Results of Swann's African-American Fine Art Sale 2303

Swann Auction Galleries' African-American Fine Art Sale 2303 on February 14, 2013 brought in $1,628,165 with buyer’s premium, exceeding its pre-sale low estimate of $1,548,000. Of the 147 lots that were offered at auction, 124 sold (84% sell-through rate by lot). According to Nigel Freeman, Director of African-American Fine Art at Swann Galleries, “We are very pleased with the results of yesterday’s sale, which saw strong prices across all genres and eras, with active bidding for 19th century paintings, 20th century modern art and post-war contemporary works.”

Thirty (30) lots, many of which were in the lower to mid-range, sold above their pre-sale high estimates. However, a few lots in the 5 figure range exceeded their high estimates and are worth noting. Examples of those lots follow: Lot 8 (Albert Alexander Smith, Spinning a Yarn) had a high estimate of $12,000 and sold for $24,000 with buyer’s premium; Lot 12 (Richmond Barthé, Feral Benga) with a high estimate of $30,000 sold for $43,200; Lot 90 (Sam Gilliam, Butterfly, Feeling) sold for $72,000, doubling its high estimate of $35,000; and Lot 140 (Elizabeth Catlett, Sharecropper) had a high  estimate of $25,000 and sold for $43,200. Albert Alexander Smith (Spinning a Yarn) and Sam Gilliam (Butterfly, Feeling) received artist records, and Catlett's Sharecropper was a record price of her work in this medium. All prices are with buyer's premium.  

The top selling lots in Sale 2303, emphasizing those that sold above $100,000,  follow:

Lot 85: Barkley L. Hendricks, The Hawk, Blah, Blah, Blah (oil and DayGlo on canvas, 1970) sold to a collector for $132,000. This was the highest selling piece in the auction.  

Barkley L. Hendricks, The Hawk, Blah, Blah, Blah

Lot 63: Hughie Lee-Smith, Poet #4 (oil on Masonite, 1954) sold for $120,000 to an institution. This piece was exhibited at Howard University Gallery of Art, Howard University, Washington, DC, 1955.

Hughie Lee-Smith, Poet #4

Lot 91: William T. Williams, Up Balls (acrylic on canvas, 1971) sold for $120,000 and goes to an institution. The artist tied his auction record with this sale.

William T. Williams, Up Balls

Lot 141: Elizabeth Catlett, Sister (green marble sculpture, 1971) sold for $114,000 to a collector.

Elizabeth Catlett, Sister

Charles White hit a record for his etchings in this auction, selling Lot 100 (Missouri C) for $26,400 to a collector; however, I was surprised that his Lot 62 (Trumpet Player) did not sell. It was one of my personal favorites. 

Select Art Exhibitions: Highlights for Spring 2012

This highlight features a few exhibitions that open this spring (second quarter of 2012). Presenting the exhibitions as they approach their opening dates assures a freshness and currency of information for the visual art enthusiasts. For a more comprehensive coverage of ongoing exhibitions in 2012, look to the right sidebar of the blog. This sidebar is updated on a weekly basis by either adding newly discovered exhibitions or removing those that are closely approaching their expiration date. Because a number of important traveling exhibitions from previous months are still on tour in 2012, they are not featured in these highlights; however, they are accessible from the sidebar.

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.

Brooklyn, New York

Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art

(MoCADA)

The Box That Rocks: 30 Years of Video Music Box and the Rise of Hip Hop Music and Culture is an exhibition of contemporary art that celebrates the global influence of Video Music Box, and the show’s historic contribution to urban music and culture. The exhibition features photography, painting, mixed-media, video installation, and interactive digital art. 

The Box That Rocks will be on view at MoCADA through May 28, 2012.  

Boston, Massachusetts

Boston University, Sherman Gallery



Tony Gray

 Tony Gray: The Panther Series is on view at the Sherman Gallery, School of Visual Arts at Boston University. "This solo exhibition presents recent work and continuations of ongoing series in which Gray explores representations of African American men and women in popular culture and mass media. Through painting and mixed-media works on paper, Gray presents an Afro-centric worldview through which to address social and racial issues."

