May 27, 2020Nigel FreemanAfrican-American Fine Art The Elegant Sculptures of Richmond Barthé Read more about The Elegant Sculptures of Richmond Barthé Three fascinating sculptures by Richmond Barthé feature in our June 4 sale of African-American Fine Art. Each embody his interests in the 1930s, themes that would continue to define his later body of work. They demonstrate the range of a young artist who was coming into his own, embarking on a career in New York, gaining critical and commercial successes. Newly arrived from his debut in Chicago, and soon a sensation in Harlem, Barthé was one of the first African-American artists to develop a commercial career in New York. Share Facebook Twitter
Read more about Nigel Freeman on the Legacy of Emma Amos, 1937-2020 May 22, 2020 African-American Fine Art Nigel Freeman on the Legacy of Emma Amos, 1937-2020 We are sad to hear the news yesterday of Emma Amos’s passing. Emma Amos was a painter, printmaker, weaver and educator—a great artist and innovator who helped broaden greatly American art in the late twentieth century, challenging inequalities in both art and society with a bold figurative message. I would like to remember her life and work as best we can—through the artworks we have handled here at Swann as they introduced me to her many facets as an artist. Share Facebook Twitter
Read more about Nigel Freeman on the Legacy of David C. Driskell, 1931-2020 April 2, 2020 African-American Fine Art Nigel Freeman on the Legacy of David C. Driskell, 1931-2020 We are greatly saddened to hear the news of David Driskell’s passing yesterday with the email announcement from the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland. An incredibly influential figure in the history of African-American art, Driskell was a leading curator, collector, historian, painter, printmaker and writer. Share Facebook Twitter
Read more about African-American Fine Art: June 2020 Highlights March 6, 2020 African-American Fine Art African-American Fine Art: June 2020 Highlights At Auction June 4, 2020* *This auction has been rescheduled from its original date, and will now be held on Thursday, June 4, 2020 at 1:00 PM ET, previewing online… Share Facebook Twitter
Read more about Cataloguing History: Why we hold specialized auctions. June 10, 2019 Auctions 101 Cataloguing History: Why we hold specialized auctions. Auctions offer a moment where the sometimes-incalculable significance of an object is quantified. The price is reached through collaboration: specialists, consignors, the market, and finally, bidders convene in the room,… Share Facebook Twitter
Read more about Four Unique Works by Charles White Debut at Auction October 2, 2017 African-American Fine Art Four Unique Works by Charles White Debut at Auction The highlight of our October 5 auction of African-American Fine Art is a series of unique works by Charles White that have never before appeared at auction. We spoke to our… Share Facebook Twitter
Read more about Specialists in the Field: Nigel Freeman at the Tate August 1, 2017 African-American Fine Art Specialists in the Field: Nigel Freeman at the Tate Nigel Freeman, founder and director of our African-American Fine Art department, is in London this week visiting some familiar images. Two of the works in the Tate Modern’s latest exhibition, Soul of… Share Facebook Twitter
Read more about Barkley Hendricks, 1945-2017 April 18, 2017 African-American Fine Art Barkley Hendricks, 1945-2017 We learned this morning the very sad news of the passing of Barkley Hendricks. We have lost one of the great American painters of this and the last century. Hendricks… Share Facebook Twitter
Read more about Notes from the Catalogue: Four of our Favorite Current Artists September 21, 2016 African-American Fine Art Notes from the Catalogue: Four of our Favorite Current Artists Collecting the work of current artists provides a link to the contemporary creative community, even if the piece was created decades ago. Here are four of our favorite working artists, selected from our October… Share Facebook Twitter
Read more about Nigel Freeman on Al Loving’s Three Solid Questions September 16, 2016 African-American Fine Art Nigel Freeman on Al Loving’s Three Solid Questions Nigel Freeman, the Director of the African American Fine Art department at Swann, talks about a monumental piece by Al Loving in our upcoming October 6 auction. Three… Share Facebook Twitter
