Happening March 28 — Collectors on Collecting: A Conversation with Bernard I. Lumpkin of “Young, Gifted and Black”

Join Us Monday, March 28, 2022 at 7:00PM ET

Join Swann Director of African American Art Nigel Freeman, for a discussion on the growing legacy of The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art with founder, Bernard I. Lumpkin. The collection is dedicated to established and emerging artists of African descent, with a focus on younger voices of the last 25 years, and has been the subject of a bestselling book, Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists, and a nationwide traveling exhibition.

About the Speakers

Bernard I. Lumpkin

Bernard I. Lumpkin is a contemporary art collector, patron, and educator whose commitment to both emerging and established artists of African descent is part of a broader mission of institutional advocacy and support. Mr. Lumpkin currently sits on the Board of Trustees of the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. At the Whitney Museum of American Art, Mr. Lumpkin serves on the Education Committee and on the Painting & Sculpture Committee. At the Museum of Modern Art, he serves on the Media & Performance Committee and is also the Vice-Chair of the Friends of Education patron group. Mr. Lumpkin has advised public and private organizations on collecting and patronage, and participated in discussion panels at art fairs, auction houses, and universities.  Mr. Lumpkin was educated at Harvard (A.M., Ph.D.) and Yale (B.A.), where he sits on the Dean’s Council at the Yale School of Art.

The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection is the subject of a bestselling new book —“Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists” (DAP, 2020) — and a nationwide traveling exhibition which is currently on view at the Lehigh University Art Gallery in Bethlehem, PA. 

Nigel Freeman

Nigel Freeman is the director of the African-American Fine Art department at Swann Auction Galleries. He founded the department in the fall of 2006, and since then has set numerous auction records for important African-American artists, including John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Beauford Delaney, Sargent Johnson, Hughie Lee-Smith, Faith Ringgold and Carrie Mae Weems. Many were the result of significant institutional purchases. The department has also held the single-owner auctions of the estate of Dr. Maya Angelou and the collections of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company and the Johnson Publishing Company, Swann’s first white glove auction. Swann is the only major auction house with a department dedicated to African-American Fine Art.

Outside of Swann, Nigel is a print appraiser on the PBS television show Antiques Roadshow. He has lectured on the subject of African-American art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem and the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago. He has also been interviewed by such magazines as The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Art+Auction, Art and Antiques, The Art Newspaper and on the BBC and National Public Radio.

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