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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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,...
MILDRED THOMPSON, “Magnetic Fields,” 1990 THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS celebrated the birthday of Mildred Thompson (1936-2003) with the announcement of two acquisitions. Under-recognized in her lifetime, the Atlanta-based artist worked in abstraction, making paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture. Thompson was featured prominently in “Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to...
Works by Emma Amos at Ryan Lee Gallery, Armory Show 2018 NEW YORK CITY WAS FLUSH with art fairs over the weekend and The Armory Show was the central attraction. Solo exhibitions featuring Sanford Biggers at David Castillo Gallery, Emma Amos at Ryan Lee Gallery, and Simphiwe Ndzube at Nicodim Gallery were among the...
Detail of SAM GILLIAM, Untitled, 1968 featured in Contemporary Curated at Sotheby’s New York, March 2, 2018 FOR MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY, Sam Gilliam has had a relatively successful practice by any measure with critical recognition, regular exhibitions, and representation in museum collections. Known for his expressive abstraction and fluid use of color,...
Clockwise, from top left, Sam Gilliam, Lorna Simpson, Mark Bradford, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Glenn Ligon Julie Mehretu, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, and Rashid Johnson. | via Sotheby’s ARTISTS WITH CLOSE TIES to the Studio Museum in Harlem are donating works to support the historic institution’s construction campaign. Creating Space: Artists for The Studio Museum in Harlem:...
MARK BRADFORD, Detail of “Helter Skelter I,” 2007 A MONUMENTAL PAINTING by Mark Bradford reached a historic benchmark at Phillips London on March 8. “Helter Skelter I” sold for 8,671,500 British Pounds, about $10.4 million (nearly $12 million, including fees), an artist record, and the highest-ever auction price achieved by a living African American...
Parker, I'm so glad I had the chance to meet you today (and for the dance party)! Keep on dreaming big for yourself…and maybe one day I'll proudly look up at a portrait of you! A post shared by Michelle Obama (@michelleobama) on Mar 6, 2018 at 9:19am PST Michelle Obama visits with her new...
From left, Artists Hale Woodruff and Jacob Lawrence. GATHERING RESEARCH FOR HER THESIS, a white North Carolina college student wrote to African American artists Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) and Hale Woodruff (1900-1980) more than six decades ago. She sought Lawrence’s view on the influence of Negro artists on American painting and, from Woodruff, insights about...
IN ANTICIPATION OF THE SPRING 2018 SALES at major auction houses in London this month, Culture Type is taking a look back at recent results at Sotheby’s. One of the benefits of observing auctions is the opportunity see works long held in private hands away from public view. The November 2017 Contemporary Day and...
McArthur Binion, 2017 Venice Biennale. LEHMAN MAUPIN GALLERY announced its representation of McArthur Binion today. His autobiographical abstract works are realized in tightly composed grid patterns. For more than four decades, the Chicago-based artist has been exploring the format through painting, drawing, and collage. Binion’s paintings were presented at the 2017 Venice Biennale, part...
Kara Walker and her crew install “The Katastwóf Karavan” at Algiers Point in New Orleans. | Photo © Ari Marcopoulos by via Prospect New Orleans BLACK HISTORY MONTH was rife with notable moments in art history, chief among them, the unveiling of the Obama portraits at the National Portrait Gallery on Feb 12. Washington...
Fresh Out of Graduate School, Christine Sun Kim Helped to Greatly Improve Experiences of Deaf Audiences at the Whitney Museum
Jun 24, 2025
American Sign Language Videos Explore Whitney Museum’s Collection, Including Works by Simone Leigh, Archibald Motley, Diedrick Brackens, Jacob Lawrence & More
Jun 24, 2025
Picturing Freedom: Exhibition and Pulitzer Prize-Winning Book Shed Light on Harriet Tubman’s Greatest Feat, Liberating More than 700 in Combahee River Raid
Jun 19, 2025
On View: ‘Jack Whitten: The Messenger’ at Museum of Modern Art in New York is First Full Retrospective of Pioneering Artist
Jun 17, 2025
Brittany Webb is Joining Museum of Fine Arts, Houston as Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art: ‘There is A Lot That Attracted Me to the MFAH’
Jun 13, 2025