 The Panther Series will be on view through May 20, 2012.

Chicago, Illinois

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Rashid Johnson, Death by Black Hole: The Crisis,
2010, Steel, black soap, wax, books,
shea butter, plant, space rocks,
mirror, gold paint, stained wood,
96 1/2 x 76 1/4 x 30 in.,
Courtesy Gagosian Gallery,
Image courtesy of the artist
and David Kordansky Gallery,
Los Angeles, CA

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presents Rashid Johnson’s first major solo museum exhibition, Rashid Johnson: Message to Our Folks, which will survey the first ten years of his career. This exhibition of the Chicago-born artist "opens up a dialogue with historically important figures ranging from W. E. B. DuBois and Sun Ra to Miles Davis and Public Enemy. The title of the exhibition is taken from a 1969 album by avant-garde musicians Art Ensemble of Chicago, who performed with a variety of percussive found objects, spanning musical styles to radically redefine the rules of jazz. Inspired by their message, Johnson pays homage to these creative pioneers of his hometown and channels their nonconformist vision for his generation of artists."

Rashid Johnson: Message to Our Folks will be on view April 14 - August 5, 2012. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition. 

Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

The Soul of a City: Memphis Collects African American Art will be on view at Brooks Museum of Art from June 9 - September 2, 2012. This exhibition puts its hand on the pulse of collecting in Memphis, highlighting the variety of paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, and mixed media works from the 20th and 21st centuries in both private and public collections.

Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica Museum of Art

Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe is the first major solo museum exhibition for the artist. It opens at the Santa Monica Museum of Art on April 14 and will be on view through August 19, 2012.



Mikalene Thomas, Qusuquzah, Une Très
 Belle Négresse #3, 2012, Rhinestones, acrylic,
oil, and enamel on wood panel, 96" x 80",
Courtesy of the artist, Lehmann Maupin Gallery,
New York, and Susanne Vielmetter,
Los Angeles

 In Origin of the Universe, Thomas "introduces a new model of trans-generational female empowerment as she explores interior and exterior environments in relation to the female figure. The exhibition consists of 15 works in a variety of sizes and media that examine art historical constructs of feminine identity, sexuality, beauty, and power.

Origin of the Universe will travel to the Brooklyn Museum from September 28, 2012 to January 20, 2013. A full-color, illustrated catalog accompanies the exhibition.   

Washington, DC

Smithsonian American Art Museum

African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond consists of 100 artworks by forty-three Black artists that are from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s rich collection of African American art.

The artists, working in various styles, address a diverse array of subjects. Their artworks present a vision of America from an African American perspective.

Some of the artists included in African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond are as follows: Benny Andrews, Richmond Barthé, Romare Bearden, Roy DeCarava, Thornton Dial, Sr., Melvin Edwards, Roland Freeman, Sargent Johnson, Loïs Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Robert McNeill, Marilyn Nance, Gordon Parks, James Porter, Alma Thomas, and others. This exhibition is a part of the Smithsonian's Traveling Exhibition Program, and will be on tour at other museums through the coming years. "More than half of the featured works...are being exhibited and circulated by the museum for the first time, and ten works are recent acquisitions." 

African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond will be on view, 1st floor West, American Art Museum, from April 27 - September 3, 2012. A catalogue accompanies this exhibition.

NOTE: For a more comprehensive coverage of ongoing exhibitions in 2012, look to the right sidebar of this blog. Remember, this sidebar is updated on a weekly basis.

E-FLASH 2: Black Art Exhibitions in 2010

A few more exhibitions have been discovered since the first E-FLASH of 2010 was released on August 29, 2010. Bear in mind that this post will not include any exhibitions at venues that have been previously featured in either the Guide to Black Art Exhibitions in 2010, the quarterly E-List Updates, or the first 2010 E-Flash. 

 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. The Project will verify the accuracy of any information submitted. Also, keep in mind that a select number of exhibitions and links to information regarding those exhibitions are always available in the right sidebar of the blog under Selected Art Exhibitions.... Through visiting and reading about these exhibitions and other art related issues, enjoy the exploration and discovery of African American art.

