RESULTS: Swann's African-American Fine Art Sale 2390, The Art Collection of Maya Angelou

Swann Auction Galleries' African-American Fine Art Sale 2390 held on September 15th brought in $1,294,200 with buyer’s premium, doubling its pre-sale high estimate ($637,000) for the sale as a whole. Of the 44 lots that were offered at auction, 43 sold (98% sell-through rate by lot). Over the years of reporting the results of this auction, I can't ever  recall a 98% sell-through rate which attests to its success. According to Nigel Freeman, Swann Galleries’ Director of African-American Fine Art, “We are absolutely thrilled–this auction exceeded all of our expectations and reinforced the great status of Dr. Angelou as an American cultural icon. It was an honor to handle her collection." 

Select highlights from The Art Collection of Maya Angelou: African-American Fine Art (Sale 2390) are featured in this post, focusing on those lots in which an artist auction record was established. All price quotes for art sold include buyer's premium.

Lot 32 FAITH RINGGOLD (1930 - )
Maya's Quilt of Life (Acrylic on canvas and painted, dyed and pieced fabrics, 1989. 1854x1854 mm; 73x73 inches. Inscribed "Maya's Quilt of Life by Faith Ringgold © 1989")

Maya's Quilt had an high estimate of $250,000 and it sold to a private individual/collector for $461,000. *Maya’s Quilt of Life (1989) was acquired by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. (*updated 09/19/2015).

Lot 3
JOHN BIGGERS (1924 - 2001)
Kumasi Market (Oil and acrylic on masonite board, 1962. 863x1524 mm; 34x60 inches. Signed and dated in oil, left edge, center.)

Lot 3, Kumasi Market, was the second highest selling lot. It had an  estimate of $100,000 - 150,000 and sold to a private individual/collector for $389,000.



Lot 44
MELVIN EDWARDS (1937 - )
OWWA Maya (Welded steel, 2011. 254x178x102 mm; 10x7x4 inches. Signed and titled in steel, verso.)

Lot 44 was one of my personal favorites and I have a special spot for a piece such as this. OWWA Maya exceeded its $12,000 high estimate and sold to a dealer for $40,000. 


Lot 38
JEANNE MOUTOUSSAMY-ASHE (1951 - )
Maya Angelou (Silver print with extensive hand coloring, 1993. 254x267 mm; 10x10 1/2 inches, full margins. Signed and dated 11/93 in ink, lower margin, with the artist's ink stamp verso.)

This photograph of Maya Angelou, Lot 38, had an estimate of $1,000 - 1,500. It far surpassed that estimate with a realized price of $17,500, and was purchased by an institution.


Lot 15  
PHOEBE BEASLEY (1943 - )
Catnap (Collage of various papers and mixed media on cotton canvas, 1980. 914x914 mm; 36x36 inches. Signed in brush and ink, lower right recto. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed "©" and with the artist's contact information in ink, lower center verso.)

Catnap is an excellent example of Phoebe Beasley's popular work in collage. With an estimate of $4,000 - 6,000, Lot 15 sold for $11,875 to a private individual/collector.


Lot 39 ALONZO ADAMS (1961 - )
Phenomenal Woman (Watercolor and pencil, 1993. 565x756 mm; 22 1/4x29 3/4 inches. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed "To: Dr. Angelou - You give me hope and inspiration" in pencil, lower left and right.)

Phenomenal Woman with an estimate of $3,000 - 5,000, sold for $10,000 to a private individual/collector.


Lot 40
JAMES MCKISSIC (1972 - )
Jimmy's Blues (Oil on cotton canvas, circa 1987. 508x406 mm; 20x16 inches. Signed and inscribed "To Maya Angelou: Thanks for the inspiration" in ink, upper right.)

Jimmy's Blues, a portrait of the late writer James Baldwin, gets its title from the author's 1985 book of poetry. Lot 40, Jimmy's Blues, had an estimate of $1,000 - 1,500. It sold for $9,375 to a private individual/collector.  


