The Black Art Depot Today

‘Black Art’ Draws New Collectors, Better Prices
By: Lance Steagall

NEW YORK, Feb 26 (IPS) – Landscapes are the images that come to mind in the work of artist Richard Mayhew. The New York-born expressionist credits that to his part African American, part Native American roots.

“It’s a dual commitment to nature,” he says. “The land is very important to both cultures in terms of stimulation and spiritual sensitivity, and it’s very important to me.”

Mayhew’s work was on display at the recent National Black Fine Arts Show, an annual event. G.R. N’Namdi, the oldest black-owned abstract art gallery in the U.S., represents Mayhew’s work. In 2003, his piece “Sanctuary” sold for 6,000 dollars. It’s now listed at 25,000 dollars.

Collectors and dealers who gathered at the mid-February show in New York are making note of the new and higher prices; though many works of black art are still available at a low price, the value days aren’t here to stay.

Indeed, the market for African American art is changing fast. Pieces are selling for higher prices, garnering more attention, and becoming an investment of choice for many. As the market booms, those who choose to invest are reaping the rewards, often selling works for many times their purchase price.

“It’s a function of African American art being ignored for a long time,” said Melissa Azzi of the Chicago-based Lusenhop Gallery. “Relatively speaking, African American art has been extremely undervalued.”

She likes to attribute the lack of appreciation to the attitudes of traditional art collectors. “More confrontational works tended to be ignored,” Azzi said. “But now institutions and collectors are a bit more comfortable looking back and taking note.”

In particular, movements of the 1960s and 70s that wove political and social commentary into their artistic vision, such as the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AFRI-COBRA), are getting a second look.

Azzi pointed to Wadsworth Jarrell’s 1972 portrait of socialist organiser Angela Davis, “Revolutionary”, as an example. In that piece, Jarrell depicts Davis in a moment of impassioned speech, using a collage of social slogans to form the scene. “STRUGGLE,” “RESIST,” “HAVE TO,” “GIVEN MY HEART,” and other textual messages radiate from the focal point — Davis’ head. The bright Kool-aid colors employed help place “Revolutionary” in its cultural frame. The piece has doubled in value over the past year, but, at 2,000 dollars, it’s still modestly priced.

The changing attitudes are not the only explanation for the changing market. Bill Hodges, owner of Manhattan’s Bill Hodges Gallery, attributes it to “African Americans being able to afford an investment in art.”

Hodges has collected African American art for more than 30 years. For most of that time, 90 percent of his customers were of non-African descent. Today, he says, the numbers have reversed — over 95 percent of his customers are fellow African Americans.

And new interest is not confined to African American art alone. The Ghanaian artist Tafa, now a resident of Harlem, New York, has seen attitudes evolve first-hand. “More and more people are appreciating black art, definitely,” he said. “It used to be under-represented, but now it gets attention both here [the U.S.] and there [Europe].”

In late January, the London-based Bonhams became the first non-South African auction house to have a sale dedicated exclusively to South African art. The sale brought in 1,422,528 pounds, with Irma Stern’s works “The Tomato Picker” and “Portrait of a West African Girl” fetching the top prices — 186,000 and 138,000 pounds, respectively.

Both sale prices were more than 50,000 pounds above their pre-auction estimated prices. In 2006, Bonhams sold a self-portrait by South African artist Gerard Sekoto for more than nine times its estimate. That portrait of Sekoto, a pioneer of urban black art and social realism, fetched 123,000 pounds.

In the U.S., the Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art opened a new exhibit devoted exclusively to African art. The exhibit, titled “Tradition as Innovation”, opened in January of this year. Whereas the typical exhibit emphasises the influence African art had over modern artists who broke with tradition, such as Picasso, “Tradition as Innovation” presents African art in its own context.

At the Black Fine Arts Show in New York, Mark Small, owner of the Colorado-based Golden Galleries, was quick to point out the involvement of the youth in the scene. “All the time I see members of the younger generation recognising African American artists that, throughout most of their career, have remained largely unknown. That’s really great to see,” he said.

Many of those older artists trained in the city of Chicago. There, two pioneering schools gave African American artists an opportunity to study when few others would: the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the South Side Community Art Centre. The city subsequently became a hub, and many significant artists, including Wadsworth Jarrell, spent at least one year studying there. The works they produced marked a turning point in the history of black art.

Today, the growing interest in black art may mark another.

I usually like to focus on ethnic art and ethnic artists on my site for the most part.  It’s just a personal choice and the niche market that I’m in.  However, from time to time, I find articles that are very interesting that I like to share with those that visit our site and blog.  This one in particular shows how art comes in many different forms and flavors.  It also shows how a hobby, if truly mastered, when combined with creativity can become a revenue generating activity.  I hope you find the article informative and inspirational.