Follow on this journey as we discover and support African American art exhibitions. The following are a few samples of exhibitions that are available around the country. 

EXHIBITIONS

Albany, New York

Ed Clark, Louisiana Series, 1978,
Acrylic / canvas, 56” x 68 ½”

African American Abstract Masters is the current exhibition on view through December 12, 2010 at The Opalka Gallery, the site for public exhibitions for The Sage Colleges, located on the campus of Sage College of Albany. This exhibition features 14 artists, Robert Blackburn, Betty Blayton, Frank Bowling, Ed Clark, Herbert Gentry, Bill Hutson, Harlan Jackson, Norman Lewis, Sam Middleton, Joe Overstreet, Thomas Sills, Merton Simpson, Alma Thomas, Frank Wimberley, who have "enlisted a variety of approaches and aesthetic influences over the span of six decades. They invoke through abstraction an art of light, color, materials, gesture, sweep and space. All originally felt the aesthetic influence of Abstract Expressionism."

The exhibit is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue. The Opalka Gallery is located at 140 New Scotland Avenue, Albany, New York. For further information either call: 518/292-7742 or visit Opalka Gallery. Read Art in America review. 

Adelphi, Maryland

University of Maryland University College (UMUC) presents Color Exploration: Simplicity in the Art of McArthur Binion through February 28, 2011 in the Arts Program Gallery,UMUC Inn and Conference Center, Lower Level. A Meet the Artist Reception will be held on Thursday, November 18, 2010 from 6:00–8:00 p.m.

"McArthur Binion has been creating colorful works of art and exploring the medium of crayons for approximately 37 years. Some of his works bring to life his family’s transition from tenant farmers in the south to factory workers in the north; others are explorations of color with crayons and, most recently, inks. His art is both simple and complex, geometrical and abstract, and colorful and historical."

To request additional information, please call 301-985-7937.

Atlanta, Georgia

Kendell Carter, It Is What It Is, But It Isn't, Trois Gallery (SCAD Atlanta),
installation view, 2010. Photograph by SCAD visual media department



The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) exhibitions department presents It Is What It Is, But It Isn't, a solo exhibition by artist Kendell Carter. The exhibit will be on view through December 08, 2010 at Trois Gallery located at 1600 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, Georgia.

Kendell Carter, native of New Orleans and currently residing in Los Angeles,   combines a design-based sensibility with a hybridization of cultural styles and references—from Baroque to hip-hop— creating installations that offer unique observations about form and function.

Trois Gallery (SCAD Atlanta) is located at 1600 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, Georgia. For more information visit SCAD.  

College Park, Maryland

The David Driskell Center presents Jacob Lawrence: Prints, 1963 - 2000, A Comprehensive Survey. Jacob Lawrence. The exhibition features over 70 prints, and will be on view until December 17, 2010. Organized by the DC Moore Gallery in New York City, the works presented in the exhibition depict the life of African Americans, addressing "the themes of joy, suffering, equality, and struggle, as well as justice, hope, and aspiration."

Jacob Lawrence, General Toussaint L'Overture,

1986, Silk screen on Bainbridge 2-ply paper;

edition of 100, 25AP, © 2010 The Jacob and

Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation,

Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Of particular note, works from three of Lawrence's major print series, The Legend of John Brown, Eight Studies for the Book of Genesis, and General Toussaint L'Overture, are included in the exhibition. These series highlight the importance of narrative in Lawrence's body of work. 

For further information, please call: 301/ 314-2615 or visit Driskell Center.       

Coral Gables, Florida

Ernest T. Crichlow, Anyone's Date,
1940, Gouache on paper, 9" x 7"

The University  of Miami Lowe Art Museum presents The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art: Works on Paper through January 16, 2011. "Selections from one of the premier collections of African American art provide a rare opportunity for the public to view master graphics spanning three centuries. The sixty-nine works in the exhibition include drawings, etchings, lithographs, watercolors, pastels, acrylics, gouaches, and screen prints by such noted artists as Henry Ossawa Tanner, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett, and Alison Saar."

