Collecting Art Catalogues, Brochures, and Ephemera: Swann's Printed and Manuscript African-Americana Sale

Lot 182 in the recent Swann Auction Galleries' Printed and Manuscript African-Americana Sale 2308 (March 21, 2013) featured a small set of five exhibition catalogues, dating from 1937-1961. Four of the items had a Howard University connection, and one had ties to the Phillips Collections; both institutions are located in Washington, DC. This lot was particularly appealing to me from the standpoint that I believe very strongly in collecting and preserving African American print materials, including ephemera. These materials serve as key items in identifying and documenting African American artists and in demonstrating the aesthetic and historical role they have played within a larger art perspective, particularly American art.                                          

The study of American art has historically and consistently been enriched by museum and gallery exhibition catalogues. Lot 182 and catalogues of similar and comparable content enriches and fill a substantial gap in the history of 20th-century American art. Careful study of these catalogues, as a genre, many written by scholars in the field, position the Black artist firmly in his time. This is accomplished through the use of primary source materials that place these artists in a social and historical context. These richly informative catalogues provide extensive biographical information; chronologies of works, often relevant to historical settings; and images and informative statements of the art work included. Oftentimes, they may be the only print materials on a given artist.

I was particularly interested in Lot 182, simply because it included a title, Oil Paintings, Watercolors and Prints by Negro Artists (Howard University, 1939) that has been on my "want list" for years. Also, I was curious about Survey  Number One by James Porter, not being familiar with its content. Because I owned 2 of the remaining titles, Art of the American Negro (Howard University Gallery, 1937) and Three Negro Artists: Horace Pippin, Jacob Lawrence, Richmond Barthe (1947), I decided to forgo bidding on the lot for two key reasons. First, I did not want to add another duplicate to the collection; particularly, as I develop plans to deaccession current duplicates on hand. Second, Lot 182 fell outside of my price point. It had a high estimate of $400.00 which is not out of line with the secondary market; however, in the final analysis, it sold for $1,440 with buyer's premium. So, I will continue to wait and follow my pattern of building a collection, one item at a time. In due time, my "want list" will be completed, either through locating missing items or editing items off the list. The fun still comes from the search, the discovery, the learning, and the sharing. 

Until Swann Auction Galleries has its next Printed and Manuscript African-Americana Sale, I will continue to search the secondary market for these small gems of African American art history.

Smithsonian American Art Museum: Highlights from Art Inventories Catalog

Over the past years, I have become familiar with the breadth and scope of the Smithsonian Institution, and have worked extensively with the rich holdings that are a part of the Smithsonian American Art/National Portrait Gallery (AA/PG) Library, particularly delving into its books, catalogues, and ephemeral collections. As a whole, this institution is essential because of its role in identifying, collecting, and making materials accessible not only for their staff, but for researchers, appraisers, students, artists, the layman, and other interested individuals from across the country, and on an international level. Through their art collections, archival materials, and print collections, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and its various support units play a crucial role in documenting African American artists in the broader context of American art. Simply, the breadth and depth of their collections serve as a resource, either documenting African Americans as a subject or the contributions of African American artists. They do not stand alone in this effort, but this post focuses on the highlights from one of The Smithsonian American Art Museum's research databases-- "the Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture which provides descriptive data on over 400,000 art works done by artists born or working in this country."

"The Inventory of American Paintings includes works by artists who were active in America by 1914. The Inventory of American Sculpture has no cut-off date and includes works from the colonial era through contemporary times. These online databases are supplemented by a photographic collection of over 80,000 images."   This database includes African American highlights that may be seen at the following link: Art Inventories Catalog of Smithsonian American Art Museum.

In an upcoming post, I will feature the results from an on-going and extensive project that I have been involved with at the AA/PG Library's vertical file, a rich ephemeral resource. This project has been directly related to African American artists and their inclusion in the vertical file collection of the Smithsonian American Art/National Portrait Gallery Library.

An Open Letter: James Porter Archival Collection Auctioned ($50,400)

Dear Artists, Art Historians, Art Critics, Art Collectors…,

We all have an accumulation of papers, notes, cards, photographs, letters, emails, journals, diaries, memorabilia, receipts, drafts of publications, artist statements, thoughts, ideas, wishes, dreams, contracts, applications, and etc...; all of which document our role and activities in the art world. The accumulation of these items define to varying degrees the role that we have played and the impact that we have had in strengthening African American art or even the broader American art scene. Our individual or collective  involvement could be directly related to creating fine art; defining, capturing, and interpreting art history; collecting fine art; building a collection of fine art books and other print media; and capturing oral histories. Our "stuff and things" are a part of the materials that document our involvement in the fine arts, and they can serve as a catalyst to document the culture, history, and role of a people.

Archival collections are the basic and essential means to examine the past. By looking at old documents through contemporary eyes allow us to reacquaint ourselves with past documentation and possibly discover that which has been historically unseen or even unappreciated. Through these documents there is always a relevancy from the past to the present that has the potential to raise questions on historical views, answer our questions of those past histories, and point us in the right direction. As an art librarian, I have noticed a historic gap in the documentation of the presence and role of the black artist in the field of the visual arts, particularly in comparison to other fields of study, such as music and the other performing arts. I refer to this gap and lack of documentation in the visual arts as the missing link in the history of African American history and culture.

All of us who are actively involved in the visual arts have the foundation of an archival collection and the contents of that collection, consisting of notes on pieces of paper, letters to friends, family, and acquaintances, receipts, doodles, drafts of articles, legal documents, contracts, and the like, could be very valuable pieces of documentation that might help connect dots relating to our involvement in the art world. For instance, letters, both personal and professional, can reflect years of friendship, years of mentoring, and years of making memories.

Because of my training and close work with archivists and archives, I was very interested in one of the lots auctioned in the Swann Galleries, African Americana 2010 Auction on February 25, 2010. I am referring to the James Porter Archival Collection, Lot 141 (Swann Galleries) http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/search.asp?pg=15&ps=10. Such a body of material, as the Porter Archival Collection, adds a substantial body of creditable documentation to the existing body of literature documenting the role of black art and the historical role of blacks in American art that is currently available in Special Collections (Libraries and Archives) around the country. The Porter Collection fills a much needed gap in the history of the visual arts. Its value far exceeds the $50,400 (inclusive of Buyer's Premium) realized cost from the auction. 

Few of us would question the necessity for collecting materials from the past and having them organized and accessible so that current and future researchers may use those materials to further studies in this field. But it is unsettling to think that collections such as this (Porter Archival Collection) could end up in private hands simply as a potential monetary investment. My hope is that these materials have found a home in which they will be preserved for posterity, making them accessible to the larger public, and in so doing furthering the documentation of not only African American art, but enhancing the broader field of American visual art. I remain hopeful that the collection has been acquired by an institution that values and supports the importance of documentation, and one that supports and encourages research and investigation that allows the accurate presentation of the role of black art/artists in the overall history of American art.

As an African American artist, historian, critic, collector, and etc. have you personally thought of how your collection of materials, the "stuff and things," will be archived? Lets pause to think how we might further the cause of African American art by finding an institutional home for future materials that may come up for auction or simply start the thinking process of where we will  place our materials.

Rayford W. Logan, former historian and professor at Howard University is attributed to saying, “black history was lost, strayed, or stolen.” So it is important for institutions to provide a home for those “lost” pieces as they are found; to provide balanced information for that history that has “strayed;” and to help researchers correct through revisionist history that which was “stolen.” The retrieval of this history and the accurate interpretation of it, including the visual arts will revolutionize education at all levels by adding new information, new questions, and new energy to a traditional perspective of our fine art history.

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