Read more about Nigel Freeman Sees Beauford Delaney in Paris February 16, 2016 African-American Fine Art Nigel Freeman Sees Beauford Delaney in Paris On February 18 Nigel Freeman will be speaking in a roundtable discussion on multiculturalism at Columbia Global Center’s Paris location. The occasion? A fantastic exhibition of paintings by American-born artist… Share Facebook Twitter
April 9, 2015 African-American Fine Art Records & Results; Ascension: A Century of African-American Art The top lot at our recent auction, Ascension: A Century of African-American Fine Art was Barkley Hendricks’s Steve, an iconic painting that embodies the look and attitude that Hendricks famously captured… Share Facebook Twitter
February 12, 2015 African-American Fine Art Living Legend: Eldzier Cortor On Saturday, February 21 the South Side Community Arts Center in Chicago will host an event celebrating the work of renowned artist and printmaker Eldzier Cortor. Swann’s own Nigel Freeman will… Share Facebook Twitter
October 7, 2014 African-American Fine Art Notes from the Catalogue: Dr. Amalia Amaki on Dr. Richard A. Long Dr. Amalia Amaki, noted art historian and artist, wrote the catalogue introduction for The Richard A. Long Collection of African-American Art. Dr. Amaki, a native Atlantan, received her Ph.D in… Share Facebook Twitter
September 22, 2014 African-American Fine Art Happy Birthday, Alma Thomas! This Untitled watercolor from Alma Thomas’s Space Series, circa 1969-72, is featured in our October 9 auction. Alma Woodsey Thomas, abstract painter and art educator, was born on this… Share Facebook Twitter
Read more about Warm Weather Specialists: What Our Experts Are Up to in Summer 2014 August 19, 2014 Swann Warm Weather Specialists: What Our Experts Are Up to in Summer 2014 Our auction rooms may be dark until September, but that doesn’t mean our specialists aren’t busy these days. In addition to combing through consignments and cataloguing lots for our Fall… Share Facebook Twitter
August 4, 2014 African-American Fine Art African-American Artists on Martha’s Vineyard Martha’s Vineyard, an affluent summer colony located on an island south of Cape Cod, has long attracted African American artists. Lois Mailou Jones’s oil on canvas, Monday at Menemsha,… Share Facebook Twitter
June 13, 2014 African-American Fine Art Barkley L. Hendricks in Conversation with Nigel Freeman at Swann Last week Swann Galleries had the pleasure of hosting an artist talk with Barkley L. Hendricks, whose “unique work resides at the nexus of American realism and post-modernism, a space… Share Facebook Twitter
Read more about Records & Results: African-American Fine Art June 12, 2014 African-American Fine Art Records & Results: African-American Fine Art Lot 61: William T. Williams, Truckin, acrylic on canvas, 1969. Sold June 10, 2014 for $137,000. An auction focused on the politically charged and artistically fertile period of the… Share Facebook Twitter
June 5, 2014 African-American Fine Art Assemblage Artist Noah Purifoy at Auction for First Time Swann Galleries is pleased to offer the first significant work by assemblage artist Noah Purifoy to come to auction in our upcoming sale of African-American Fine Art titled The Shape of Things… Share Facebook Twitter
May 6, 2014 African-American Fine Art African-American Fine Art: The Shape of Things to Come On June 10, Swann will hold our third African-American Fine Art sale of the 2013-14 auction season. The Shape of Things to Come focuses on art made in the 1960s… Share Facebook Twitter
April 23, 2014 African-American Fine Art Witness the Shape of Things to Come: Art From the Civil Rights Era Swann Galleries is putting the final touches on our catalogue for the June 10 auction of African-American Fine Art we have titled The Shape of Things to Come, which focuses… Share Facebook Twitter
January 30, 2014 African-American Fine Art James Amos Porter, The Father of African-American Art History Alaina McEachin, of Swann’s African-American Fine Art Department, writes about the catalogue cover image for the upcoming auction Shadows Uplifted: The Rise of African-American Art. The cover for our February… Share Facebook Twitter
