Swann Auction Galleries came close to achieving the overall high estimate for its African American Art sale on April 4, when it achieved $3,419,480. Of the 239 lots on offer, 196 sold—an 82 percent sell-through rate by lot. The sale established seven records and saw four market debuts.
Hughie Lee-Smith (1915-1999), Ball Player, 1970. Oil on linen canvas, 24 x 32 in., signed lower left. Estimate: $150/250,000 SOLD: $341,000
Hughie Lee-Smith (1915-1999) earned the top lot for his 1970 oil Ball Player when it fetched $341,000. “Ball Player is a significant, mid-career painting by Hughie Lee-Smith and depicts an essential aspect of his oeuvre,” notes Swann Galleries. “Throughout his practice, Lee-Smith has portrayed youth playing or improvising games, from balancing sticks and tires to flying kites and playing ball games. His subjects find moments of pleasure and escape despite their environs…Here, Lee-Smith depicts a youth playing hand ball in a particularly desolate urban space.”
Benny Andrews (1930-2006), Time for Church, 1999. Oil with painted canvas, lace collage and staples on cotton canvas, 60 x 26 in., signed and dated center right recto; signed, titled, dated and inscribed “60”H x 26”W” in oil, verso. Estimate: $50/75,000 SOLD: $203,000
The second highest lot was Benny Andrews’ Time for Church, an oil on canvas with lace collage, from 1999, only six years before the artist’s death. The portrait, which garnered just over $200,000, features a seated woman in her Sunday best surrounded by colorful flowers. It is a prime example of Andrews’ expressive, figurative paintings that often incorporated collaged fabric and other material. The sale also established a record for the artist.
Jacob Lawrence’s The Legend of John Brown, came in at a close third and broke print records when the portfolio, with complete text, printed folders and 22 color screenprints, sold for $173,000. The vibrant series showcases Lawrence (1917-2000) at his full artistic visual and narrative abilities as he explores the human condition, the African American experience, the struggle for social justice and American history through the story of the heroic actions of civil rights activist John Brown. Based on Lawrence’s 1941 series of 22 gouache and tempera paintings The Life of John Brown, now in the permanent collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts, a set of prints was produced by the artist and Ives-Sillmann in 1977 to bring the works to a broader public.
Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), The Legend of John Brown, 1977. Portfolio with complete text, printed folders, the printed poem by Robert Hayden, and 22 color screenprints on Domestic Etching paper, each sheet 20 x 257/8 in., full margins, loose as issued. Estimate: $130/160,000 SOLD: $156,000
Other highlights included record-breaking sales for one of four surviving 1940s paintings by Rose Piper called Subway Nuns for $149,000; as well as for Paul F. Keene, Jr.’s vibrant 1953 painting that combines modernism and Afro-Caribbean imagery which achieved $87,500. Additional artist records were set for Carrol Sockwell, Renée Stout and Bernie Casey. Also of note were four auction debuts with works by Adebunmi Gbadebo, Joseph Lofton, Adama Delphine Fawundu and Dianne Smith.
Richmond Barthé (1901-1989), Black Majesty, 1969. Bronze, 24 x 10¼ x 5¼ in., incised signature at the base edge. Cast at the foundry of sculptor Herzl Emanuel in Rome. Estimate: $50/75,000 SOLD: $161,000
“We are extremely pleased with the strong results of our spring sale,” says Nigel Freeman, director of African American art for Swann. “It is very satisfying to see a rising demand for the figurative modern and postwar masters whose auction market Swann developed, including Benny Andrews, Richmond Barthé, Aaron Douglas and Hughie Lee-Smith. The great interest we see in exceptional works by lesser artists like Paul Keene, Rose Piper and Renée Stout also demonstrates the breadth of our market.”
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