Lot 41
CHARLY "CARLOS" PALMER (1960 - )
His Story (Acrylic and collage on cotton canvas, circa 2008. 610x762 mm; 24x30 inches. Signed in acrylic, lower right.)

Lot 41, His Story, had an estimate of $2,000- 3,000 and sold to a private individual/collector for $7,500. 

SEE Final Results for all lots in Sale 2390.   

Selection of Upcoming Art Talks: Highlighting Black Art or Artists

Atlanta, Georgia

Michael C. Carlos Museum

Tuesday, April 21, 2015 | 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. | Reception Hall, Level Three

Mildred Thompson (American, 1936-2003), 1989
The Second Mystery, Etching, Artist's Proof
Lent by Wes and Missy Cochran

"In a program titled Let’s Talk About Mildred, collectors Wes and Missy Cochran join curator of the Mildred Thompson estate, Melissa Messina, and Carlos Museum Associate Curator of Works on Paper, Andi McKenzie, for a conversation about the life and work of artist Mildred Thompson, whose prints are featured in the exhibition Creating Matter."   

Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham Museum of Art

Kelli Morgan, Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Curatorial Fellow
of African American Art 

Lecture: Decoding Black Art: Rising Up: Hale Woodruff's Murals at Talladega College
Sunday, June 21, 2015 | 2 - 3 p.m.

"Join Kelli Morgan, Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Curatorial Fellow of African American Art at the BMA, for a lecture series on African American art. The series will analyze and illuminate important works of African American art within the Museum’s permanent collection. All lectures are free and open to the public.

Kelli will discuss Rising Up: Hale Woodruff’s Murals at Talladega College."

Cambridge, Massachusetts
The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery
 of African and African American Art at the Hutchins Center

Sunday Afternoon at the Cooper Gallery

In Conversation: Steven Nelson and Abigail DeVille 

Sunday, April 12, 2015 | 2 p.m. | 102 Mount Auburn Street

Steven Nelson, Associate Professor of African and African American Art History, University of California, Los Angeles; Cohen Fellow at the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute, Hutchins Center, Harvard University.

Abigail DeVille, Independent Artist; Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.

Chicago, Illinois

Chicago Cultural Center

Gallery Talk: Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist

Tuesday, April 14 and Tuesday, June 9, 2015 | 12:15 p.m. | Sidney R. Yates Gallery, 4th Floor North

The themes of Motley's work—identity, migration and social change—will be central to the discussion. 

Columbus, Ohio

The Ohio State University,

Department of African American and African Studies

Artist Talk:  Art as Resistance: Emory Douglas, Minister of Culture for The Black Panther Movement 

Thursday, April 16, 2015 | 4:30 - 6 p.m. | Barnett Collaboratory, Sullivant Hall 141

Registration

Emory Douglas, Artist

"Emory Douglas will deliver a lecture along with a power point presentation related to his graphic artwork during 1960s and 1970s Black Panther Party era, when he served as the Minister of Culture and Revolutionary Artist. He will also showcase some of his more recent work, putting into context the social and political importance of the artwork being displayed." The event being produced in conjunction with: Department of African American and African Studies, Barnett Center for Integrated Art and Enterprise, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Office of Student Life, Department of Art and the Department of English.

East Lansing, Michigan

Michigan State University

Lecture: Mickalene Thomas

Monday, April 27, 2015 | 7 p.m. | S. Kedzie Hall, 107

"The paintings of Mickalene Thomas combine iconic images of African American women alongside the classic genre of portraiture.  Drawing on art history and popular culture, her monumental works consider the relationship between black female sexuality, beauty, and power.  Her work is represented in the collections of the Guggenheim, Whitney, MoMA, and many others." Free and open to the public.

Hanover, New Hampshire 

Hood Museum of Art

Dartmouth College 

Artist Lecture: Victor Ekpuk: Excavating Memories

Friday, April 24, 2015| 4:30 p.m.  
 

