SubscribeA different view of artist Henry Ossawa Tanner (0)
1/27/12 •
My friend Valorie pulled me aside as I stood listening to a curator expounding on artist Henry Ossawa Tanner’s painting “The Annunciation,” its brilliant light and shadows illuminating not only the painting itself but its message. She led me to an equally impressive painting a few feet away. I have this print, she said, pointing to [...]
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A woman’s 1940s nursing photos (0)
1/26/12 •
It was a simple cardboard box, sitting low in front of some computer towers and near some laptops on a side table in a room at the auction house. The box seemed out of place in that spot, overshadowed by all around it, discarded. As I approached it, I saw writing on the side in [...]
A family’s WWII ration books (0)
1/25/12 •
When I came upon the handful of books on the auction table, I wasn’t sure what they were. Then I saw the title: War Ration Book 4. And then I saw Book 3 and several others. They were coupon books issued to U.S citizens during a time when homegrown and imported goods became scarce as [...]
The intricate art of Roland Ayers (2)
1/24/12 •
I wasn’t seated on the sofa long before Sheila Whitelaw Ayers was up and out of her own seat. We had been talking about her artist husband Roland Ayers, who was in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s. She wanted me to see some of his beautiful works that were hanging on the walls of their [...]
Wanna buy a hot tub? Cheap? (0)
1/23/12 •
The hot tub was literally the elephant in the room. You could not walk from one room in the auction house to another without practically bumping into it. As big as it was, though, I had not noticed it until an auction-regular asked me if I had seen it. The tub was invisible to me as [...]
I started going to auctions to fuel my love for African American art – but at a bargain. I love the old masters: Lois Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Hughie Lee-Smith. I wanted to find their works and discover other veteran artists whose works may have been hiding in an attic or basement, and forgotten.
