Sebastião Salgado: Magnum Opus
100% of sales benefitting Instituto Terra
26 September – 12 October 2022
Sotheby’s New York (1334 York Avenue)

CLICK HERE TO VIEW PRESS RELEASE

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS DROPBOX FOLDER OF IMAGE FILES

CLICK HERE TO VIEW CATALOG OF WORKS ON VIEW

In the artist’s first U.S. survey since the 1990s, this fall Sotheby’s will present Magnum Opus, a curated not-for-profit exhibition representing five decades of work by the pioneering artist and environmentalist Sebastião Salgado (b. 1944, Brazil; permanent collections include Centre Pompidou, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Modern Art). This new survey of 50 photographs spanning 1978 to present will highlight bodies of work that provide an intimate and intergenerational lens into global subcultures; amplify recognition of 12 indigenous communities; and bring crucial visibility to the global climate crisis.

Free and open to the public at Sotheby’s York Avenue headquarters from September 26 through October 12, Magnum Opus is the largest curated solo exhibition of photography in Sotheby’s history. The selection of 50 photographs, curated by Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado, features direct-from-studio platinum prints of many of the artist’s most significant and well-known images taken between 1978 and 2018. Magnum Opus is part of Sotheby’s three-part fundraising initiative benefitting the acclaimed Brazilian reforestation nonprofit Instituto Terra; in addition to the Salgado exhibition, the partnership includes Sotheby’s first-ever gala—co-chaired by Annie Leibovitz and with a performance by Anitta—and an auction featuring unique experiences and artworks of all mediums.

Instituto Terra, the beneficiary of the exhibition’s sales proceeds, has been an unparalleled force in applied intervention to the global climate crisis. Co-founded by Sebastião Salgado and Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado in 1998, it is the world's only organization that has developed—and is committed to sharing—the specific scientific knowledge required to successfully reforest within the unique, arid ecosystem of Brazil. Since 1998, Instituto Terra has planted nearly 3 million trees native to Brazil’s Atlantic Forest; revitalized over 2,000 degraded water springs; provided numerous conservation-education programs to the public; created an extensive educational toolbox for farmers to adopt a sustainable approach to cattle raising that will increase food production; and brought back more than 250 animal species to the land, including endangered animals such as the puma.

Learn more in the above-linked press release. A preview of works on view is below, jpeg files of which are in the above-linked Dropbox.

IMAGE USAGE NOTES: Permission to reproduce the images is granted solely for use in conjunction with media reportage of Sebastião Salgado: Magnum Opus at Sotheby’s. • Image usage must be accompanied by the following credit line: © Sebastião Salgado, courtesy of Sotheby’s. • No cropping, text overlay, or alteration of any kind is permitted.