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…
Three fascinating sculptures by Richmond Barthé feature in our June 4 sale of African-American Fine Art. Each embody his interests in the 1930s, themes that would continue to define his later body of work. They demonstrate the range of a young artist who was coming into his own, embarking on a career in New York, gaining critical and commercial successes. Newly arrived from his debut in Chicago, and soon a sensation in Harlem, Barthé was one of the first African-American artists to develop a commercial career in New York.
We are sad to hear the news yesterday of Emma Amos’s passing. Emma Amos was a painter, printmaker, weaver and educator—a great artist and innovator who helped broaden greatly American art in the late twentieth century, challenging inequalities in both art and society with a bold figurative message. I would like to remember her life and work as best we can—through the artworks we have handled here at Swann as they introduced me to her many facets as an artist.
We are greatly saddened to hear the news of David Driskell’s passing yesterday with the email announcement from the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland. An incredibly influential figure in the history of African-American art, Driskell was a leading curator, collector, historian, painter, printmaker and writer.
At Auction June 4, 2020* *This auction has been rescheduled from its original date, and will now be held on Thursday, June 4, 2020 at 1:00 PM ET, previewing online…
Auctions offer a moment where the sometimes-incalculable significance of an object is quantified. The price is reached through collaboration: specialists, consignors, the market, and finally, bidders convene in the room,…
The highlight of our October 5 auction of African-American Fine Art is a series of unique works by Charles White that have never before appeared at auction. We spoke to our…
Nigel Freeman, founder and director of our African-American Fine Art department, is in London this week visiting some familiar images. Two of the works in the Tate Modern’s latest exhibition, Soul of…
Dr. Amalia Amaki, noted art historian and artist, wrote the catalogue introduction for The Richard A. Long Collection of African-American Art. Dr. Amaki, a native Atlantan, received her Ph.D in…
Martha’s Vineyard, an affluent summer colony located on an island south of Cape Cod, has long attracted African American artists. The town of Oak Bluffs has been a favored vacation…
Last week Swann Galleries had the pleasure of hosting an artist talk with Barkley L. Hendricks, whose “unique work resides at the nexus of American realism and post-modernism, a space…
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…
Swann Galleries is pleased to offer the first significant work by assemblage artist Noah Purifoy to come to auction in our upcoming sale of African-American Fine Art titled The Shape of Things…
Swann’s African-American Fine Art Department, writes about the catalogue cover image for the upcoming auction Shadows Uplifted: The Rise of African-American Art. The cover for our February 13 auction catalogue is…
The image chosen for the cover of Swann’s upcoming sale Point of Departure: Postwar African-American Fine Art is a circa 1957 Untitled oil on canvas by Norman Lewis. The previously unrecorded painting was acquired…
Figurative artists Eldzier Cortor, Hughie Lee-Smith and Charles White stayed true to their roots in social realism as their work evolved in the post-war decades. Unlike contemporaries Charles Alston, Norman…
Romare Bearden is undoubtedly one of America’s greatest artists. Today, his collages are viewed as some of the most unique and significant contributions to 20th century American art. Born during…
Contemporary African-American artist David Hammons is known for his body prints and assemblages of found objects, such as his fly swatter. His oversize version of an African-American flag hangs outside the Studio…
Bob Thompson stood apart from most of his contemporaries in the early 1960s. On one hand, he was the epitome of a New York bohemian artist working in a Clinton…
Among the top lots in the February 23, 2010 auction of African-American Fine Art was a unique Fly Swatter created in 1992 by contemporary artist David Hammons, which sold for…
Swann Galleries’ auction of African-American Fine Art on February 23, 2010, will offer approximately 160 lots from many notable collections and estates, including several museum-quality works. The sale’s top lot,…