Victor Ekpuk. Composition No. 13 (Sante Fe Suite),2013
Graphic and pastel on paper
Courtesy of the artist. © Victor Ekpuk

Victor Ekpuk will discuss how he mines historical, cultural, and social memories to shape his aesthetics.  

 Hartford, Connecticut

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

Contemporary Art Series: Hank Willis Thomas: History Doesn't Laugh

Wednesday, May 6, 2015 | 6 p.m.

Hank Willis Thomas, Basketball and Chain, 2003, digital c-print photograph, 

Gift of Jean Crutchfield and Robert Hobbs 

in honor of Susan Talbott, 2014.14.1

"One of the most provocative and innovative conceptual artists of today, Hank Willis Thomas discusses the impact of photography on his work and explores how the concepts of spectacle and display connect to notions of African American identity and commodification."

Los Angeles, California

Hammer Museum, UCLA

Panel Discussion: A History of Refusal: Black Artists and Conceptualism

Wednesday, May 20, 2015 | 7:30 p.m.

"This panel explores the politics and legacy of African American artists, both of Charles Gaines’s generation and after, who use strategies of conceptual art to investigate identity, representation, and American culture. The panel also considers the impact of past exhibitions that examined black conceptual practices and questioned what constitutes a “black aesthetic.” With speakers Thelma Golden, director and chief curator, the Studio Museum in Harlem; Hamza Walker, associate curator and director of education, The Renaissance Society, Chicago; and artist Rodney McMillian."   

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Lecture: Norman Lewis: Abstracting African American Art

Tuesday, April 21, 2015 | 12 - 1 p.m.

"Norman Lewis (1909-1979) was among the earliest African American artists to explore abstraction. Ruth Fine, Independent Curator and former Curator of Special Projects in Modern Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., provides a preview of PAFA’s fall 2015 exhibition, Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis, examining the parallel courses of his abstract and figurative motifs."

San Francisco

Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum

Docent Lecture: An African American Experience, by Sharon Walton

Sunday, April 26, 2015 | 2:15 p.m.

"This lecture reflects upon personal, national, and collective African American experiences and illustrates how they have influenced American art."

Waltham, Massachusetts

Rose Art Museum, Brandeis Museum

Artist Lecture: Melvin Edwards

Friday, April 17, 2015 | 1:30 - 2:45 p.m.

Melvin Edwards

"Pioneering African American artist Melvin Edwards will join Brandeis Professor Chad Williams (Chair of African and Afro-American Studies) and Christopher Bedford (Henry and Lois Foster Director of the Rose Art Museum) for a conversation in front of sculptures from Edwards’s “Lynch Fragments” series, currently on display as part of the Rose Art Museum’s presentation of new acquisitions."

Select African American Art Exhibitions: Highlights for 2015

This highlight, the first for 2015, features a few upcoming exhibitions that have recently opened or will be opening in the very near future. Presenting the exhibitions as they approach their opening dates or shortly after opening assures a freshness and currency of information for visual art enthusiasts. A number of important exhibitions that opened late last year or in January 2015, and are still being featured across the country, are accessible from the BAP Blog page entitled: Select Art Exhibitions in 2015. This page is updated on a weekly basis by either adding newly discovered exhibitions or removing those that are approaching their expiration date. Its intent is to provide comprehensive coverage of current ongoing exhibitions on view for the current quarter of the year.

Black Art Project (BAP) welcomes any information or leads that you might have relating to Black art exhibitions, particularly regional exhibitions that are not traditionally marketed on a national scale. BAP will verify the accuracy of any information submitted. Thank you for any assistance that you provide. 

