Phillips: Recent Contemporary Auctions Include New Records for African American Artists Stanley Whitney and Hugo McCloud; Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Among Top Lots
Lot 148: LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE, “The Separate,” 2011 (oil on canvas, 160 x 200 cm, 63 x 78 3/4 inches). | Estimate £100,000-£150,000. Sold for £237,000 ($327,629) including fees. TOP TEN LOT: Ranked No. 5 in results A NUMBER OF WORKS BY AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTS stood out at Phillips contemporary art sales in London last...
Locating Alma Thomas: Forthcoming Retrospective Will Explore Artist’s Creative Life and Hometown Connections
MAJOR EXHIBITIONS OF WORKS by Alma Thomas (1891-1978) have concentrated on her paintings, masterful abstract works that are defined by her attention to rhythm, pattern, and color. The Columbus Museum in Columbus, Ga., and the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Va., have announced a forthcoming retrospective that will broadly explore her creative life—her...
Artist List for 2018 Carnegie International Includes El Anatsui, Leslie Hewitt, Tavares Strachan, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
The Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh is presenting the 2018 Carnegie International THIS FALL, THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART in Pittsburgh is presenting work by a compelling slate of artists from around the world. The artist list for the 57th edition of the Carnegie International was announced this week and the 32 artists...
PAFA Hired Curator Brittany Webb to Steward Legacy of African American Sculptor John Rhoden and Collection of 275+ Works
Sculptor John Rhoden (1918-2001). FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER THE DEATH of African American sculptor John Rhoden (1918-2001), his widow died in 2016. The couple was childless and Richanda Rhoden did not designate a beneficiary in her will, but she did specify that the couple’s estate should go to an institution willing to steward her husband’s...
In Paris, Black Doll Exhibition Explores Women’s Craft, History of Childhood Play, and Dynamics of America’s Racial Structure
EUROPEAN MUSEUMS ARE EXPOSING THEIR AUDIENCES to works by African Americans artists that reflect and respond to the history of race in United States. Two major exhibitions, “The Color Line: African American Artists and Segregation” at Le musée du quai Branly in Paris (2016), and “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of...
The Week in African American Art: Kehinde Wiley Signed with a Hollywood Agent & More
The following review of the past week presents a snapshot of the latest news in African American art and related culture: Kehinde Wiley has signed with a Hollywood talent agency. Shown here, he attends the opening for his 2017 exhibition “Trickster” at Sean Kelly Gallery in New York City. | Photo by Johnny...
Speed Art Museum Acquires Bob Thompson Painting, a Self-Portrait of the Louisville Native
Bob Thompson, 1964 | Smithsonian Archives of American Art 1960 WAS A PIVOTAL YEAR for Bob Thompson (1937-1966). He had his first solo exhibition at the Delancey Street Museum on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The same year, he made a rare self-portrait, depicting himself in his Clinton Street studio surrounded by his...
Record-Setting African American Art Auction Gives Swann Galleries Highest-Ever Sales Total in Company History
BEAUFORD DELANEY, “Untitled (Village Street Scene),” 1948 APPLAUSE SWEPT THROUGH THE SALESROOM when a colorful mid-career canvas by Norman Lewis soared to $725,000*, three times the estimate. Bidders also clapped when a village street scene painted by Beauford Delaney (above) and “O Freedom,” a large-scale charcoal and crayon drawing by Charles White reached half...
Alma Thomas’s Hometown Museum in Columbus, Ga., Plans a Major Retrospective
Alma Thomas with her work at the Whitney Museum of American Art. | Courtesy Archives of American Art LARGELY KNOWN AS A WASHINGTON, D.C,-BASED ARTIST who dedicated herself to her practice full-time late in life, Alma Thomas (1891-1978) is recognized for her abstract compositions, exuberant works defined by rhythmic pattern and vibrant color. The...
The Month in African American Art: Here’s What Happened in March 2018
The following review of March 2018 presents a snapshot of the latest news in African American art and related culture: NEWS | The Fifth Avenue building that housed the Studio Museum in Harlem when it was founded in 1968 is being razed. | Photo by Elizabeth Dee Gallery via Artforum NEWS When...
Early Work by Njideka Akunyili Crosby Tops Sotheby’s Second Sale Devoted to African Modern & Contemporary Art
AN ANDY-WARHOL-STYLE PORTRAIT made by Njideka Akunyili Crosby while she was in graduate school sold for more than twice its estimate at Sotheby’s London this week. The auction house held its second sale dedicated to Modern & Contemporary African Art on March 28, and “À La Warhol,” a four-image self-portrait by the Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based...
