Uncovering Our History Through The Relics Left Behind
Posted in African American women, and Art
How I’d love to own a sculpture by artist Elizabeth Catlett. But the pieces that have come up at the auctions I’ve attended in New York have been way way out of my reach. So, I…
Posted in Architecture/Buildings, and Art
The model replica was captivating. It instantly got my attention with its detailed woodwork and its enormous size. It had been on display at the auction house for a couple weeks, reminding us that at…
It’s been a couple months since David Raine started marketing the artwork of his father, Philadelphia artist Earl Wilkie. When Wilkie died in 2009, he left behind a legacy of paintings, sculptures, sketches and poems,…
Posted in African American women, and Art
Although African American sculptor Selma Burke had lived just north of me for years, I have never had the fortune of finding any of her works on the auction tables. No one has been careless enough…
Posted in Art, and Black history
When I was in college, I was a radical of sorts, probably more in my mind than in actuality. It was during the early 1970s when college campuses were hotbeds of revolutionary ideas and action:…
Posted in Art
The two women waited patiently in the plain chairs at the auction house, through more than three hours of bidding on Chinese vases and furniture, mantle clocks, shoe-store furniture, stained-glass windows and then artwork by…
Posted in Art, and Black history
The first time I saw the artworks of Tanya Murphy, they felt very familiar. Their earthiness took me back to my southern roots, her old photographs on top of old photographs, sealed in a shellac that…
Posted in Art, Black history, and Performers
The email asked only one question: “Did you get anything in the Doyle New York auction of Lena’s estate last week?” Instantly, I knew who Lena was, but I was surprised to learn that items…
Posted in Art
The five disc-headed sculptures sat atop the table like sentries, their metal bases constructed with parts that looked like gears. Their faces were glass prisms, more like optical lens, one squeezing out the other. These works…
Posted in Art
I was previewing the upcoming sale at one of my favorite auction houses when a familiar name re-appeared: Stuart M. Egnal. I had written about Egnal and his mother Sylvia two months ago when stacks of his etchings and…
