“Wow” was the word of choice for many of us at yesterday’s auction of African American Fine Art at Swann Auction Galleries in New York. Works by some of the masters sold for prices in the thousands and hundred-thousands. Below is John Biggers’ “Shotguns” (Swann Galleries).
The prize went to Elizabeth Catlett’s sculpture “Homage to My Young Black Sisters,” $288,000 (which includes the gallery’s 20 percent premium or fee). It made me proud to be a sister. The sculpture is at right.
John Biggers’ “Shotguns,” $216,000.
Barkley L. Hendricks’ “Bid’ Em In/Slave (Angie),” $144,000. The artwork is at left, below.
Jacob Lawrence’s “The Legend of John Brown” series, $84,000
Norman Lewis’ “Sinister Doings by Gaslight,” $78,000
Augusta Savage’s sculpture “Gamin,” $40,800. The artwork is at right, below.
Charles White’s “Native Son,” $38,400. The artwork is at the bottom, left.
Henry Ossawa Tanner’s “Untitled (Dusk Scene of a Flooded River and Nearby Town),” $33,600. This was an oil painting, but two Tanner etchings went for $1,920 and $2,040.
Sargent Claude Johnson’s sculpture “Untitled (Standing Girl),” $26,400
Harold Cousins’ “Composition,” $24,000
Louis B. Sloan’s “Self-Portrait,” $19,200
Ernie Barnes’ “Untitled (Youth with Basketball),” $18,000. Who can ever forget Barnes’ “Sugar Shack” on the cover of Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You” album.
These were the top takes. There were many more treasures that went for much much less, a couple thousand dollars, including original prints (of the 93 pieces that were sold, roughly three-fourths pulled in $5,000 or less). Among them was one piece similar to one I got at an auction earlier this year. It was called “Dance (Dance Composition No. 31),” part of a series of etching-and-aquatint works by artist Eldzier Cortor from the late 1970s. Parts of it are hand-colored by the artist. It sold for $4,320.
I actually have two etchings from the series. When I bought them a couple months ago, I had my eye on only one, “Dance Composition No. 31,” which had a deep brown tint on the women’s faces. I got that piece, and when a second larger one came up and someone was about to buy it for $120, I stepped in. No way I was going to let that happen. I got that one, too, and now I love it.
Most of the bidding in the Swann auction was by phone, with a handful from the audience of about 75 people, many of them African American holding sky-blue Swann paddles (and not the paper numbers my auction houses use). I spied the owner of Sragow Gallery in Manhattan, Ellen Sragow, whom I’d met a couple times at her booth at the National Black Fine Art Show held in New York each year. Sragow sells Catlett prints. I didn’t see her with a paddle, so I guess she was there to check out the prices (Catlett prints sold from $3,120 to $5,040).
The atmosphere was more relaxed here than in the low-brow auctions that I go to, where the houses usually have three auctions going on at one time and the artwork is included among the more-collectible items (or in special sales, where the prices can be high but not in the stratosphere). I’ve acquired great artwork in both types of auctions.
Nicholas Lowry, president of Swann Galleries and the day’s auctioneer, calmly called out the bids, opening his hand out to a bidder in the audience , or to staffers manning phones directly in front of him and at the gallery counter. He joked on occasion (so softly that I missed some of them) but kept the bidding on point and the pace steady. There were no theatrics and very little commentary, and the auction was over in about two hours.
It was a wonderful feeling to watch this fine art fetch such high prices in bidding that was much more relaxed than the auctions I go to. African American art has always been a stepchild in the country’s art history. During the Harlem Renaissance – one of the highlight periods of black artistic output – black artists had very few places to exhibit.
A few slipped into one or two galleries to expose their art and to derive some income. Many depended on such benefactors as the Harmon Foundation. In Philadelphia, the Pyramid Club, organized by a group of prominent African Americans, held art exhibits, gave out awards and had support from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. I came across a program from one of the Pyramid Club exhibits at the library once, and recognized the names of some of the top African American artists of the 1940s and 1950.
There is much more art to see from the Swann auction. Check out its website for the prices, too. And stop by the auction next year. Even if you don’t buy, it’s worth the experience. It’ll make you proud, and happy that those who toiled for so long and so long ago are being recognized for their talents.
