visit our national collection right now is the fascinating Picasso: From the Studio exhibition which runs until February 22. The show, in collaboration with the Musée national Picasso Paris, places Picasso in the context of his studios and highlights the various phases of his art and life. Key locations are explored, from his arrival in Paris at the start of the 20th century to his studio in Mougins in the South of France, are explored.
2026 promises to be another blockbuster year at the gallery with an ambitious and diverse line-up that brings some of the world’s most visionary artists into dialogue across centuries, mediums and movements. From the poetic mysticism of William Blake (1757–1827) and the spiritual abstraction of Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) to the theatrical storytelling of Jan Steen (1626–1679), a year of extraordinary art encounters is in store.
The artist and poet Blake was a defining force in Romanticism. William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy curated by Tate in partnership with the National Gallery runs from April 16 to July 19. From Rembrandt to Matisse – A Celebration of European Prints and Drawings runs from June 27 to November 8 in celebration of Ireland’s presidency of the EU Council. Hilma af Klint is recognised as one of Europe’s foremost abstract painters and is one of Sweden’s most celebrated modern artists. An exhibition of paintings, drawings and watercolours developed in partnership with the Hilma af Klint Foundation, some of which have never been exhibited opens on October 15 and runs until February 7, 2027.
Marking the 400th anniversary of his birth Jan Steen: Sacred and Profane runs from November 21 to April 25, 2027. One of the leading painters of the 17th century he is renowned for his ability to capture the variety and humour of human nature, Steen’s work extends beyond the chaotic genre scenes for which he is best known, encompassing exquisitely painted religious narratives, portraits, and high-society scenes.
A photo of Thomas Wall, aged 16, from the exhibition of prisoners photographs of Kilmainham Gaol in 1921. Wall was killed during the Civil War in 1922.
An exhibition of secret photographs taken by prisoner’s in in 1921 during the War of Independence is at Kilmainham Gaol Museum until October 26 next. With smuggled cameras prisoners recorded everyday life. Photos show boxing matches, Irish language classes, religious services and drama productions. Other show men enjoying the sunshine in south facing yards, cooking food and playing with two dogs. The prisoners were released on December 8, 1921 following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The exhibition is organised by the OPW.
