Hurvin Anderson Paintings Attract Record-Breaking Interest at London Auctions
Lot 18: HURVIN ANDERSON, “Country Club: Chicken Wire,” 2008 (oil on canvas). | Estimate $700,000-$1 million. Sold for $3,461,916 / £2,648,750 (including fees) RECORD OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF DAYS, paintings by Hurvin Anderson were featured at Phillips, Sotheby’s, and Christie’s London auctions. The lots garnered record-breaking interest. On Oct. 6, Phillips sold “Peter’s...
Lifetime Achievement: 3 Institutions are Paying Tribute to Betye Saar, ‘One of the Most Profound Living American Artists’
THREE AMERICAN CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS are bestowing lifetime achievement awards on Betye Saar. Next weekend, the Craft & Folk Art Museum Los Angeles (CAFAM) is honoring Saar at its annual fundraising gala. Earlier this year, Saar presented “Keepin’ It Clean,” a solo exhibition of washboard assemblages dating from the 1990s to present at the museum....
Auction Record: At Phillips London, Barbershop Painting by Hurvin Anderson Soars to Nearly $2.4 Million
Lot 6: HURVIN ANDERSON, “Peter’s Series: Back,” 2008 (oil on canvas). Estimate £600,000-£900,000. Sold for £1,809,000 / $2,387,880 (including fees) RECORD A MAJOR PAINTING by Hurvin Anderson, a finalist for the 2017 Turner Prize, sold for nearly $2.4 million (including fees) at Phillips London last night. “Peter’s Series: Back” (2008) is an important work...
Auction Results: Painting is Alive and Well at Latest Swann African-American Fine Art Sale
“Flight Into Egypt” (circa 1910) by Henry O. Tanner BUYERS AT THURSDAY’S African-American Fine Art auction at Swann Auction Galleries in New York expressed significant interest in modern and contemporary painting. There was a broad selection to choose from with multiple offerings by celebrated painters Ed Clark, Beauford Delaney, Sam Gilliam, Lois Mailou Jones,...
A Major Retrospective of Conceptual Pioneer Adrian Piper is Opening at Museum of Modern Art in 2018
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (MoMA) in New York is presenting a major retrospective of conceptual artist Adrian Piper in spring 2018. The most comprehensive exhibition to explore her practice,”Adrian Piper: A Synthesis of Intuitions, 1965–2016″ will feature more than 280 works drawn from public and private collections around the world and be on...
David Hammons is Collaborating with Whitney Museum on Proposed Hudson River Public Art Project
THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART has submitted a proposal to the City of New York for a public art project by David Hammons. Titled “Day’s End,” the architectural sculpture bridges the past and the present. It’s a contemporary art work grounded in history. The work would be sited directly across from the Whitney...
New Season, New Art: Fall Begins with 45 Notable Exhibitions Featuring Works by Black Artists
THE FALL EXHIBITION SEASON IS UNDERWAY and a wide variety of amazing shows featuring Black artists is on view in museums and galleries. This month, exhibitions featuring major figures and emerging talents opened across the United States and at international venues. Kara Walker, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Jordan Casteel, Kahlil Joseph, Chris Ofili, Adrian Piper, and...
Cleveland Art Museum Acquires Robert Colescott Painting Depicting African American Collector
THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART announced it has received a gift of five contemporary art works from philanthropist Agnes Gund, including “Tea for Two (The Collector)” by Robert Colescott (1925-2009). The 1980 painting depicts a nattily dressed black man (the collector) leaning against a fireplace with circles of smoke hanging in the air above...
Oct. 3: Culture Type Joins Swann Auction Galleries for a Discussion About ‘New Voices in African American Fine Art’
From left, Robert E. Holmes, Victoria Valentine, Nigel Freeman. BEYOND THE INCONTROVERTIBLE INFLUENCE and authority of curators and scholars, professionals from a variety of backgrounds are playing increasingly important roles in preserving art and culture. To explore this phenomenon, Culture Type is joining Swann Auction Galleries for an Oct. 3 discussion about “New Voices...
As 50th Anniversary Approaches, Studio Museum in Harlem Unveils Design for its New Home
CHANGE IS COMING at the Studio Museum in Harlem. A new website design was unveiled yesterday and the museum announced it will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year by breaking ground on a new building designed by architect David Adjaye. The Studio Museum revealed the new developments in a New York Times article lauding...
