In 1935, the Federal Art Project, a New Deal program created to fund the visual arts in the United States, hired Berenice Abbott to document a transitioning New York City. Armed with federally funded equipment and a staff, Abbott produced a series of photographs she titled Changing New York. Representing some of Abbott’s best-known work, the series includes photos such as this image of a Manhattan restaurant’s exterior and its storefront menu advertising items including a 15-cent beef stew.

Berenice Abbott Blossom Restaurant, 103 Bowery Between Grand and Hester Streets, October24, 1935

Auction: January 14

Published by Street & Smith between 1915 and 1949, Detective Story Magazine was one of the first pulp magazines devoted to detective fiction. In addition to stories by a number of notable authors, including Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the long-running publication featured eye-catching artwork on its covers. This painting by illustrator John A. Coughlin, who contributed to several Street & Smith titles, graced the cover of the December 10, 1933, issue of Detective Story Magazine.

John A. Coughlin The Skeleton’s Hand, Detective Story Magazine pulp magazine cover, December 10, 1933

Auction: January 15

A talented sculptor and printmaker, Washington, D.C.-born Elizabeth Catlett was long inspired by African American, Native American, and Mexican art and often incorporated those themes into her work. In her 1990 screenprint Three Women in America, she intertwines three women of different ethnicities, blending their clothing, their skin tones, and even the women’s eyes. Catlett’s overlapping of her subjects’ features deftly highlights both their differences and their similarities.

Elizabeth CatlettThree Women in America, 1990
Auction: January 21