Latest News in Black Art features news updates and developments in the world of art and related culture
Baltimore artist Joyce J. Scott. | Photo courtesy of Grace Roselli
Awards & Honors
Renowned bead artist Joyce J. Scott received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Johns Hopkins University on May 22. Located in Scott’s hometown of Baltimore, JHU has one of her figurative works in its collection. “Ancestry Doll 1” (2011) is on permanent display in Hutzler Reading Room in Gilman Hall facing portraits of former university presidents. | More
On May 24, Ford Foundation President Darren Walker received France’s highest cultural honor. He was named commander of France’s Order of Arts and Letters for his support of artists and arts institutions. Walker was also named co-chair of New York’s Prison Redevelopment Commission this week. | Associated Press
May 24, 2022: Darren Walker at the French embassy in New York. | Photo: Kisha Bari, Ford Foundation
Public Art
Four years ago, playwright Lynn Nottage commissioned Los Angeles artist Alison Saar to create a statue of Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965). The author and playwright became the first Black woman to have a show on Broadway when “A Raisin in the Sun” starring Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, and Glynn Turman opened in 1959. The sculpture will debut in Times Square, where it will be on view from June 9-12, before traveling the country and going on permanent display in Chicago, Hansberry’s hometown. | New York Times
From left: Amy Sherald. | Photo by JJ Geiger; Calida Rawles. | Photo by Glen Wilson
Conversations
June 6: Amy Sherald and Calida Rawles will be in virtual conversation. The free event is part of Stanford University’s Artists on the Future program. | More
BOMB published an oral history interview with McArthur Binion. Part of the magazine’s initiative documenting the stories of “distinguished visual artists of the African diaspora,” Binion had several conversations over Zoom with Judy Pfaff, a fellow New York artist he has known since the early 1970s. | More
Lot 63: FELRATH HINES, Untitled, circa 1962 (oil on canvas, 30 x 35 3/4 inches / 76.2 by 90.8 cm). | Estimate $6,000-$8,000. SOLD for ($42,000 hammer price) $53,295 including fees. RECORD
Auctions
An untitled circa 1962 painting by Felrath Hines (1913-1993) set a new auction record at Bonhams Post-War & Contemporary Art at May 19, selling for $53,295, over an estimate of $6,000-$8,000. The previous record for the abstract artist and Smithsonian conservator was $22,000 set in 2016 at Swann Auction Galleries. | More
A Shepard Fairey “Hope” portrait of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama sold for $735,000 at Heritage Auctions in Chicago on May 19. Created in 2008, the lot is one of three hand-stenciled mixed-media and acrylic collages Fairey made based on an Associated Press photograph by Mannie Garcia. The image was reproduced as a widely distributed campaign poster. A second version also sold at auction recently, at Sotheby’s New York in October 2020 for $600,800. The third version in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery was gifted to the Smithsonian museum in 2008 by collectors Heather and Tony Podesta. (Tony’s brother, John Podesta, co-chaired Obama’s transition team and also served as counselor to the president.). | More
Lot 77078: SHEPARD FAIREY, “HOPE (Barack Obama),” 2008 (hand-finished collage, stencil, and acrylic on heavy paper laid on canvas, 68-1/2 x 46 inches / 174.0 x 116.8 cm), Unique work from a series of 3 variants. | Estimate $300,000-$500,000. SOLD for ($600,000 hammer price) $735,000 including fees
More News
At the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Fla., “Eleanor Merritt: Remembrance” celebrates the museum’s first African American female board member. Born in Harlem, artist Eleanor Merritt (1933-2019) moved to Sarasota in the 1980s. The survey presents works spanning the 1950s to 2018. | More
Organized by the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Ky., the annual Muhammad Ali Festival features events and activities across art, history, fitness, and community service, from June 3-9. | More
CT
COLLABORATIONS | Prada worked with three artists for a new campaign. Carrie Mae Weems, Catherine Opie, and Thomas Ruff photographed model and LGBTQ activist Hunter Schafer with the brand’s Symbole bag. The images by Weems are featured above and here.
