94

Barbara Johnson Zuber

(1926-2019)

Protest.

Oil on cotton canvas, 1974.
Signed in oil, lower right.
25 x 37 in. (63.5 x 94 cm.), Frame: 32 x 44 1/2 in. (81.3 x 113 cm.)

  • Provenance:
    The artist's estate.
    Thence by descent, private collection, New York.

    The inspiration for this painting comes from Barbara Zuber's childhood memories of watching women's marches and parades in Harlem.

    Born in Philadelphia, Barbara Zuber was raised in New York. She was the first woman to graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Yale University — she also studied at the Art Students League and New York University. She began a teaching career in New York public schools, community centers and at the Harlem Hospital in the Child Psychiatry Department. Her artwork focuses on celebrating the daily life of African Americans with an emphasis on children. Her art illustrated the 1969 children's book Brown is a Beautiful Color written by Jean Carey Bond. In 1970, after briefly moving to Croton, NY, Zuber and her family moved to Troy, NY. Zuber exhibited in the 1970 15 Afro-American Women at North Carolina A&T State University and the 1972 A New Vitality in Art: The Black Woman at Mount Holyoke College. She also has exhibited her work at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Gibbes Museum of Art, and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. In 1999, New York State commissioned Zuber to create the painting for The Adoption Album: Our Children, Our Families poster.

    Swann Galleries sold the artist's first painting at auction Jump Rope in African American Art from the Johnson Publishing Company on January 30, 2020.
  • Condition:
    Please contact the Specialist for the auction to request a condition report.

    Condition reports and additional images are provided as a courtesy and should be used by you to aid in the formation of your own opinion regarding condition. All material is sold subject to Swann's standard Terms and Conditions of Sale as published in our catalogues and posted on our website, and include the following terms: (1) all property is sold "as-is"; and (2) works cannot be returned on the basis of condition.

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October 7, 2025 12:00 PM EDT
New York, NY, US

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