Andover, Massachusetts

Addison Gallery of American Art   
Phillips Academy

Ellen Gallagher, Wiglette from DeLuxe, 2004-2005, portfolio of sixty with photogravure, etching, aquatint and drypoint with lithography, screenprint, embossing, tattoo machine engraving, laser cutting and chine collé, 13"x 10½" (33 x 26.7 cm), courtesy of Two Palms, New York

                        

The Addison Gallery of American Art is exhibiting Ellen Gallagher's seminal print series DeLuxe. As a complement to DeLuxe, the galleries surrounding the installation feature works from the Addison's collection that explore the techniques, ideas, and imagery found in Gallagher's work. DeLuxe takes center stage in the exhibition, Collection Intervention: Ellen Gallagher's DeLuxe, which is on view February 7 through May 17, 2015.

For DeLuxe, Gallagher transformed beauty and hair product advertisements from vintage African American magazines using  a range of print techniques, then added plasticine, paint, coconut oil, toy eyeballs, and glitter to each, further subverting and recontextualizing the images. This playful and provocative series of gridded prints offers sly and insightful commentary on modernism, mass media, fashion, identity, and race in mid-century America. 
 

Ellen Gallagher, Black Combs from DeLuxe, 2004-2005, portfolio of sixty with photogravure, etching, aquatint and drypoint with lithography, screenprint, embossing, tattoo machine engraving, laser cutting and chine collé, 13"x 10½" (33 x 26.7 cm), courtesy of Two Palms, New York 

Additional Event: Lecture

• On February 22 at 2 pm, printmaker  David Lasry of Two Palms Press, and Sarah Suzuki, Associate Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum of Modern Art, New York will discuss Ellen Gallagher's DeLuxe

Brooklyn, New York 

Brooklyn Museum

 

Kehinde Wiley (American, b. 1977). The Two Sisters, 2012. Oil on linen, 96"x 72" (243.8 x 182.9 cm). 
Collection of Pamela K. and William A. Royall, Jr. 
Courtesy of Sean Kelly, New York. © Kehinde Wiley. (Photo: Jason Wyche)
 

The Brooklyn Museum presents Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic, the first museum survey of the artist's rich and prolific career, on view February 20 through May 24, 2015.

Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic is comprised of approximately sixty objects, highlighting the range of the artist's work. The exhibition includes his early portrait paintings, inspired by the artist's observation

of street life in Harlem and set to the visual landscape of classical European portraiture, as well as his recent explorations in sculpture and stained glass. 

Kehinde Wiley (American, b. 1977).
Houden Paul-Louis, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34"x 26" x 19" (86.4 x 66 x  48.3cm). 
Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healey Fund, 2012.51. 
© Kehinde Wiley. (Photo: Sarah DeSantis, Brooklyn Museum)  

Kehinde Wiley has received critical acclaim for his investigation of race, power, and the politics of representation, and his work has been lauded for giving new meaning to the social codes of gesture and dress, past and present, while challenging stereotypes about masculinity and class today, in America and around the world.

Works on view include selections from his ongoing World Stage series. Initiated in China in 2006, The World Stage examines socioeconomic conditions and culture through the everyday lives of people in India, Sri Lanka, Israel, Jamaica, and Nigeria, among other countries. Also on view will be his bronze busts, as well as his recent series An Economy of Grace, and his new stained-glass paintings.

Kehinde Wiley (American, b. 1977).
Saint Remi, 2014. Stained glass, 96"x 43½" (243.8 x 110.5cm). 
Courtesy of Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris. © Kehinde Wiley.

A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Related Events: 

• February 12: The one night-only conversation about the role storytelling plays in the visual arts, featuring Spike Lee, Kehinde Wiley, and Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. SOLD OUT                                       
• February 19: Members Preview and Reception  

• Members-Only Viewing, Two Saturday mornings in February.   

•  There are a number of Gallery Tours during the exhibition.

 Chicago, Illinois

Art Institute of Chicago 

Eldzier Cortor, Environment No. V, 1969, printed 2000. Gift of Eldzier Cortor in memory of Sophia Cortor.

