Swann Sessions Swann Auction Galleries

Mess details Yourgrau's journey to declutter his life and demystify the line between avid collecting and obsessive hoarding–a line he explored with Swann's own Nicholas D. Lowry in a wildly entertaining excerpt from the book published by Vice in July. Far beyond a how-to guide to cleaning up, Mess is an exercise in humor and heartbreak, chronicling Yourgrau's struggle as he explores the power of objects and memories, along with his dive into the history, science, literature and pop culture surrounding collecting and its much-derided counterpart, hoarding.

Hear acclaimed novelist and rare book collector Bradford Morrow read from and talk about his latest novel "The Forgers," followed by a conversation with author and book culture expert Nicholas Basbanes. As a fitting backdrop to the talk, the Lawrence M. Solomon Collection of Mystery, Detective & Science-Fiction Literature was on view during the event.

"She [Dr. Angelou] was deeply aware of the cultural and institutional forces that worked to keep her voice, and voices like hers, out of the marketplace of ideas...she defied those forces and, as poet Elizabeth Alexander has pointed out, she helped clear a path for the boom in black women's writing."-Gregory Pardlo

Swann Sessions is podcast from Swann Auction Galleries. You'll hear from guests as well as specialists from our departments including American Art, African-American Fine Art, Autographs, Books, Contemporary Art, Illustration, Maps & Atlases, Photographs & Photobooks, Printed and Manuscript Americana and African Americana, Prints & Drawings, and Vintage posters. You’ll hear our experts discuss everything from art to ephemera, from collecting to auction world trends.

Our first episode comes from a live event here at Swann. In June 2015 we hosted a conversation with Jon Anderson and Philis Raskind-Anderson titled “Paul Cadmus & The Nantucket Man.”

Image above: Paul Cadmus, "Male Nude Seated on a Ledge (NM 158)", black and white chalks on paper.