Collector’s and institutions alike look to Swann’s sales for “exceptional quality,” says Nigel Freeman, Swann’s vice president and head of fine art. The African American Art sale, held biannually, is no exception. Swann prepares for another compelling fall edition, opening October 3 in Swann’s New York showroom with 225 lots to choose from.
Beauford Delaney (1901-1979), Untitled (Greenwich Village Street, New York), ca. 1945-46. Oil on canvas, 18 x 21½ in. Estimate: $250/350,000
“We continue to see strong interest in the African American Art sale category,” Freeman says. “There are many sections of its auction market where market value is still being realized and underappreciated artists are rising. Found across the many areas of this broad sale category, is art from the 19th century to the Harlem Renaissance; from Post-War to contemporary.”
Freeman also shares that the highlights of the sale are scarce and exemplary—highly desirable in the current auction market. Made available are a handful of figures in marble by sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012). “We expect strong interest following recent significant sales of her artworks and with her major retrospective opening this fall at the Brooklyn Museum,” says Freeman.
Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012), Reclined Figure, 2005. Black marble mounted on stained wood base, 32 x 15 x 11½ in. Estimate: $150/250,000
Catlett’s top lot in Swann’s sale, Reclined Figure (est. $150/250,000), “embodies the artist’s late body of work in sculpture in a beautiful, highly polished black marble,” Freeman explains. “This stunning figure is part of Catlett’s career practice in sculpture, representing African American women while taking advantage of the inherent qualities of a variety of natural materials. This sculpture is part of an impressive body of work in stone carving, one that spanned seven decades.”
The auction catalog tells us that Catlett first gained national attention as an artist with her stone carving Mother and Child, the centerpiece of her 1940 MFA thesis at the University of Iowa where she studied with Grant Wood. Catlett wrote in her thesis, “Stone imposes a certain discipline which cannot be ignored.”
Nelson Stevens (1938-2022), Uhuru – Nina, 1978. Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 in. Estimate: $60/90,000
For the top lot of the sale, we find Beauford Delaney’s (1901-1979) Untitled (Greenwich Village Street, New York), at a high estimate between $250,000 and $350,0000. This extraordinary painting depicts the Village in a heavily impasto style. Having moved to New York from Knoxville, Tennessee, the artist was taken by the “vibrant, modern landscape of the city, particularly the parks and streets close to his studio apartment on the top of 181 Greene Street,” says Freeman. “As early as 1940, his paintings of New York also reflected a new modernist approach. According to Ann E. Gibson, Delaney’s cityscapes were ‘recognizable but hardly realist, his forms knit into a single fabric, often united by a consistently textured surface, held together by integrated nets of color and line coexisting on the surfaces of his paintings.’”
Alma Thomas (1891-1978), Atmosphere (Atmospheric Effect No. 4), 1971. Acrylic and watercolor on paper, 22½ x 30 in. Estimate: $100/150,000Freeman adds that the last time a modernist New York painting by Delaney was offered at auction was in 2018 at Swann, and at the time, it set a new auction record price for this important American artist.
For the African American Art sale, opening October 3, collectors can also find highlights like Nelson Stevens’s (1938-2022) Uhuru – Nina, 1978 (est. $60/90,000), inspired by the singer Nina Simon, and “signaling the collective AfriCOBRA’s Afrocentric identity and politically conscious purpose,” says Freeman. Included is another Catlett titled Triangular Woman, executed in bronze and estimated at $15,000 to $25,000; and the colorful Atmosphere (Atmospheric Effect No. 4) (est. $100/150,000) by Alma Thomas (1891-1978).
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