Auction Highlights: African American Art — October 3, 2024

At Auction Thursday, October 3 at 12:00 PM ET

Our October 3 auction of African American Art features exceptional and innovative post-war painting, including an outstanding New York painting by Beauford Delaney. Acquired directly from the artist by a friend, this untitled 1945–46 oil on canvas has remained in the family of the original owner. The depiction of a Greenwich Village scene with the El train tracks is infused with rich, dense layers of impasto and is an exemplar of Delaney’s modernist vision. 

Another painting highlight is Alma Thomas’s Atmosphere (Atmospheric Effect No.4), a vivid 1971 work in acrylic and watercolor on Arches paper. It was exhibited in the 1971 solo exhibition “Recent Paintings by Alma W. Thomas, Earth and  Space Series, 1961-1971,” at Fisk University, and acquired from the Franz Bader Gallery in Washington, DC. Equally groundbreaking is the figurative painting of Nelson Stevens, including his dynamic 1978 portrait of the singer and activist Nina Simone. Acquired directly from the artist, Uhuru–Nina shows off Stevens’s trailblazing style and the radical visual language fostered by his association with the AfriCOBRA collective.

A beautiful, tonal painting by Hughie Lee-Smith stands apart from his other known 1940s paintings. This ballet scene recalls Lee-Smith’s experiences working at Karamu House in Cleveland during the WPA where he co-founded an inter-racial dance troupe.

We are also delighted to offer Suzanne Jackson’s There is Something Between Us, acrylic wash on canvas, 1972. This significant painting comes from the estate of NBA legend Bill Russell who acquired it from Jackson’s first solo exhibition at the Ankrum Gallery in Los Angeles.

We are also excited to offer an important painting by Charles Alston. His 1967 oil painting Earth Mother is a significant work and a modernist addition to Alston’s Family series.

A special section of the sale is dedicated to the great Elizabeth Catlett, with a broad range of her sculpture and prints, celebrating the retrospective “Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies,” opening at the Brooklyn Museum this fall. Highlights are two excellent sculptures by Catlett—one of her earliest bronze figures, Olmec Bather I, 1966, and her Reclined Figure, 2005, luxuriously recumbent in lustrous black marble.

Another special section features artworks from the estate of Dr. Constance E. Clayton. Philadelphia’s first Black and female schools superintendent and an important collector of African American art, Dr. Clayton gifted a portion of her collection to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2019. This part of the collection features landscapes and still life paintings, including works by Aaron Douglas, Henry Bozeman Jones, Edward L. Loper, Sr, and Louis B. Sloan.

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