Eldzier Cortor Coming Home: Recent Gifts to the Art Institute will be on view February 21 through May 31, 2015 in Gallery 124 at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2012, Eldzier Cortor made an extraordinary gift to the Art Institute that included a painting, 30 prints, and several printing matrices. This exhibition presents selected works from the gift. 

Two influences can be seen at play throughout Cortor's career. As a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1936), Eldzier Cortor came under the influence of instructor Kathleen Blackshear, who led students to explore the regional arts of Africa and other non-Western cultures at the Field Museum and Oriental Institute in Chicago. At the same time, Cortor was inspired by philosopher Alain Locke's call for African American artists to reclaim their ancestral heritage as a means of strengthening and enriching their expression. Locke is referred to as the "Father of the Harlem Renaissance."

The works in this exhibition reflect an expansive part of Eldzier Cortor's

Eldzier Cortor, Dance Composition, No. 34, 1980s.

Gift of Eldzier Cortor in memory of Sophia Cortor.

career. Working with the Federal Arts Program from 1938 to 1943, Cortor focused on African American social life on Chicago's South Side. Later, living and painting among the Gullah people on the Sea Islands off South Carolina, he became fascinated by their deep cultural connection to their African roots. His experiences with the Gullah fostered his decision to depict Woman as the archetypal image of all people. Eventually, this focus evolved to combine Woman and Dance, as shown in many of the prints in this exhibition.    

In the mid-1950s, Cortor produced several  woodblock  prints with Japanese printmaker Jun'ichiro Sekino, a leading member of the Creative Prints movement. Five of those works from this period are on display, demonstrating the highly original hybird of Western and Japanese techniques that resulted from Cortor and Sekino's close collaboration. 

Lastly, on view are some of Eldzier Cortor's experimental prints made in Manhattan at Robert Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop, where he worked between 1955 and 1998.    

Related Event: 
On February 20, 2015, The Leadership Advisory Committee of the Art Institute of Chicago is honoring renowned artist and printmaker Eldzier Cortor with the 2015 Legends and Legacy Award. This award is an honor bestowed to living African American artists who, through their lifelong accomplishments and exceptional career in the visual arts have influenced the next generation of artists.   
     

Dallas, Texas

Nasher Sculpture Garden

Melvin Edwards, Steel Life, 1985–91 Welded steel, 12½" × 18" × 17¾" (31.8 × 45.7 × 45cm) 
    Jacqueline Bradley and Clarence Otis, © 2015 Melvin Edwards / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 
Photograph by Jeffrey Sturges, courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

Melvin Edwards: Five Decades, a retrospective for this renowned American sculptor, will be on view through May 10, 2015 at the Nasher Sculpture Center. Melvin Edwards' career spans crucial periods of upheaval and change in American culture and society, and his sculpture provides a critical bridge between modernist techniques and materials and contemporary approaches to the art object. Over the past five decades, Edwards has produced a remarkable body of work redefining
the modernist tradition of welded sculpture. 

Melvin Edwards, Mamba (Lynch Fragment), 1965, Welded steel,10½" × 9" × 9¾" (26.7 × 22.9 × 24.8 cm) 
Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, © 2015 Melvin Edwards / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Jeffrey Sturges, courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

Melvin Edwards: Five Decades bears witness to Edwards' pro
found commitment, from the very beginning of his career, to an art that is both abstract and deeply engaged with meaning and expression. A truly international artist well before the advent of today's global art world, Edwards has brought his experiences of other cultures and languages, particularly those of Africa, into his work, to explore the varied ways that art can forge bonds of connection and kinship. He is best known for his Lynch Fragments, an ongoing series of small-scale reliefs begun in Los Angeles in the early 1960s and born out of the social and political turmoil of the civil rights movement.
 

