SubscribeA sorry fight over black artist’s works
I’m always on the lookout at auction for works by African American artists whom I’ve never heard of before. And I’ve been lucky to have picked up a few pieces from time to time.
It’s always a joy to discover them. But I wasn’t much overjoyed to read a story in one of my local newspapers about the family of black landscape artist Louis B. Sloan, whose death apparently sparked a mad dash to snatch up his artwork for themselves.
Sloan died on the way out to paint, at age 75 in October 2008. Family members – nieces, nephews and others – went to his home, rifled through his stuff and grabbed artwork, according to the Philadelphia Daily News. More than 200 landscape paintings are gone, along with self-portraits, sketchbooks, a Japanese silkscreen and his brushes, oil paints and palettes.
Who takes an artist’s tools? I’ve seen those things spread out in boxes over auction tables for bidders, along with paintings that the family members didn’t want. And like Sloan, some of these were named artists.
Sloan must be turning over in his grave. Some family members believe that he left a will, but no one can seem to find it. One family member told the reporter that other family members took it. Now, three family groups and Sloan’s estate are at war in Orphans Court.
Sloan told friends that he wanted his art donated to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied and then taught for 35 years. The academy held a memorial and exhibition of his works soon after his death.
A judge has declared his final work – called “Spirit” – stolen, ensuring that no one can sell it legitimately. The piece was listed at $20,000 when it exhibited at a local gallery in 2008 before Sloan’s death. But some unscrupulous seller could easily find a private buyer.
As a young man, Louis Sloan studied at the academy, and one of his instructors was the noted artist Julius Bloch. Sloan taught still life, landscape and portrait painting there from 1962 (he was the academy’s first African American faculty member) to 1997. He was also a conservator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Sloan exhibited at the Pyramid Club, a cultural and social organization for black professional men that held an art exhibit for more than 20 years starting in the 1940s. His paintings are in the museum, the academy, the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia and other private collections.
Alderfer Auction and Appraisal in Hatfield, PA, plans to auction about 10 of Sloan’s works on June 11. I’ll be there.
Meanwhile, here’s a multimedia slideshow of his paintings that accompanied the news story.
In 2009, Swann Auction Galleries in New York sold Sloan’s oil-on-canvas “Self Portrait” (1956) for $16,000. Photo is from Swann Galleries website.
In January, Pook & Pook Auctioneers in Downingtown, PA, sold two pieces from 1965: “Still Life,” which sold for $3,510, and “Floral Landscape,” which sold for $5,148.
Here are others of his works:
Backyards (1955), a painting of his West Philadelphia neighborhood while he was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy. The painting was a gift to the academy by a patron.
Frost Valley in the Catskills (1995). Photo of the painting is at top. It’s from the Pennsylvania Academy website.
Related posts:
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.