September 30, 2013 African-American Fine Art A Previously Unknown Norman Lewis Painting The image chosen for the cover of Swann’s upcoming sale Point of Departure: Postwar African-American Fine Art is a circa 1957 Untitled oil on canvas by Norman Lewis. The previously unrecorded painting was acquired… Share Facebook Twitter
October 18, 2012 African-American Fine Art The Chicago Renaissance: Grounded in Life Figurative artists Eldzier Cortor, Hughie Lee-Smith and Charles White stayed true to their roots in social realism as their work evolved in the post-war decades. Unlike contemporaries Charles Alston, Norman… Share Facebook Twitter
September 5, 2012 African-American Fine Art New Exhibition: Robert S. Duncanson One standout exhibition to see this fall is the first-ever New York City survey of work by Robert S. Duncanson. The exhibition, called Robert S. Duncanson: Antebellum African American Artist,… Share Facebook Twitter
April 4, 2012 African-American Fine Art Elizabeth Catlett, 1915 – 2012 I must sadly note the passing of Elizabeth Catlett on April 2 in her home Cuernavaca, Mexico, as widely reported yesterday. She will be remembered as one of the… Share Facebook Twitter
February 15, 2012 African-American Fine Art J’Accuse! Charles White Tomorrow’s auction of African-American Fine Art offers an incredibly powerful drawing by Charles White, J’Accuse! No. 10 (Negro Woman). The circular charcoal drawing depicting the faces of several African-American women… Share Facebook Twitter
January 23, 2012 African-American Fine Art William T. Williams Painting Comes to Auction Swann’s February 16 auction of African-American Fine Art will feature the first painting by celebrated artist William T. Williams to come to auction. The monumental 1971 acrylic on canvas, titled… Share Facebook Twitter
January 5, 2012 African-American Fine Art Henry Ossawa Tanner at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts A circa 1918 Untitled (Dusk Scene of a Flooded River and Nearby Town) oil on cardstock by Tanner brought $33,600 in Swann’s October 8, 2009 auction Later this month, the Pennsylvania Academy of… Share Facebook Twitter
October 7, 2011 African-American Fine Art Yesterday’s Top Lots: African-American Fine Art Yesterday’s auction of African-American Fine Art saw heated bidding from dealers, collectors and institutions, resulting in strong prices for works by modern and contemporary artists. Charles White’s powerful drawing of… Share Facebook Twitter
October 4, 2011 African-American Fine Art African-American Fine Art Across the Country Across the U.S. this fall, a bevy of museum shows related to the impressive works in Thursday’s African-American Fine Art auction have opened. Hale Woodruff, Rape of Europa, oil on canvas, circa… Share Facebook Twitter
September 28, 2011 African-American Fine Art Romare Bearden, Snail Mail Style An email can get lost in your inbox, but a hand-written letter can last forever. And, you might want to save the envelope, too, if it has one of the… Share Facebook Twitter
August 18, 2011 African-American Fine Art African-American Fine Art at Boston’s MFA If your summer travels take you to the Boston area, be sure to visit the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), which has added a handful of works to their collection via… Share Facebook Twitter
August 1, 2011 African-American Fine Art Vogue Sha-La-La Center: Jackie Sha-La-La (Jackie Cameron), oil and acrylic on canvas, 1975. Sold for $48,000 on February 23, 2010. The inimitable Barkley L. Hendricks might have birthed the cool back… Share Facebook Twitter
February 8, 2011 African-American Fine Art AfriCOBRA on TV Land After a group of Chicago artists, including Barbara Jones-Hogu, Carolyn Mims Lawrence and Wadsworth Jarrell, worked together on a mural called The Wall of Respect, they set out to establish… Share Facebook Twitter
February 2, 2011 African-American Fine Art Elizabeth Catlett Sculptures at Swann and in the Bronx Our upcoming preview will be the first time Elizabeth Catlett’s 1967 sculpture, Untitled (Standing African-American Woman), will be on public exhibition in the United States. The nearly four-foot high sculpture, which had been in a… Share Facebook Twitter
