A RECORD BREAKER opened Sotheby’s Impressionist, Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale last week. The first lot was a 1972 portrait by Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017). His subject in “Mr. Johnson (Sammy From Miami)” wears a football jersey and a red visor atop a vertically impressive afro. He’s holding a comb with a few...
AN ASSEMBLAGE WORK by Betye Saar set a new artist record at auction recently. “ABCD Education” (2001) sold for $81,900 at an online sale hosted by Sotheby’s. The result was nearly three times the high estimate ($20,000-$30,000) setting a new benchmark. Saar’s work can be read as a meditation on Black education that comments...
WORKS BY THREE BLACK ARTISTS, who are among the most critically recognized painters focused on figuration and Black subjects, were featured in Sotheby’s latest Contemporary Art Evening Auction, held on Oct. 28 in New York. The sale included 41 lots showcasing premium artworks by highly regarded artists. “Barbershop” by Jordan Casteel opened the auction....
A PAINTING MADE 45 YEARS AGO by Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017) is being offered next week at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Auction in New York. “Jackie Sha-La-La (Jackie Cameron)” (1975) is a seated portrait of a female subject. The painting sold for $48,000 (fees included) at Swann Auction Galleries in 2010. A decade later,...
WORKS BY AN ECLECTIC MIX of artists were offered at Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated auction on Oct. 2 in New York. Important figures from the second half of the 20th century were featured alongside today’s most critically recognized contemporary artists. Five African American artists were ranked among the 10 top-10 highest-priced works by Kerry James...
AN IMAGE OF BLACK LOVE by Kerry James Marshall was highly sought this week. Nearly six-feet tall, “Vignette 19” (2014) depicts three couples captured in a park-like vignette framed with strokes of pink and a glittery heart. Offered at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction on Nov. 14 in New York, the painting was expected...
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...
SOTHEBY’S RECENT Contemporary Art Evening Auction in London featured 65 lots. Only 13 of the works were by women artists, but the representation was a milestone. According to Sotheby’s, it was the highest proportion of works by women the auction house has ever offered in an evening sale. Each season, the evening sale is...
A DRAMATIC AND TRANSFIXING painting by Jack Whitten (1939-2018) set a new artist record at Sotheby’s on Friday. Whitten’s “Special Checking” (1974) sold for for $2,660,000 including fees. (The hammer price was $2.2 million.) Given Sotheby’s set the estimate for the painting at $300,000-$500,000, the sales price was about five times the high estimate....
A ROUND OF APPLAUSE emerged from the auction floor Friday afternoon when “Untitled (Painter)” by Kerry James Marshall sold for well beyond its estimate. The 2008 painting, a portrait of a distinguished black painter in her studio, was estimated by Sotheby’s to sell for $1.8 to $2.5 million. When bidding concluded, the hammer price...
BEST KNOWN FOR HIS HISTORY PAINTING—multi-panel series about Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and the Great Migration, among many others—artist Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) has made auction history. “The Businessmen,” a 1947 painting by Lawrence sold for more than $6.1 million (including fees) last night at Sotheby’s New York. The price far exceeded the estimate which...
Detail of “Ancient Mentor I” (1985) by Jack Whitten A SPECTACULAR PAINTING by Jack Whitten (1939-2018) established a new artist record yesterday evening. “Ancient Mentor I” (1985) sold for $2,235,000 (including fees) at Sotheby’s New York. The new benchmark shattered Whitten’s previous auction high, which was set by “The Ghost of Joseph Beuys” one...
AUCTION PRICES for paintings by Henry Taylor have reached a new realm. This evening, “I’ll Put a Spell on You” (2004) set a new benchmark at Sotheby’s New York. Bids flew past the estimate and the artist’s existing record. Amid the flurry, auctioneer Oliver Barker said “A lot of Henry Taylor collectors here.” After...
“The Businessmen” (1947) by Jacob Lawrence THE WHITE HOUSE ACQUISITION TRUST purchased “The Builders” by Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) from Christie’s auction house on May 24, 2007. A few months later, First Lady Laura Bush had already incorporated the 1947 painting into her renovation of the Green Room, a formal sitting room on the State...
Lorna Simpson in her studio with “Day for Night” (2018) panels before they are painted. AN ARCHIVAL IMAGE of a woman standing precariously on the window ledge of a brick building inspired “Day for Night” (2018), a four-panel painting by Lorna Simpson. The new work sold for $375,000 including fees at Sotheby’s New York...
WATCH The sale of Mark Bradford’s “Speak, Birdman” (2018) to benefit the Studio Museum in Harlem’s new building fund. Bids started at $1.6 million and quickly climbed to $5.8 million, the hammer price, which amounted to $6,776,200 with fees. | Video by Sotheby’s FIFTY YEARS AFTER AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTS played a prominent role in...