Latest News in Black Art: April Bey and Paul Anthony Smith Join New Galleries, Nigel Freeman Heading Fine Art at Swann Auctions, Inaugural Artnoir Fellow & More
Latest News in Black Art features updates and developments in the world of art and related culture APRIL BEY, “I KNOW ALL ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT TO KNOW ALL ABOUT,” 2024 (jacquard, sherpa, crushed velour, metallic thread, beads, adorned clothespins, 80 x 240 inches). | © April Bey, Courtesy the artist and Vielmetter Los...
Two Dozen Lots Featured in Swann African American Art Auction Will Benefit Brandwine Workshop and Archives in Philadelphia
THE FORTHCOMING AFRICAN AMERICAN ART sale at Swann Auction Galleries in New York features a selection of rare prints and a few paintings benefitting the Brandywine Workshop and Archives (BWA), the printmaking institution in Philadelphia. A handful of works were consigned directly by the artists. Most are sourced from the collection of BWA and...
The Week in Black Art, March 29-April 4, 2021: Artist Winfred Rembert Has Died, Curator Danielle A. Jackson is Going to Artists Space, Christiana Ine-Kimba Boyle Appointed Online Director at Pace Gallery
This post will be updated with the latest news in Black art throughout the week Surviving a Lynching | Ashes to Ashes: An award-winning, short documentary made in 2019, considers artist Winfred Rembert’s traumatic experiences in the Jim Crow South, a narrative that reflects America’s dark history with racism and injustice. | Video...
Decade After Portrait by Barkley L. Hendricks Sold for $48,000 at Swann Auction, Sotheby’s is Asking More Than $2 Million
A PAINTING MADE 45 YEARS AGO by Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017) is being offered next week at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Auction in New York. “Jackie Sha-La-La (Jackie Cameron)” (1975) is a seated portrait of a female subject. The painting sold for $48,000 (fees included) at Swann Auction Galleries in 2010. A decade later,...
Richmond Barthé Sculpture was Top Lot at Swann African-American Art Auction, ‘Feral Benga’ Sold for Record-Setting $629K
THE LATEST AFRICAN-AMERICAN FINE ART SALE at Swann Auction Galleries was five-and-a-half hours. There were 187 lots and the high point came early on when Lot 10, a cast bronze sculpture by Richmond Barthé (1901-1989) sold for more than half a million dollars. “Feral Benga” garnered sustained interest and was bid up to about...
Auction Results: Swann’s First Sale Since COVID-19 Shutdown Features Printed & Manuscript African Americana and Art-Related Ephemera
PROTESTING POOR WORKING CONDITIONS, Memphis sanitation workers walked off their jobs in February 1968. More than 1,300 black men went on strike. Carrying signs that declared “I Am A Man,” they demanded recognition of their union, better wages, and improved safety standards. Two months later, Martin Luther King Jr., went to Memphis to support...
Forthcoming Swann Sale Features Selections by Artists Associated With Los Angeles, Including 5 Paintings by Ernie Barnes
LOS ANGELES was a site of inspiration and productivity for a number of artists represented in the forthcoming African-American Fine Art sale at Swann Auction Galleries in New York. (Originally planned for April 2, the auction was postponed due to COVID-19. Rescheduled for June 4, the sale is online only.) The sale features lots...
Saint Louis Art Museum Has Acquired ‘Seated Woman,’ Elizabeth Catlett’s Record-Setting Sculpture
A CARVED MAHOGANY sculpture by Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) set a new artist record in New York this week. “Seated Woman” (1962) sold for $389,000 (fees included) at Swann Auction Galleries African-American Fine Art sale on Oct. 8. “Elizabeth Catlett was especially deserving of a new record, and ‘Seated Woman’ was the perfect work to...
Swann African American Art Sale Yields Records for Women Artists Including Simone Leigh, Emma Amos, and Howardena Pindell, Top Lot by Norman Lewis
THE LATEST SALE of African-American Fine Art at Swann Auction Galleries resulted in auction records for several living women artists, including Simone Leigh, Emma Amos and Howardena Pindell. In addition, works by Sonya Clark and Allison Janae Hamilton appeared at auction for the first time and established benchmarks well above their estimates. Lot 171:...
Lot of 38 Portraits by Malick Sidibé Tops Swann Photography Sale, Roy DeCarava Image of Harlem Dancers Sets Artist Record
BLACK ARTISTS LED the Photographs: Art & Visual Culture sale at Swann Auction Galleries on Feb. 21. A group of 38 silver prints in custom frames by Malick Sidibé (1936-2016) was the top lot. The photos yielded $87,500 (including fees), an artist record, according to Swann. The individual and group portraits were made by...