January 21, 2011 African-American Fine Art Romare Bearden: Celebrating One Hundred Years Romare Bearden, Tidings, collage of various papers and mixed media, circa 1973. Estimate: $30,000 to $50,000. Romare Bearden is undoubtedly one of America’s greatest artists. Today, his collages are viewed… Share Facebook Twitter
January 11, 2011 African-American Fine Art James Little: At Auction and in ARTnews James Little, The Chinese Massacre, 1977. Estimate: $10,000 to $15,000. In Swann’s February 17th African-American Fine Art auction, James Little’s oil on canvas, The Chinese Massacre, 1977, is his… Share Facebook Twitter
October 6, 2010 African-American Fine Art Loïs Mailou Jones at Swann and the National Museum of Women in the Arts Loïs Mailou Jones, whose work appears in tomorrow’s African-American Fine Art auction, is the subject of a major retrospective at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington,… Share Facebook Twitter
September 30, 2010 African-American Fine Art Defying Folk Art: Edmondson’s and Evans’s Fine Art Our October 7th African-American Fine Art auction features two exceptional works of folk art, a type of art not typically included in these sales. North Carolina artists William Edmondson and… Share Facebook Twitter
September 29, 2010 African-American Fine Art David Hammons Garners International Recognition for African-American Art Contemporary African-American artist David Hammons is known for his body prints and assemblages of found objects, such as his fly swatter. His oversize version of an African-American flag hangs outside the Studio… Share Facebook Twitter
June 17, 2010 African-American Fine Art Bob Thompson and the 1960s New York Art Scene Bob Thompson stood apart from most of his contemporaries in the early 1960s. On one hand, he was the epitome of a New York bohemian artist working in a Clinton… Share Facebook Twitter
February 25, 2010 African-American Fine Art Hammons, or World’s Most Expensive Fly Swatter? Among the top lots at Tuesday’s auction of African-American Fine Art was a unique Fly Swatter created in 1992 by contemporary artist David Hammons, which sold for $66,000 to a… Share Facebook Twitter
January 29, 2010 Printed & Manuscript African Americana James Amos Porter Archive Comes to Auction Among the highlights of our 15th annual auction of Printed & Manuscript African Americana is an incredible archive comprising James Amos Porter’s African-American Art History Reference materials. The lot contains… Share Facebook Twitter
Read more about Malvin Gray Johnson Painting in Swann African-American Fine Art Auction February December 22, 2009 African-American Fine Art Malvin Gray Johnson Painting in Swann African-American Fine Art Auction February Swann Galleries’ auction of African-American Fine Art on February 23, 2010, will offer approximately 160 lots from many notable collections and estates, including several museum-quality works. The sale’s top lot,… Share Facebook Twitter
September 23, 2009 African-American Fine Art Spotlight on John Biggers’s Shotguns The image that graces the cover of the auction catalogue for Swann Galleries’ sale of African-American Fine Art on Thursday, October 8 is John Biggers’s powerful 1987 oil and acrylic… Share Facebook Twitter
September 22, 2009 African-American Fine Art Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool Hip, cool and stylish men and women provide the foundation for Barkley L. Hendricks’ first retrospective exhibition. After successful runs at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, the… Share Facebook Twitter
September 17, 2009 African-American Fine Art Richard L. Brown Painting to be Offered in Oct.; NY Times Profile of the Artist, 1912 Our auction of African-American Fine Art on October 8th will feature the Richard L. Brown painting Mt. Monadnock, 1911 (above), which is expected to sell between $5,000 and $7,000. A… Share Facebook Twitter
September 16, 2009 Photographs & Photobooks Cornelius Marion Battey Photographic Portraits Discovered Our October 8th African-American Fine Art auction marks the first time that early photographer Cornelius Marion Battey’s photographic portraits will come to auction. These photographs were recently discovered in the… Share Facebook Twitter