Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Eclipse of the Sun

George Grosz

Eclipse of the Sun, 1926
Oil on canvas
Museum Purchase

The Eclipse of the Sun Now exhibition at The Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, New York, runs from September 26, 2026, to May 9, 2027.

Exhibition Overview

Central Piece: Anchored by George Grosz's iconic 1926 oil-on-canvas masterpiece, Eclipse of the Sun, which critiques the greed and violence of Germany's Weimar regime.
Collection Scope: Features over 50 works drawn from the Heckscher Museum and the Art Bridges Foundation collections.
Core Themes: Explores a century of politically engaged art addressing themes such as war, civil rights, mass media, immigration, and the environment.
Historical Background

George Grosz Connection: Grosz fled Nazi Germany for the United States in 1933 and later lived, worked, and visited the Heckscher Museum in Huntington from 1947 until his death in 1959.
Centennial Milestone: The exhibition marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of Eclipse of the Sun (acquired by the museum in 1968).

George Grosz had a monumental year in 1926, cementing his legacy as one of the most savage and vital political satirists of the Weimar Republic. While Eclipse of the Sun is globally celebrated, he actually painted multiple landmark masterpieces during this exact twelve-month window that laid bare the impending rise of European fascism. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

The Landmark 1926 Masterpieces

Artwork	Primary Satirical Target	Current Permanent Location
Eclipse of the Sun	Corruption between the military-industrial complex and corporate greed.	Heckscher Museum of Art (New York)
The Pillars of Society	Biting caricatures of nationalistic judges, the compliant press, clergy, and politicians.	Nationalgalerie (Berlin)
Portrait of Dr. Felix J. Weil	A brilliant example of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement.	[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston](https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Grosz "George Grosz

Pre-Raphaelites: Art and Poetry

From 17 October 2026 - 13 February 2027, visitors to Newcastle upon Tyne's Laing Art Gallery will have the chance to see the first large-scale exhibition to explore the connections between Pre-Raphaelite art and poetry.

This autumn and winter, visitors will have the chance to see the first large-scale exhibition to explore the connections between Pre-Raphaelite art and poetry.

The Pre-Raphaelite circle included both artists and writers. The leading visual artists of Pre-Raphaelitism’s first phase, John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, bonded over their admiration of the Romantic poet John Keats. Along with medieval and early Renaissance art and a commitment to closely observing nature, literature was their key inspiration. Some of the poems they most admired told stories of love and peril in the medieval world. The artists translated these stories from word to image in a modern way, covering their canvases with elaborate detail.

Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1862). Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery © Bridgeman Images.

Pre-Raphaelites: Art and Poetry features over 100 masterpiece paintings, drawings, and objects, some of which have never been displayed in Newcastle before. The artists on display include Hunt, Millais, and Rossetti, as well as Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. The exhibition will be further enhanced by an emphasis on women artists including Elizabeth Siddall, Kate Bunce, and Julia Margaret Cameron. The exhibition reveals how the artists were inspired by poets including Dante Aligheri, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Keats, and Alfred Tennyson, and by writers from the Pre-Raphaelites' own circle, such as Christina Rossetti. There are also examples of their art inspiring new poetry.

A range of fine and decorative art is included in the exhibition, providing visitors with the chance to see exquisite embroidery, metalwork, stained glass, tapestry, illuminated manuscripts, and books, as well as paintings and works on paper. Together, the stunning array of loans reveal the creative exchange between art and poetry seen during one of the most exciting periods of British art and literature.

Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to see two internationally important paintings from the Laing’s collections,

A painting of a young woman holding a pot of basil. — 'Isabella and the Pot of Basil' by William Holman Hunt (1867).

Hunt’s Isabella and the Pot of Basil and

Burne-Jones’ Laus Veneris, in the context of Pre-Raphaelitism as a literary, as well as an artistic, movement. They will be displayed alongside other works with the same poetic inspiration and alongside preparatory works for the larger masterpieces.

Key loans have travelled to the Laing Art Gallery from public and private collections across the UK. Lenders include Tate, V&A, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Guildhall Art Gallery, William Morris Gallery, Ashmolean Museum, Fitzwilliam Museum, The Higgins Bedford, the Society of Antiquaries of London, Tullie House, The Bodleian, and many more.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue published by the Laing Art Gallery, supported by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

Monday, October 19, 2026

Sotheby’s Paris Surrealism and Its Legacy October 23

Sotheby’s Paris is delighted to present the fifth edition of Surrealism and Its Legacy, celebrating one of the most revolutionary and enduring movements in modern art. Born out of a desire to challenge convention and transcend the boundaries of reality, Surrealism forever transformed the artistic landscape, opening the door to a world where imagination reigns supreme, the unexpected becomes extraordinary, and the impossible comes to life.

Bringing together exceptional works by leading figures of the Surrealist movement, including René Magritte and Joan Miró, alongside influential artists such as Alexander Calder and Andy Warhol, whose work reflects the movement’s far-reaching legacy, this sale offers a compelling journey through the evolution of the Surrealist vision. From seminal works that defined the movement to those that reveal its profound influence on post-war and contemporary art, the sale highlights the enduring power of an artistic revolution that continues to inspire, provoke and captivate across generations.

The Legacy of Surrealism: Americans in Paris

“I never sell a painting; I make people fall in love with the painting that I love.”

Andy Warhol, Vogue, 1965

Andy Warhol, Alexander the Great, 1982. Estimate €1,800,000–2,500,000.

Dating from 1982, Alexander the Great is a brilliant and glamorous work in both its splendor and its decadence. This rare work is, in every sense of the word, an icon: first because it is unique; because the magnificent fluorescent yellow background pays tribute to the gold backgrounds of ancient icons; and because the very figure of the portrait is precious and worthy of adoration.

Alexander Calder, Mobile, 1950. Estimate €2,000,000–3,000,000.

Mobile is a subtle marriage of the engineer’s rigour and the poet’s freedom. Having become one of the most respected artists on both sides of the Atlantic, Calder made this work a celebration of cosmopolitanism and friendship. He offered it to the wife of one of his dear friends, art dealer Pierre Loeb whose encounter upon his arrival in Paris in 1926, was a decisive moment in Calder's artistic development. The work subsequently passed through Galerie Albert Loeb before entering the collection of Natalie and Léon Seroussi around 1990. The fact that it has belonged to only two family collections since leaving the artist’s hands is of particular significance, connecting two generations of distinguished Parisian collectors and dealers, united by their commitment to modern and Surrealist art.