Records & Results: African-American Fine Art

An auction focused on the politically charged and artistically fertile period of the 1960s and 70s, Swann Galleries’ African-American Fine Art auction titled The Shape of Things to Come on June 10, 2014, achieved strong results for works of art by artists who defined the era.   

Several new auction records were set in this sale, including one for William T. Williams’ Truckin. The excellent example of the artist’s celebrated abstract work of the era exceeded all prior auction results for the artist (also set at Swann), when it brought $137,000.   

Also breaking six figures was Barkley L. Hendricks’s colorful and hip portrait of Sergio, oil and acrylic on canvas, 1972, at $106,250. Days before the sale, we were lucky enough to have the artist himself join us for a talk about his career with Swann Galleries’ Director of African-American Fine Art, Nigel Freeman.    

Walter Williams, known for his Southern landscapes filled with children, flowers, moths, blackbirds and butterflies, hit a new auction record of $93,750 for an oil and collage on board considered his most important painting.