Dawn Southworth Archives

The SMFA Art Sale 2014 starts this Thursday. It’s also known as the Museum School Art Sale—the art sale that takes place every year at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA), the renown art school adjacent to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston that has been influential part of the Boston art scene since it’s founding in 1876.

There are thousands of pieces of art for sale, hung throughout the galleries on the first floor, and shrink wrapped in bins in the central space. (It’s always fun to flip through and discover amazing finds, whether it’s and inexpensive piece by a student (I once scored tiny abstracts for $12; I often find photos I love for around $100) or additional work by artists whose work is hung in the galleries. Once a piece is sold, it comes off the wall and is immediately replaced by another piece, so the display is in constant rotation.

The Museum School Art Sale offers art in every price range and medium, including oil paintings, acrylic paintings, watercolor paintings, photography, textile art, sculpture, video art (I would love to buy a piece; I still think about one we passed up), ceramics, and jewelry. Pieces are done by SMFA students, alumni, faculty, and affiliated artists. Famous SFMA alums include Cy Twombly, William Barnett, Jim Dine, Ellsworth Kelly, Nan Goldin, and Doug and Mike Starn, many of which have pieces at the sale (and most of which are way out of my price range, obviously).

Each piece at the Museum School Art Sale is priced by the artists, with a fifty/fifty split between the artists and the School. Artwork sold to benefits student scholarships at the School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The SMFA Art Sale 2014 takes place this Thursday to Sunday, November 20, 2014 to November 23, 2014. The hours are 10am-8pm the first three days and Sunday until five.

Here’s a sneak peek of 20 pieces for sale at this year’s Museum School Art Sale. At the end I included links to the posts I did about past years’ Museum School Art Sales. Also, if you’re interested, these are pieces that I’ve purchased at the SMFA Art Sales over the last few years.