Records & Results: African American Art — October 3, 2024

African American Art Sets Six Artist Records

The Thursday, October 3, 2024, sale of African American Art at Swann brought $3M and saw top prices for artists, with six records being set. Nigel Freeman, Head of Fine Art at Swann and Director of African American Art, noted, “We are very happy with the robust sales from the fall sale. With a diverse sale spanning 100 years, we saw auction price records and competitive bidding across a wide range of artists—from Albert Alexander Smith to Suzanne Jackson. Now, in its 17th year, our African American Art department continues to bring to auction extraordinary examples of works by sought-after artists.”

Beauford Delaney

The top lot of the sale was a newly resurfaced work by Beauford Delaney that was exhibited for the first time at Swann. Untitled (Greenwich Village Street, New York), a circa 1945-46 oil on canvas, brought $629,000, after several minutes of back-and-forth bidding from clients on the phones. This rich, impasto depiction of the Village is a very scarce and significant example of Delaney’s New York period.

Artist Records

Artist auction records included Suzanne Jackson’s There is Something Between Us, a 1972 acrylic-wash painting that came to auction from the estate of Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell ($281,000); Albert Alexander Smith’s My Bunk, a circa 1930 oil-on-canvas painting, which was part of an incredible trove of artworks recently discovered in a large steamer trunk that had belonged to his father ($87,500). Timothy Washington’s Silent Majority, a 1970 engraving on aluminum ($81,250); Nelson Stevens’s Uhuru – Nina, a 1978 acrylic on canvas ($62,500); Don McIlvaine’s Miles Davis, a 1970 oil on canvas ($40,000); and Ben Hazard’s Gum Drops, a 1972 molded and painted acrylic work ($30,000) all brought records for the artists.

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Modern and Post-War Highlights

Modern highlights featured Hughie Lee-Smith with Untitled (The Dancer), oil on board, 1948 ($100,000), and Negro Child, oil on board, 1953 ($47,500), while post-war artworks of note included Alma W. Thomas’s Atmosphere (Atmosphere Effect No. 4), a 1971 acrylic, watercolor and pencil on paper ($149,000), and Charles Alston’s Earth Mother (Woman and Two Sons), a 1967 oil on canvas ($125,000). Elizabeth Catlett’s late-career sculpture Reclined Figure, black marble, 2005 ($161,000), rounded out the top ten lots of the sale.

Spotlight on Women

Specialist Corey Serrant touched on the results for women artists in the auction, “We were excited to see the results of the Black woman artists making market strides along with their male counterparts. Artworks from contemporary artists Suzanne Jackson, Elizabeth Catlett, and Alma Thomas hammered at six figures, and works from Carrie Mae Weems, Laura Wheeler Waring, and Loïs Mailou Jones either landed at their low or above the high estimate.” Weems was featured with a run of works, including a print of her 1989, toned-silver-print High Yella Girl, which reached $45,000. Waring’s Still Life with Fruit and Flowers, oil on canvas, circa the 1930s, brought $40,000, and Jones’s circa 1944, pen-and-ink drawing The Black Man in White America – Van Deusen saw $32,500 over a $4,000 to $6,000 estimate.