S
otheby’s NY is pleased to present a groundbreaking, first ever, online auction for Important 21st Century Realism, including 28 lots from the Art Renewal Center’s (ARC) 15th International Salon Competition. Open for bidding online from Friday, July 16, until Monday, July 26, 2021, this sale features a carefully selected group of winners and high-ranking finalists from the largest competition in the world for Representational Art.
This 501C3, non-profit educational foundation and leader of the revival of Realism in Contemporary Art, received 4,941 entries from 83 countries and spanning six continents. In person viewing will be available at Sotheby’s NY during these same dates in conjunction with the 15th International ARC Salon Exhibition; a total of 91 Contemporary Representational works to be on view. This is a diverse grouping of artists of different ethnicities, genders and backgrounds from around the world, including numerous important, influential, and inspiring artists working within the realist tradition. Starting as only a murmur in the 1980’s, the 21st Century Representational Art Movement has grown exponentially along with interest and demand. We anticipate this public sale hosted by Sotheby’s will be the first of many.
21st century Representational Art cannot possibly be mistaken for any other period in fine art, as it is inherently an expression of today’s society, communicating our shared humanity. For 100 years, artists have been deconstructing works of fine art, creating paintings that are visually flat, throwing paint, or even showing blank canvases. At the time this was new, exciting and shocking. Now, in the 21st century, thousands of artists and collectors alike, want to start reconstructing and reclaiming our universal visual language, like great theater, suspending disbelief, and expressing it all with beauty, poetry and grace.