Record-Setting African American Art Auction Gives Swann Galleries Highest-Ever Sales Total in Company History
BEAUFORD DELANEY, “Untitled (Village Street Scene),” 1948 APPLAUSE SWEPT THROUGH THE SALESROOM when a colorful mid-career canvas by Norman Lewis soared to $725,000*, three times the estimate. Bidders also clapped when a village street scene painted by Beauford Delaney (above) and “O Freedom,” a large-scale charcoal and crayon drawing by Charles White reached half...
Hale Woodruff and Jacob Lawrence Offer Insights About African and African American Art in 1955 Letters to a College Student
From left, Artists Hale Woodruff and Jacob Lawrence. GATHERING RESEARCH FOR HER THESIS, a white North Carolina college student wrote to African American artists Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) and Hale Woodruff (1900-1980) more than six decades ago. She sought Lawrence’s view on the influence of Negro artists on American painting and, from Woodruff, insights about...
Oct. 3: Culture Type Joins Swann Auction Galleries for a Discussion About ‘New Voices in African American Fine Art’
From left, Robert E. Holmes, Victoria Valentine, Nigel Freeman. BEYOND THE INCONTROVERTIBLE INFLUENCE and authority of curators and scholars, professionals from a variety of backgrounds are playing increasingly important roles in preserving art and culture. To explore this phenomenon, Culture Type is joining Swann Auction Galleries for an Oct. 3 discussion about “New Voices...
For Netherlands-based Sam Middleton, Posthumous New York Exhibition is a Homecoming of Sorts
SAM MIDDLETON, “Jazz is Free As a Bird,” 1972 (mixed media oil and collage on board). | Courtesy GP Contemporary LAST FALL, LEAFING THROUGH the catalog for the Oct. 6, 2016, African-American Fine Art sale at Swann Auction Galleries, an abstract painting by Sam Middleton (1927-2015) stood out. Titled “Jazz Is Free As A...
Retrospective: The Latest News in Black Art – London Fairs, African and African American Art at Auction
RETROSPECTIVE is a review of the latest news and happenings related to visual art by and about people of African descent, with the occasional nod to cultural matters. This week, highlights include news from Frieze London and the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair; sales of African and African American art at auctions in New York,...
At Swann Auction, Records Set for 6 Black Artists Including Frank Bowling, Palmer Hayden, and Felrath Hines
SIX BLACK ARTISTS made news recently when their work set sales records at Swann Auction Galleries. Paintings by Frank Bowling, Allan Freelon, Palmer Hayden, Felrath Hines, Wadsworth Jerrell, and Robert Neal, sold for record prices at Swann’s April 7 sale of African American fine art. The artists, both modern and contemporary, have had notable and...
Yale’s Beinecke Library Buys $100,000 Map of Prohibition-Era Harlem
IN 1932, IF YOU WERE LOOKING for an uptown night club or speakeasy that was open all night, an illustrated map by E. Simms Campbell (1906-1971) would have been a valuable resource. Today, it is a valuable treasure. The original artwork for the map sold for $100,000 (including fees) at the Printed and Manuscript African...
Record Breaker: Norman Lewis Painting Sells for Nearly $1 Million at Swann Auction
Lot 49: NORMAN LEWIS (1909 – 1979), “Untitled,” circa 1958 (oil on linen canvas). | Estimate $250,000-$350,000. Sold on Dec. 15, 2015 for $965,000 fees included (Hammer Price $800,000) THE MOMENTUM SURROUNDING NORMAN LEWIS (1909-1979) continued earlier this week when a large-scale abstract painting by the artist (shown above) garnered nearly $1 million at Swann...
Swann Announces September Sale of Maya Angelou’s Art Collection
View image | gettyimages.com AN AVID COLLECTOR OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ART, Maya Angelou (1928-2014) surrounded herself with paintings, sculpture, fine prints and works on paper. The vaunted poet and author acquired works by Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Melvin Edwards and Faith Ringgold, among many others, that have largely remained unseen by the...
Prominent African American Artists Break Records at Swann Auction
LAST THURSDAY WAS A HISTORY-MAKING DAY in African American art. Sales results show Swann Auction Galleries recorded $2.36 million in total sales (including fees), four lots sold for more than six figures and, most notably, seven artists achieved record prices. Swann Auction Galleries held its first African American fine art auction of the year on...