Melvin Edwards with Column of Memory, Deni-Malick Gueye 
Farm near Diannaido, Senegal, about 2005. 
Photograph by Bakary Ali Mbaye, courtesy the artist

This exhibition, Melvin Edwards: Five Decades, features a broad selection of Lynch Fragments from the 1960s, 1970s to the present, exploring memory, history, and African and African American culture. Fulfilling its mission, as the first retrospective of Edwards' work in more than twenty years, it reveals that his career has extended far beyond the Lynch Fragments. Major large-scale sculptures of the 1960s, as well as his Rockers of the 1970s are included. In addition, Five Decades features many works not seen since their creation, and in some cases never before exhibited. Also on view are sculptures Edwards has made in Senegal over the past decade, as well as a selection of maquettes, and prototypes reflecting his long career in public sculpture, and rarely exhibited works on paper.

Melvin Edwards, Ame Eghan (Rocker), 1975, Welded steel, 12½" × 19½" × 19½" (31.8 × 49.5 × 49.5 cm) 
Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. 
© 2015 Melvin Edwards / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.  
Photograph by Jeffrey Sturges, courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

 A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Elmhurst, Illinois

Elmhurst Art Museum

 

Nnenna Okore, Akaraka, 2013. Newspapers, jute rope, dye and acrylic

On the Brink: New Work by NNenna Okore will be on view February 7 through May 3, 2015 at Elmhurst Art Museum. This is the first solo exhibition in the Chicago area for this internationally celebrated sculptor. 

Nnenna Okore makes striking abstract wall hangings and installations of fiber and paper that explore the delicate and cyclical nature of life. Okore's work is unabashedly handcrafted and labor-intensive. Her rhythmic methods of fraying, twisting, wrapping, weaving, sewing and dyeing are drawn from her childhood experiences in Nsukka, Nigeria

Nnenna Okore, Tomorrow Never Dies, 2914. Burlap, dye, wire and acrylic

where she sometimes watched artisans fabricating items like brooms from palm fronds or participated in daily activities such as cooking, washing, harvesting and preparing food from scratch. Okore's artistic practice embodies this understanding of and commitment to the patient process of material transformation. Whether hovering in front of a wall or suspended from the ceiling, Okore's undulating and protruding sculptures create an immersive environment that is reminiscent of bodily forms and movement. 

 

Nnenna Okore, Onwa Nétilu Ora, 2013. Newspapers and acrylic

Related Programs:

• February 7: Opening Program: Conversation between Artists Nnenna Okore and Michelle Grabner, discussing their process-oriented practices and the challenge of succeeding as a female, mother, teacher and artist in the art world today. 

• March 7: Artist Talk by Nnenna Okore   

• March 20: Curator's Tour

St. Joseph, Michigan

Krasl Art Center

John Bankston, Fairy Machine, 32"x 44"

The Krasl Art Center presents Dream to Dream: The Art of John Bankston in its main galleries. The exhibition will be on view through April 26, 2015. This exhibition is the first for Bankston in his home community.

Bankston's brightly colored artworks address issues of transformation and identity. His paintings are filled with fictional figures in fantastical lands. The narratives are obscure, yet in their coloring book fashion,

John Bankston, Mysterious Magic, 2014. Oil on linen, 54" x 48"

they are inviting. Bankston states, "A coloring book page is about transformation. Through the act of applying color, the page goes from being a general image to a personal expression. I want the viewer to be aware of the 'color' or  ethnicity/identity of the characters in the work. I hope the viewer will think about a blank coloring page and the choice one can make in terms of identity when coloring the image. "

 

Bankston is able to use fantasy as an active way to re-imagine the world, to step outside of one's known territory and break boundaries. His paintings are not a form of idle escapism, but rather a critical platform.

Artworks for this exhibition are on loan from the Walter Maciel Gallery and Rena Bransten Projects. 

A catalogue accompanies this exhibition, Dream to Dream: The Art of John Bankston. 

John Bankston, Large Hybird 2, 2014. Acrylic on paper, 42" x 35"

 Related Event:  

• April 9: Film Screening: The Hairy Who. Learn about The Hairy Who and make connections between them and Bankston's art on view in the galleries. $5.00 suggested donation.