Michael Ray Charles: 20 Years Ago His Potent Images Confronting Racial Stereotypes Were Highly Controversial, Today They Feel Ripe for the Times
TWENTY YEARS AGO, Michael Ray Charles was a rare quantity—a Black contemporary artist with mainstream recognition. His potent and thought-provoking work explored African American representation in popular culture, employed blackface and caricature to confront racial stereotypes, and presented complex images aimed directly at America’s shameful history of slavery, subjugation, racial violence, and white supremacy....
New Now: Amoako Boafo and Titus Kaphar Top Phillips Emerging Artist Auction, Firelei Báez and Marcus Jahmal Among Record Setters
Lot 39: AMOAKO BOAFO Amoako Boafo, “Lighter,” 2018 (oil and collage on paper, 59 x 55 inches / 149.9 x 139.7 cm). Estimate $40,000-$60,000. Sold for $325,000 fees included. TOP LOT PHILLIPS AUCTION HOUSE held its New Now auction on Sept. 30 in New York and “Lighter” by Amoako Boafo was the top...
Sotheby’s Contemporary Sales in New York Yielded Records for Kevin Beasley, McArthur Binion, Michael Ray Charles, Charles Gaines, Rashid Johnson, and Alma Thomas
SOTHEBY’S ANNOUNCED LAST WEEK that it was being acquired by French-Israeli telecommunications billionaire Patrick Drahi in a $3.7 billion deal. The purchase would take the publicly traded auction house private, again, after 31 years on the New York Stock Exchange. (Other major auction houses are privately held, including Christie’s, its chief rival, Phillips, and...
