Lot 23: ED CLARK, “Gray Force,” 1972 (acrylic on canvas, 83 x 111 inches / 210.8 x 281.9 cm). | Estimate $400,000-$600,000 AT PHILLIPS NEW YORK, the forthcoming New Now auction features dozens of works by new and rising talents, many of them African contemporary artists dedicated to figure painting, exploring representation and identity...
Rare art, fascinating objects, and significant collections can be found at local auction houses, from California to North Carolina THREE-DOZEN HANDS seemingly waving this way and that create a joyful pattern on a large, undated quilt by Sarah Mary Taylor (1916-2000) of Yazoo City, Miss. Known for her appliqué style and laying her quilts...
Rare art, fascinating objects, and significant collections can be found at local auction houses, from California to Hudson, N.Y. A CUSTOM, BLACK SILK Ralph Rucci evening kimono worn to the Met Gala in 2003. Rhinestone-embellished NAACP t-shirts. Silver-plated serving ware previously owned by Joan Crawford. Six monogrammed L.L. Bean tote bags. Books on fashion...
SHORTLY AFTER HE ARRIVED IN PARIS in 2007, Henry Taylor made an epic painting on a wood shipping crate panel. In a moment of inspiration, he painted a riff on Pablo Picasso’s celebrated “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” (1907), replacing the artist’s white figures, five female nudes, with images of Black women. A comment on Picasso’s...
MAJOR PAINTINGS by Norman Lewis, Sam Gilliam, Charles Alston, Edward Bannister, and Romare Bearden are among the auction highlights at Bonhams in New York this week. The premium works by key figures of 19th and 20th century African American art represent the legacy of a family and a longstanding Black-owned gallery. Featured in the...
NOEL W. ANDERSON, “Patsey,” (stretched tapestry, 83.3/4 x 110 inches / 213 x 279.4 cm). | From the artist’s studio WORKING PRIMARILY WITH ARCHIVAL PHOTOGRAPHS, Noel W. Anderson reproduces images of police brutality, Black masculinity, and Black love on jacquard tapestries. He reinvents and manipulates both the images and the surfaces of the textiles,...
THE VICTOR IN A FIERCE BIDDING WAR, art collector Bill Perkins paid a record-shattering $15.3 million for “The Sugar Shack” (1976) by Ernie Barnes (1938-2009) at Christie’s New York on May 12. The iconic painting was estimated to sell for about $200,000, so the staggering price made international news and brought long overdue, widespread...
PHILLIPS LATEST 20th Century & Contemporary Evening Sale featured 36 lots and totaled $225 million. The result, Phillips said, made it the most successful auction in the company’s history. A huge share of the auction value on May 18 in New York came from a 1982 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988). The top lot...
INTRODUCED AS A COMPLEMENT to Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction, the New Now Evening Auction is distinguished by its currency. The auction “focuses on the art of our time, offering the most exciting, cutting-edge works on the market.” The second edition of the sale was an attention getter with works by women representing more than...
ON THURSDAY NIGHT, Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale in New York featured 42 lots, premium works of art by a variety of famed artists such as Ruth Asawa, Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, Jackson Pollock, William De Kooning, Joan Mitchell, and Andy Warhol. The selections included two paintings by African American artists. Both set new...
NEXT WEEK, Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction will feature 28 premium art works, including three body prints by David Hammons. For about a decade, from the late 1960s to late 70s, Hammons used grease, pigment, and his own body to create the unique, signature works. All three of the untitled monoprints up for auction were...
A MONUMENTAL WORK by Howardena Pindell is coming to auction at Christie’s New York this week. “Untitled #24” (1978-79) is a grid-based work composed of several hundred squares painted, sewn together, and embellished with glitter, sequins, and Pindell’s signature hole-punched paper dots. “Untitled #24” is the largest painting by Pindell to come to auction....
UPDATE (05/12/22): “The Sugar Shack” by Ernie Barnes hammered at $13 million, selling for a final price of $15,275,000 fees included, a huge record for the artist, exponentially smashing the his previous auction high mark, which was $550,000. The staggering result marks the first time a work by Barnes has sold for more than...
Christie’s Hong Kong, Dec. 1, 2021 A STRIKING PORTRAIT by Amoako Boafo, “Hands Up” (2018) features a stylish young woman wearing yellow sunglasses against a yellow background. The painting sold for more than $3 million, nearly 10 times the estimate and an astounding new record at auction for the fast-rising artist. The record-setting result...
TWO PAINTINGS WITH HISTORIC EXHIBITION HISTORIES recently sold at Bonhams auction house. “White Boy” (1989)” and “Hunchback of Notre Dame (Hommage to Victor Hugo)” (1991) by Robert Colescott (1925-2009) are important works in artist’s oeuvre. In 1997, Colescott was the first Black artist to represent the United States in a single-artist exhibition at the...
IN NEW YORK, MAJOR AUCTION HOUSES lined up a variety of significant works by critically recognized Black artists for their modern and contemporary art Evening Auctions, with estimates ranging from the high six figures to multiple millions. Several lots carried estimates that if reached would result in new artist records at auction. The premium...
AN AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES PROFESSOR, Imani Perry is selling a portrait by Amy Sherald, that depicts a Black woman looking regal, poised, and dignified. The subject is wearing a jeweled crown, pearl necklace, and an elegant, navy blue gown with white opera-length gloves and a violet sash á la a beauty queen. Her red...
THREE YOUNG BLACK ARTISTS set new auction records at the 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale at Phillips London. Rocketing far beyond their estimates, paintings by Jadé Fadojutimi, Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, and Serge Attukwei Clottey, sold for about 10 times expectations set by the auction house. Marking his auction debut, a figurative painting by...
A LARGE-SCALE SWIMMING POOL PAINTING by Hurvin Anderson set a new artist record in London. “Audition” (1998) sold for more than $10 million ($10,138,261 / 7,369,000 British Pounds) at Christie’s 20th / 21st Century Evening Sale on Oct. 15. Bidding soared far beyond expectations, reaching nearly five times the high estimate ($1,375,798-$2,063,698 / 1,000,000-1,500,000...
ABSTRACT, INVENTIVE, AND IMPROVISATIONAL, quilts by Rosie Lee Tompkins (1936-2006) are extraordinary works of contemporary art. Tompkins was invested in color, shape, and form; worked with velvet, faux fur, and shimmery fabrics; and despite her singular aesthetic, frequently incorporated traditional quilt patterns into her work, adapting them to her own creative and irregular interpretations....