The Fine Art e Design sale of New Orleans Auction Galleries brings together 279 lots for an auction between contemporary art and design. The April auction spans over a century of languages and movements, with works capable of speaking to experienced collectors and new buyers.
What distinguishes the April selection?
According to Michele Carolla, director of the fine arts department, the sale offers works that reflect central ideas of modern and contemporary art. The thematic core ranges from the human figure to identity, to sexuality, spirituality, and social critique.
However, the choice is not limited to content. Many works feature distinct visual languages and personal interpretations of the metaphysical. Overall, the catalog aims to capture those who want to expand an already established collection or start a new one.
Which lots in the contemporary art auction deserve more attention?
Among the most relevant pieces is Untitled by Grace Hartigan from 1988, estimated between 5,000 and 8,000 dollars. The artist, born in 1922 and passed away in 2008, was long undervalued, but in the last ten years has gained increasing attention.
Hartigan was a decisive figure of the second generation of Abstract Expressionism. Her surfaces, marked by vibrant colors and energetic brushstrokes, create tension between total abstraction, personal expression, and figuration. In this work, the boundary between registers remains deliberately unstable.
Another significant lot is Sketch for Political Rally by John McCrady from 1935, with an estimate between 2,500 and 4,000 dollars. A painter and engraver from the American South, McCrady studied with Thomas Hart Benton and Kenneth Hayes Miller, later working for the Federal Art Project and the Works Progress Administration.
That said, his closeness to Regionalism is clearly evident. The movement looked at rural life and small-town America. In the 1935 painting, McCrady offers an intense look at the psychological and lived plane of 20th-century America.
Then appears Confetti by Floyd Newsum from 2011, with an estimate between 5,000 and 8,000 dollars. Born in 1950 and died in 2024, Newsum was an artist, teacher, and co-founder of Project Row Houses, in Houston, Texas.
Moreover, his work is nourished by color, symbolic images, and references to West African culture. His works speak of history, community, and social consciousness, reinforcing a reading centered on African American identity.
Why do these artists matter on the critical level?
Peter Sacks, born in 1950, combines written word and image in a structural way. An English professor at Johns Hopkins University between 1980 and 1996, and at Harvard University since 1996, Sacks often inserts textual fragments into his works.
Book of Assyrian Reliefs from 2012-2013, estimated between 15,000 and 25,000 dollars, clearly shows this approach. Since his first solo exhibition in Paris in 2004, his work has been exhibited internationally and is recognized for the fusion of paper, text, painting, and collage.
Alongside him is José Clemente Orozco, also known as Jose Clemente Orozco, born in 1883 and died in 1949. Considered one of the fathers of the Mexican Mural Renaissance alongside Diego Rivera and David Alfaro, Orozco is central to the history of Mexican modernism.
His work Masks, created around 1930, has an estimate between 15,000 and 25,000 dollars. His style, fueled by Social Realism and Symbolism, remains among the most complex of his generation and continues to influence artists worldwide.
For further information on the historical context and the art market, it is useful to consult Artsy, The Art Newspaper, and Sotheby’s.
The Fine Art e Design sale of New Orleans Auction Galleries will be held on April 23, 2026 at 10:00 CDT, with a catalog that spans modernism, civic engagement, and formal experimentation.
Image: Jenny Holzer, Money Creates Taste (2007). Est. $1,500–$2,500. Courtesy of New Orleans Auction Galleries
As expert in digital marketing, Amelia began working in the fintech sector in 2014 after writing her thesis on Bitcoin technology. Previously author for several international crypto-related magazines and CMO at Eidoo. She is now the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Cryptonomist and Econique.
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