Since CNN spoke with LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya a year ago, his popularity has skyrocketed. Just check out his clientele.

Donald Trump recently asked Sawaya to create a replica of the new hotel he’s building in Dubai. With 10 days to complete it, and only architectural renderings to work from, Sawaya toiled away in his Manhattan studio snapping tiny bricks together, barely sleeping, to finish the curvy 10-foot statue in time for its unveiling.

His work has also created a, well … buzz with entertainers.

Sawaya built a 4-foot bumblebee for Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz to offer his new bride, Ashlee Simpson, as a wedding gift. Stephen Colbert wanted a piece of the action too. The comedian invited Sawaya on his show last August to present a life-size LEGO Colbert replica.  Read Full Article

Marlon Woods, better known by the name of “Nico”, is a Florida born artist who now resides in Atlanta, Georgia. Nico is known for his paintings which consist of mainly Afro-centric elongated images and bright, bold colors. Once of his most famous works is titled “Swan”. This print, “Swan” by Nico, will be discontinued very, very soon by the publisher and will no longer be available to the public at that point. The Black Art Depot, however, currently has a limited amount (20 prints) in inventory. “Swan” by Nico is becoming harder and harder to locate and purchase. Therefore if you are interested in this print, or have been trying to purchase a copy of this print, now would be a good time to seize the moment and purchase this celebrated Nico art print before it is too late.

Black Art Is Buried Treasure
In an overheated market, works by African American painters are a bargain — for now

For art collector John Axelrod, the epiphany came a dozen years ago at a New York gallery show of works by African Americans. The Boston lawyer, now retired, was stunned. “My feeling was, these are not African American artists, these are great artists from the country and period I collect in, and I don’t know about them.” Today about 90 of the 320 pieces he owns are by African Americans.

That, in a nutshell, is what many black collectors think will happen as more white collectors become familiar with the paintings, collages, sculptures, and photographs of African Americans. Wealthy African Americans are usually heavy buyers at the National Black Fine Art Show (Feb. 2-5 at the Puck Building in Manhattan), in part because they want to support work they believe doesn’t get enough attention. But in an art market where prices seem badly inflated, collectors have economic reasons to be buying, too. “There isn’t much else to collect that hasn’t been overexploited,” says David Driskell, the art professor emeritus at the University of Maryland who helped Bill Cosby and his wife, Camille, amass their collection. Predicts Atlanta art dealer Jerry Thomas Jr.: “In the next 10 years we’re going to see a very significant appreciation in the price of African American work.”

ON THE PROWL
There are already long waiting lists of collectors eager to pay a fortune for works by Chicago’s Kerry James Marshall, New-York-based Kara Walker, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, who died in 1988 at the age of 27. But Driskell contends that prices still lag badly for African American masters such as Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937), Romare Bearden (1914-88), Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), and Elizabeth Catlett, 90, because they remain under-represented in mainstream galleries and museums. Indeed, even after a major Bearden retrospective organized by the National Gallery of Art in 2003, the artist’s pioneering collages still can be purchased for well under $100,000. “Bearden is the most undervalued artist in America right now,” says Miami collector Donald Rubell.

Prices for those artists’ works seem likely to rise. E.T. Williams, a retired banker and real estate investor who is on the board of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, says “a major catch-up” is under way as mainstream museums give African American artists more wall space and new museums such as San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora (which just opened in December) are built. That’s already giving a boost to older artists, such as abstract painter Sam Gilliam, 72, the subject of a retrospective organized by Washington’s Corcoran Gallery that will be moving on to museums in Louisville, Savannah, Ga., and Houston. The Art Institute of Chicago is running a major Catlett show through Apr. 23.

NBA PICKS
Meanwhile, a new generation of collectors is scouting talent. Professional basketball star Grant Hill, 33, who has built a museum-quality collection of black old masters (you can see it at granthill.com), plans to focus on younger living artists after he retires. Two of his friends, retired NBA player Elliot Perry, 36, and Darrell Walker, 44, an assistant coach with the New Orleans Hornets, are already purchasing pieces from emerging mixed-media artists such as Whitfield Lovell, 46, and Radcliffe Bailey, 37.

These collectors haunt galleries such as D.C. Moore, Michael Rosenfeld, and Bill Hodges in New York and G.R. N’Namdi (which has locations in Detroit and Chicago as well as New York). They also track shows by hip curators at institutions such as the Studio Museum in Harlem and get to know the artists. “We know that one day we’ll go down in history as collectors,” Walker says. It may pay to follow their lead.

By Thane Peterson
Business Week Magazine
Feb. 2006