National Portrait Gallery: Titus Kaphar and Ken Gonzales-Day Explore ‘UnSeen’ Narratives in Historic Portraiture
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hanging half loose from its stretcher, a portrait of Thomas Jefferson reveals an image of a Black woman behind it. It’s a provocative juxtaposition that raises a question about the relationship between the two subjects. Her hair is covered while her partially shown shoulder and leg are bare. She is brown-skinned...
Los Angeles Artist Henry Taylor Made a Series of Paintings as He Traveled the Globe, the New Works are Now on View in Tokyo
HENRY TAYLOR, “Ghanaian #3,” 2017 (acrylic on canvas, 15.75 x 11.75 x .75 inches, 40 x 29.8 x 1.9 centimeters). | © Henry Taylor, Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo GLOBETROTTING OVER THE PAST YEAR, Henry Taylor spent time in Europe, Africa, and Cuba. All the while he was...
The Atlantic Explores Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy Through a Contemporary Lens, with Contributions From Artists LaToya Ruby Frazier and Kara Walker
KARA WALKER, “Dr. King,” 2015 THE YEAR 2018 coincides with many historic milestones. It’s been a half century since the Studio Museum in Harlem was founded, the Chicago artist collective AFRICOBRA was formed, Olympic track athletes raised their fists at the Mexico City games in a stand for racial justice, and the Kerner Commission...
New ART21 Film Documents Jack Whitten in the Studio Working on His Last Painting
LAST OCTOBER, ART21 collaborated with Jack Whitten (1939-2018) on a short film about his life and work. Shot in his studio, “An Artist’s Life: Jack Whitten” captures him making a painting titled “Quantum Wall, VIII (For Arshile Gorky, My First Love In Painting),” as he explains his innovative methods and techniques. He also talks...
Sotheby’s Contemporary Auctions: Exploring Tension Between Security and Exclusion, Hurvin Anderson Painting Tops $1 Million
Lot 11: HURVIN ANDERSON, “Some People (Welcome Series),” 2004 (oil on canvas, 150 by 232 cm. 59 by 91 3/8 inches). | Estimate £600,000—£800,000 ($832,560-$1,110,080). | Sold for £850,000 ($1,179,460) Hammer Price – £1,029,000 GBP ($1,427,840) including fees A SIGNIFICANT PAINTING by Hurvin Anderson topped $1 million at Sotheby’s London on March 7. A...
Auction Record: Lorna Simpson ‘Cloud’ Work Sets New Benchmark for the Artist
LORNA SIMPSON, “Cloud,” 2005. FEATURING AN ICONIC CLOUD ELEMENT, a major work by Lorna Simpson sold for $70,000 ($87,500 including fees) at Sotheby’s New York earlier this month. The price was an artist record, according Ask Art, Art Price, and Sotheby’s auction results. “Cloud,” a 2005 serigraph printed on felt in nine parts was...
Amy Sherald is Joining Hauser & Wirth, the Mega-Gallery Announced its Worldwide Representation of the Baltimore-Based Artist
HAUSER & WIRTH ANNOUNCED its representation of Amy Sherald March 20. The Baltimore-based artist paints imaginative portraits of ordinary African Americans. She recently took on a well-known subject for the first time when she was commissioned to paint First Lady Michelle Obama whose portrait was unveiled at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery on Feb....
The Broad Acquires Mark Bradford’s Record-Setting ‘Helter Skelter I,’ Along with Works by Julie Mehretu, Kerry James Marshall
Detail of Mark Bradford’s “Helter Skelter I” (2007). ART MARKET HISTORY WAS MADE earlier this month when “Helter Skelter I,” a monumental painting by Mark Bradford sold for $10.4 million (nearly $12 million, including fees) at Phillips London. The price was the highest-ever achieved at auction for a work by a living African American...
‘Unanswerable’: Lorna Simpson’s London Exhibition Charts Her Subconscious and Embrace of New Mediums
Lorna Simpson: In The Studio. | Video by Hauser & Wirth OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS OR SO, Lorna Simpson has transformed her practice. An accomplished conceptual photographer, she is now a formidable painter, who is newly expressing herself through sculpture. Since the mid-1980s, Brooklyn-based Simpson has challenged conventional notions of gender, identity, history,...
