I dropped by an art auction last weekend sponsored by one of Philadelphia’s oldest African American art galleries. A friend told me about it; it was only about 15 minutes from where I lived, so I decided to venture over.
It was billed as an art auction, but it was not your typical auction. There were no rows of chairs lined up for bidders, nor a table set up to register. It was actually an art gallery with numbered paintings on the walls. Very informal. The gallery has been around for about 25 years, and has held an African American Art Expo for just as long.
Mostly, people who appeared to be regulars stopped by, looked over the art on the walls and stayed for a while to chat with the owners. If you saw something you liked, you told the gallery owners and made a bid. The rule was that each piece had to have at least two bids before it could be sold.
At one point, with a handful of us there, the semi-auction got started and one woman bid on and bought a piece of contemporary art.
The artists who captured my attention, though, were the ones I call “African American masters:” James Lesesne Wells, Lois Mailou Jones, Claude Clark, Dox Thrash, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence and Betye Saar. There were two pieces by Reba Dickerson-Hill that were so different that they looked like they were painted by someone else. I’m familiar with her sumi-e landscapes; these were two figurative paintings of a woman and man’s busts. A friend of mine at the auction discovered the artist Benjamin Britt.
Some contemporary artists included Luis Espinoza, Tanya Murphy Dodd (hers were not part of the auction but I loved her technique) and Charly Palmer. A friend had bought a piece by Palmer – I believe it was a civil rights or political rally – at a New York art show a couple years ago. A Palmer pen-and-ink drawing of a couple reminded me of the old black and white photos I find on auction tables.
During the short auction, the auctioneer asked us to point out pieces we were interested in. I sheepishly pointed to a Clark painting of a woman on a donkey. I didn’t have a bid sheet, but I knew it was way beyond my pocketbook. I was curious, though, because I rarely see his works.
Clark was born in Georgia and his family moved to Philadelphia when he was young. He painted for the Work Projects Administration in the early 1940s, and studied art under Dr. Albert C. Barnes of the Barnes Foundation outside Philadelphia. There, he first learned the importance of African art and its influence on European artists.
The auctioneer looked at his bid sheet. “The starting bid is $7,000,” he said. “It’s valued at $10,000.”
What about Thrash? I asked. The artwork was a carborundum print of a seated man. Thrash developed the carborundum mezzotint process, which resembles a pen and ink drawing. The starting bid was a bit more manageable: $585, with a value of $600. I have a wonderful Thrash watercolor of a woman in a rural/suburban setting hanging on my wall at home (which I bought at a gallery).
Overall, this was a good day. I got a chance to talk about African American art, to hear stories about some of the artists, and see new artwork by veterans and contemporaries. It was a day that any art lover would appreciate.
Here are some of my favorites from the auction. To get the best view, click on individual photos rather than viewing them through PicLens.
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