Kara Walker Among 8 Recipients of Harvard University’s Annual Du Bois Medal
Embed from Getty Images AFTER CAUSING A STIR when she announced the lengthy, provocative title of her latest exhibition at Sikkema Jenkins, Kara Walker is being honored with a W.E.B. Du Bois Medal from Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. Walker is among eight recipients of the 2017 award, including...
Kadir Nelson Depicts Father and Daughter on Brooklyn Stoop for New Yorker Cover
ENVISIONING NEW YORK IN THE FALL, Kadir Nelson‘s latest cover illustration for The New Yorker magazine depicts a father and daughter sitting on the stoop of a Brooklyn brownstone. “Sitting on the stoop is such a New York thing,” Nelson told Françoise Mouly, art editor of The New Yorker. “Brownstones, stoops, leaves turning: that’s...
‘Black Pope’ by Charles White is Going on View at Museum of Modern Art in October
FOUR YEARS AFTER ACQUIRING “Black Pope (Sandwich Board Man)” by Charles White (1918-1979), the Museum of Modern Art in New York will display the signature work for the first time in a special exhibition conceived by artist David Hammons. “Charles White—Leonardo da Vinci. Curated by David Hammons” opens Oct. 7 and pairs “Black Pope”...
Julie Mehretu: ‘What Does It Mean to Paint a Landscape in this Political Moment?’
FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES, curators at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) have been commissioning artists to create works for a pair of walls in its voluminous atrium. In 1997, Sol LeWitt was the first artist selected. Kerry James Marshall painted murals for the space in 2008. In anticipation of the...
Sept. 23-24: Smithsonian’s African American Museum is Marking First Anniversary with Weekend of Special Events
ONE YEAR AFTER ITS LONG-AWAITED DEBUT, overwhelming interest in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) hasn’t waned. The museum dedicated to the contributions and experiences of black Americans opened Sept. 24, 2016, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Often referred to as the “Blacksonian,” the museum turns one...
Kerry James Marshall Mural is Monumental Tribute to Women Who Have Shaped Chicago’s Cultural Arts Scene
BEFORE: His largest work to day, Kerry James Marshall’s mural is being installed at the Chicago Cultural Center in Garland Court. | Courtesy City of Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) GENERATIONS OF WOMEN have made groundbreaking contributions to Chicago’s arts and culture scene. A new mural by painter Kerry James...
Monumental Practice: Long Before the Violence in Charlottesville, Mabel O. Wilson Was Exploring the Intersection of Race and History in Public Spaces
Robert E. Lee Monument in Emancipation Park, Charlottesville, Va. | via UVA THE CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE’S plan to remove a monument memorializing Confederate General Robert E. Lee drew protests from tiki torch-bearing white supremacists and white nationalists. On Aug. 12, counter-demonstrators clashed with participants in the “Unite the Right” rally and one woman, among...
Summer Shows: New Exhibitions Feature African American Artists Beverly Buchanan, Arthur Jafa, Glenn Ligon and Bradford Young
A NUMBER OF GEMS OPENED this month. Summer tends to be a relatively quiet season art-wise, but this year major international events—Venice Biennale, Documenta 14, and Art Basel—are coinciding with compelling gallery and museum exhibitions featuring works by black artists. From San Francisco and Detroit, to Greece, London and Cape Town, exhibitions by artists including...
Artful Wisdom: Kerry James Marshall, Claudia Rankine, Leslie King-Hammond Among Speakers at 2017 Commencements
Artist Kerry James Marshall delivers remarks at Columbia College Chicago commencement on May 14. | Video by Columbia College Chicago MORE THAN 30 YEARS AGO, when Kerry James Marshall left Los Angeles to move to New York, his friend and fellow artist Carrie Mae Weems called Dawoud Bey, who was living in the city....
LaToya Ruby Frazier and Nari Ward Among 16 Artists Participating in Creative Time’s Political ‘Pledges of Allegiance’
FLAGS HAVE PROVEN to be a powerful medium in contemporary art, from David Hammons’s “African American Flag” (1990), which sold at Phillips auction for more than $2 million, to Dread Scott’s “A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday” (2015) displayed last summer at Jack Shainman Gallery, and Nu Barreto’s “Desunited States of Africa” (2010)...