The Lowe Art Museum will also feature a selection of works by African American artists from its permanent collection to complement the Kelley Collection exhibition.

The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art: Works on Paper is organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, California.

The Lowe Art Museum is located at 1301 Stanford Drive, Coral Gables, Florida; for further information, call: 305/ 284-3535 or visit: Lowe Museum.

Memphis, Tennessee

Richmond Barthé,
Josephine Baker,

12 ½” x 6” x 9 ½”

Richmond Barthé: Harlem Renaissance Sculptor takes a contemplative look back at this artist's extraordinary career by examining over 25 of his most important sculptures. The exhibition will be on view at The Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, Tennessee through January 2, 2011. 

Samella Lewis, Barthé's biographer and curator of this exhibition, makes the following statement regarding the artist's works: "In Barthe's sculptures, we are aware of his passion and vigor, which exceed the boundaries of his figures. An examination of The Boxer (1942), Inner Music (1956) and Julius (1942) will attest to his ability to bridge the gap between realism and abstract form. Although the artist's sculptures on the surface appear to be traditional figurative forms, upon closer examination, many works are expressionistic, with elongated and uniquely distorted characteristics."    

Richmond Barthé: Harlem Renaissance Sculptor is organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, California.

The Dixon Gallery and Gardens is located at 4339 Park Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee; for further information, call: 901/ 761-5250 or visit: Dixon Gallery.

New York, New York

Philemona Williamson, Dusty Afternoon,
2010, Oil on linen, 48" x 60"

June Kelly Gallery presents Philemona Williamson: Fractured Tales, a series of new paintings on view until December 14, 2010. In the Gallery's statement, "Williamson's paintings recognize the searching, the alienation, and the commonplace tempests encountered in the growth to maturity. Her (Williamson) new work - spirited in its imagery, color, movement, and brushwork - demonstrates her understanding of the critical reality that life by design at any stage has unpredictable fractures."

June Kelly Gallery is located at 166 Mercer Street (between Houston and Prince Streets), New York, New York. For further information either contact by phone: 212/ 226-1660 or visit the site: June Kelly Gallery. 

Two exhibitions, sponsored by the Studio Museum in Harlem, are featured in this post. Mark Bradford: Alphabet is the results of an ongoing merchant posters project in which Bradford canvasses his South Los Angeles neighborhood for advertisements and signs, and then "repurposes their message to comment on the needs and desires of not only his local community, but the world at large."  This major new body of work, produced over the past year, includes twenty-six individual works on paper, each depicting a single alphabet. Mark Bradford: Alphabet is on view through March 13, 2011. 

Dawoud Bey, A Man in a Bowler Hat,
1976, Silver print, Gift of the artist

The second highlighted exhibition is Dawoud Bey's Harlem, USA, representing a series of works that cover the time period, 1975 - 1979, in which Bey takes viewers on a journey through this historic neighborhood. Dawoud Bey's Harlem, USA is on view through January 2, 2011. For further reading, see the artist's blog statement: Dawoud Bey.

For a list of all current exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem, view: Studio Museum. The museum is located at 144 West 125th Street, New York, New York, and its phone number: 212/ 864-4500.  

North Miami, Florida

Museum of Contemporary Art's Knight Exhibition Series features Shinique Smith's first large-scale United States museum exhibition, Shinique Smith: Menagerie. Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami in association with Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Shinique Smith: Menagerie will be on view through November 19, 2010.



Shinique Smith, Bale Variant No. 0017,
2009,  Clothing, fabric, ink, twine,
ribbon and wood, 72' x 52"x 52",
Private Collection

 Menagerie is an appropriate title for the assortment of paintings, drawings, videos, and three-dimensional work Smith has assembled. "Since bursting onto the scene in 2002, this young New York-based artist has produced works that combine complex social and cultural references with a broad array of art historical sources, including Abstract Expressionism, colorfield painting, minimal sculpture and Japanese calligraphy. Her sculpture and installations are composed of collections and  accumulations of found objects and second-hand clothing, which she ties together to form minimal cubes or wraps into bulbous bundles. Urban life is suggested both in her sculptures as well as the graffiti-like gestures of her exuberant paintings."

