Art Market Updates

Ernie Barnes (1938-2009), The Sugar Shack, 1976. Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 40 in. Collection of William O. Perkins, III and Lara K. Perkins © Ernie Barnes Family Trust.

The Sugar Shack

Ernie Barnes’ famous masterpiece The Sugar Shack—a dynamic work featuring dancing people in a crowded music hall in segregated 20th-century North Carolina—is currently available to view at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas. “The Sugar Shack became a Black cultural icon after the first version was featured on the cover of the 1976 Marvin Gaye album, I Want You. That same year, Barnes created this second version, which garnered wider fame when it was added to the end credits of the groundbreaking sitcom Good Times and later became a popular printed reproduction,” according to the museum. The iconic painting is on loan to the Blanton and will be on view through November 10. It was previously shown from 2022 to 2023 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

William Theophilus Brown (1919-2012), Standing Bathers, 1993. Acrylic on paper. Crocker Art Museum, Estate of Paul Wonner and William Theophilus Brown, 2019.22.7.

Breaking the Rules

In the wake of the abstract expressionist movement of the late 1940s and early ’50s, avant-garde artists Paul Wonner and William Theophilus Brown began to reconnect with the visual world. The artists met in 1952 at the University of California, Berkeley, and remained a couple for 56 years, each painting in their gestural styles that capture everything from people to landscapes to still life. The exhibition Breaking the Rules: Paul Wonner and Theophilus Brown will be on view at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens’ main gallery in Memphis, Tennessee, through March 31. “The title of the show was inspired by a review of the 1988 exhibition, Painting from the San Francisco Bay Area, in which both artists’ works were featured prominently and were described as showing a ‘delightfully pugnacious spirit of rule-breaking,’” the gallery notes.

Hindman merges with Freeman’s

Major Chicago-based auction house Hindman has merged with the 200-year-old Freeman’s based in Philadelphia. Now, the two auction houses have a combined total of six salerooms and 18 regional offices across the country, making for the largest, coast-to-coast presence of any auction house in the country. Under the name Freeman’s | Hindman, the company is combining their robust digital infrastructures into a singular website and targeted online initiatives. “I’m truly excited to bring together these two esteemed auction houses under one roof,” says executive chairman Jay Frederick Krehbiel. “The merger strengthens our advantage in an increasingly competitive auction market and sets us up for continued growth across the United States and globally, especially with Freeman’s existing international relationship with Lyon & Turnbull.” A new 5,000-square-foot permanent saleroom opened in January at 32 East 67th Street in the heart of the New York’s Upper East Side’s art district.

Martha Diamond in her New York studio in 1993. Photo credit: Georges Piette, via Martha Diamond Trust.

Artist Martha Diamond passes away

American painter Martha Diamond, predominantly known for her expressionistic urban landscapes of New York City, passed away on December 30 at the age of 79. Born and raised in Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village, New York, Diamond’s paintings first gained public attention in the 1980s and can be found in the permanent collections of such institutions as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among many others.

Using art to rebuild

Linda Bean—philanthropist, art connoisseur and granddaughter of the founder of outdoor apparel company L.L. Bean—is using her passion for the art of the Wyeth family to help restore several properties (including an art gallery) on the waterfront of Port Clyde, Maine, that were destroyed due to fire. Several N.C. Wyeth paintings were destroyed in the fire, including A Man of a Certain Probity and Worth, Immortal and Natural (New England; The Wood Sled). Three paintings by Jamie Wyeth were also burned: With Green Peppers, as well as Snapper and Red-tailed Hawk, both owned by Bean. Bean is using both her own wealth and her connection to the Wyeth family to aid in restoration efforts.

People & Places

The Portland Art Museum in Oregon has named Lloyd DeWitt as its Richard and Janet Geary Curator of European & American Art Pre-1930, a newly created position that will lead the next phase of the European and American art programs (pre-1930) and set the vision for the reinstallation of the museum’s permanent collection following the completion of PAM’s campus transformation project in 2025. DeWitt, whose first day at the museum was February 5, comes to PAM from the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, where he is currently the Chief Curator and Irene Leache Curator of European Art.

Pace Gallery has announced the appointment of Gary Waterston as its executive vice president of global sales and operations. In this role, Waterston will be responsible for managing multiple departments across the gallery’s global platform. Based in London, Waterston officially joined the gallery on February 1, bringing two decades of experience working at the highest level of gallery management.

Jennifer Brosnahan McIntyre has been named chief legal officer for the Smithsonian Institution, effective March 11. She will serve as the principal legal advisor to the secretary; the board of regents, the Smithsonian’s governing body; and other Smithsonian senior officials.