Monday, September 28, 2009

African-American Art Auction, New York

Swann Auction Galleries in New York has announced the date of the African-American Art auction, Thursday, October 8, 2009. Among the 116 artworks for sale are prints is an etching by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859 - 1937), Gateway in Tangier; photographs by Cornelius M. Battey (1873 - 1927); and sculpture by Augusta Savage and Elizabeth Catlett.


From the Swann Galleries website:

Sale 2189 Lot 7

CORNELIUS M. BATTEY (1873 - 1927)
W. E. B. Du Bois.

Silver print, 1918. 343x260 mm; 13 1/2x10 1/4 inches. With the artist's embossed stamp, "The Photographic Division, C.M. Battey, Instructor, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama," lower left....
Estimate $2,000-3,000



Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Basquiat's "Self-Portrait" Among Artworks in Billionaire Art Collection

As reported in the July 24, 2009 Forbes.com article: Top Billionaire Art Collectors, Jean-Michel Basquiat's "Self-Portrait," is among the art collection of billionaire, Philip Niarchos. The article reports that Mr. Niarchos's collection is worth at least $2 billion. His collection was acquired from the estate of his father, Stavros Niarchos, a shipping magnate, and is known to include masterpieces by Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

19th Century African-American Embroidery Needlework Collected by Winterthur


The Magazine Antiques reports that Winterthur Museum in Delaware has purchased a rare Berlin work picture stitched by an African-American schoolgirl from Philadelphia needlework dealer, Amy Finkel. The piece has been identified as stitched by Olevia Rebecca Parker, a student of the Lombard Street School in Philadelphia, c. 1828. According to the article only a handful of samplers by African-American girl are known to be in existence.