     

               

  Orangeburg, South Carolina

Frank Smith: Visualizing Jazz is an exhibit currently on display through November 29, 2010 at the Arthur Rose Museum, Claflin University (Orangeburg, South Carolina). According to Winston Kennedy, Chair of the Art Department, the experience of viewing the exhibit "will have you seeing jazz." Winston's plans are to play music from jazz legends to accompany the exhibit, inspiring  "a visual statement about the work at the exhibit." 

Claflin University Art Department Chair, Winston Kennedy discusses
the symbolism behind Frank Smith's mixed media piece, Other Voices.

Frank Smith, a Chicago native, was one of the artist who made a considerable contribution to the development of the AfriCobra (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) art movement. According to Smith, "the aesthetic philosophy of my work is to seek and explore visual equivalents of jazz." As demonstrated in the mixed-media art piece, in the image above, Smith colorfully illustrates the disjointed rhythms of jazz employing "a style of sewing various pieces together in a way that resembles the improvisation of a jazz composition." Frank Smith: Visualizing Jazz will travel to various sites in the Southeastern United States; that schedule is being finalized.

For additional information regarding Frank Smith: Visualizing Jazz, contact Prof. Kennedy at 803/ 535-5810. 

Orlando, Florida

Against All Odds: The Art of the Highwaymen is an Orange County Regional History Center special 10th anniversary exhibit on view through January 2, 2011. Who were the Highwaymen? Stated quite simply, "the Highwaymen began as a group of African American artists who, against all odds, managed to prosper selling their paintings in the segregated South of the 1950s and ‘60s. One charismatic man dreamed big and developed a fast method of painting that he generously shared with 25 others, and they collectively produced more than 200,000 paintings over a 30-year period." This current exhibit includes paintings by all 26 Highwaymen. 

The Orange County Regional History Center is located at 65 East Central Boulevard, Orlando, Florida, and their telephone number is: 407/ 836-8500. For details and accompanying programming, see: History Center.

For further selected readings on the Highwaymen, see this list at: WorldCat.org

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), an affiliate of the North Carolina Museum of Art, presents two compelling exhibitions. The exhibits, Shinique Smith: Every Brick, showcasing textile-based collage and Glenda Wharton: The Zo, consisting of hand-drawn animation will be on view from November 18, 2010 through February 13, 2011.

Both exhibitions were curated by SECCA's Curator of Contemporary Art, Steven Matijcio who explains: "Both of these artists create work that combines a wide variety of materials, media, and influences. Glenda Wharton breathes new life into the increasingly rare practice of hand-drawn animation, while Shinique Smith turns second hand clothing into sculpture that vibrates with lived energy. In different, but related ways, they trace a path from dark to light."

Shinique Smith: Every Brick



Shinique Smith, Open Secret, 2010       

 Image courtesy of the artist

 Shinique Smith, as a Baltimore-born, Brooklyn-based artist, "confronts the iconic works, conventions, and legacies of art history with lyrical reconsiderations. Marrying influences of graffiti, collage, and fashion with performance, painting, and sculpture, her cross-disciplinary work bristles with lived energy. Across large-scale canvases, monuments cobbled from used textiles, and site-specific installations, she vividly translates the materials and aesthetics of urban life into agents of institutional reform. ...A selection of past works provide the context for a series of new works that map an abstract, yet intense passage from dark to light."

Glenda Wharton, Ribbon Child, Pencil,
ink, 2 overlapping hand-drawn
 animation cels

Glenda Wharton: The Zo

The Zo, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was screened at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, was Glenda Wharton's first feature-length animation. Wharton is a Winston-Salem artists and SECCA will be the first venue to present this film in Winston-Salem where it was created.

SECCA is located at 750 Marguerite Drive, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. For further information, visit: SECCA."This exhibition sheds light on the pieces and processes of The Zo's making: highlighting Wharton's drawings and pencil tests, the haunting soundtrack of the film, and a behind the scenes video that takes us into the studio of the artist."