California Artists Pauline Powell Burns and Beulah Woodard Among the featured artists in Swann’s February 13, 2014 auction, Shadows Uplifted: The Rise of American-American Fine Art, are Pauline Powell Burns and Beulah Ecton Woodard. These early Californian artists stand out for their accomplishments at a time when being African-American, and female, meant considerable obstacles on the road to success. Pauline Powell Burns Pauline Powell Burn’s oil painting Violets, circa 1890, is one of her first to come to auction. Born in Oakland in 1876, Pauline Powell Burns’s story is steeped in American history. The granddaughter of a slave from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, Pauline would go on to become the first African American to exhibit artwork in the state of California. In 1890 she exhibited her paintings at the Mechanics Institute Fair in San Francisco. Burns’s work is extremely scarce, not only because of the time in which she lived but also because she lived a relatively short life, dying in 1912. The largest known collection of her paintings is at the Oakland Museum of California. The work by Burns coming up for auction, oil on cardstock of Violets, circa 1890, is one of the first by this pioneering artist to appear at auction. Beulah Ecton Woodard African Woman is a fine example of Beulah Woodard’s sculpture. Beulah Ecton Woodard is known for her sculptures employing a variety of media, including terra cotta, bronze, wood and papier-mâché. Born in Ohio in 1895, her family soon moved to southern California. At the age of 12, the family was visited by a native African, and this sparked a lifelong interest in Woodard to portray Africans and African Americans in her work. She hoped her realistic portrayal of these subjects would help to influence African Americans to take pride in their heritage. Swann Galleries’ 2007 auction of the African-American Art Collection of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company featured a rare painting by Woodard, which brought $19,200. The Golden State collection also featured this terra cotta bust of Maudelle,which sold for $14,400. Share Facebook Twitter January 16, 2014Author: Swann CommunicationsCategory: African American Art Tags: African-American Fine Art Alaina McEachin Beulah Woodard California Pauline Powell Burns sculpture Shadows Uplifted Previous Man-Cave-iana: The Birth of the Drool Next Of Provenance & Peter Rabbit Recommended Posts Artist Profile: Vincent D. Smith African American Art September 30, 2019 2020: Year in Review Swann December 23, 2020 New Record for Richmond Barthé in June 4, 2020 Sale of African-American Fine Art African American Art June 11, 2020