Biography
Julian Dawes is Senior Vice President, Head of Evening Sales, and Co-Deputy Head of Department for Impressionist and Modern Art, New York. Since joining the department in 2008 Julian has helped lead Sotheby’s to unprecedented market-share in the category, initially overseeing cataloguing and research and later as Co-Head of Day Sales. Mr. Dawes maintains a strong client network in the United States and abroad, and plays a key role in sourcing property for Impressionist & Modern and Contemporary sales in New York as well as Europe, helping to secure historic consignments from the Helena Rubinstein Foundation, The Israel Museum in Jerusalem and the Museum of Modern Art, as well as numerous private individuals. During his tenure, Mr. Dawes has been instrumental in orchestrating highly successful collection sales including Property from the Estate of Grace E. Hokin, Chicago, The Collection of Alex & Elisabeth Lewyt, The Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, Property from the late Robert and Elizabeth Haskell, the Collection of A. Alfred Taubman, The Triumph of Color and the Important Private Collection which included the world record Monet, Meules.
In recent years Mr. Dawes has curated highly successful private selling exhibitions including 2014’s Rudolf Bauer: Tomorrow Today, 2015’s Cherchez la Femme: Women and Surrealism, and 2017’s Iconoplastic: 100 Years of De Stijl, all of which sought to spotlight lesser-known and undervalued artists via new scholarship and innovative exhibition design. In November 2018 he organized The Beautiful and Damned: Radical Art of the Great War, a curated catalogue and exhibition to commemorated the centennial of the WW1 armistice. In addition to significant private transactions, Julian has played a key role in Sotheby’s achieving world auction records for Dorothea Tanning, Kay Sage, Enrico Donati, Leonora Carrington, Kurt Seligmann, Rudolf Bauer and Fritz Glarner, among others.
Prior to joining Sotheby’s, Mr. Dawes worked at Rago Arts and Auction Center in his native New Jersey, as a Triage Appraiser on Antiques Roadshow and in the Education Department at The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Duke in Art History.
