Art Market Updates

Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection

Currently on view at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, Thinking Eye, Seeing Mind: The Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection, features the phenomenal collection of Georgia State University professor Medford Johnston and his wife and collaborator Loraine. A promised gift to the museum, the collection focuses on 1960s abstraction and includes such artists as Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Elizabeth Murray, Martin Puryear, Ed Ruscha, Al Taylor, Anne Truitt and Stanley Whitney, among others. The exhibition will remain on view through May 25.

Daniel Ridgway Knight (1839-1924), Leçon de Danse, ca. 1915. Oil on canvas, 35 ½ x 46 in., signed: ‘LL’, inscribed: ‘Paris’. Catalog DF1010.

Rehs Galleries launches Ridgway Knight Catalog

Rehs Galleries recently announced the launch of the “Daniel Ridgway Knight Online Catalogue Raisonné,” a comprehensive and continuously updated digital resource dedicated to the life and works of the celebrated 19th-century American artist known for his idyllic scenes of rural life in France. This scholarly project is being led by Howard L. Rehs, art historian and owner of Rehs Galleries. The Daniel Ridgway Knight Online Catalogue Raisonné will serve as the definitive reference for scholars, collectors and institutions, providing researched documentation of Knight’s extensive body of work. “The online format of this catalog allows for ongoing research and the incorporation of newly discovered works,” says Rehs. “We invite collectors and institutions worldwide to contribute their findings and help expand the understanding of Knight’s legacy.” The digital catalog can be found at www.ridgwayknight.org.

Sol LeWitt (1928-2007), Drawing for a Structure, 1980. Pencil, pen and ink on tracing paper

IAC Arts & Crafts Conference

Initiatives in Arts & Culture’s 27th annual Arts & Crafts Conference is set for September 17 to 21 in Central New York, an underappreciated hub of both historic and contemporary art and architecture. In the context of “Arts & Crafts,” the region is perhaps best known for Gustav Stickley, furniture designer and entrepreneur, as well as Adelaide Alsop Robineau, ceramicist and publisher of the important journal Keramic. Both were based in Syracuse, New York, from 1901 to 1905, as was Irene Sargent, editor of Stickley’s publication, The Craftsman. The conference will focus on these key individuals with a variety of educational events taking place throughout the five days, including talks by local experts, preservationists, historians, curators and academics. For more information on the conference and to register, visit www.artinitiatives.com/2025-arts-crafts-conference-central-new-york.

Bell from St. John’s Church, Richmond, Virginia, 18th century. 14 x 10½ in. Gift of Mrs. Charles Benjamin Bryant. Courtesy the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

Give Me Liberty

The Virginia Museum of History & Culture will spearhead the United States’ 250th anniversary commemoration with the exhibition Give Me Liberty: Virginia & the Forging of a Nation, which delves into Virginia’s important role in the American Revolution. Divided into five sections—Protest to Action, Words to Action, Liberty in Action, Virginia in Action and A Call to Action: Our Living American Revolution of Ideas—the exhibition features a diverse array of significant artifacts, including key Revolutionary War documents such as Dunmore’s Proclamation, November 7, 1775, likely printed by Alexander Cameron and Donald McDonald aboard the HMS Otter, and Virginia’s Declaration of Rights. Also on view will be symbolic objects like “The Belt that Would Not Burn,” the “Liberty to Slaves” frock and iconic reproductions of Thomas Jefferson’s writing desk and the House of Burgesses speaker’s chair. The exhibition opens March 22 and will be on view until January 4, 2026.

Barbara Shermund (1899-1978), Original cover art for The New Yorker, March 18, 1939. Watercolor and gouache on paper, 12 x 87⁄8 in. International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection and Records, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund

“Barbara Shermund (1899-1978) is an unheralded early master of gag cartooning, whose career spanned the heyday of American magazines from the 1920s to 1960s. Her sharp wit and loose style boldly tapped the zeitgeist of first-wave feminism with vivid characters that were alive and astute,” notes the Brandywine Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. On view through June 1, the museum presents Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund, celebrating the clever and insightful illustrator through photographs, letters, original art and books.—