“As the art market rebounds, we are seeing a surge in collectors seeking African-American Fine Art—especially scarce and important works. The sale began with intense competition for 19th-century paintings by Duncanson and Porter, and the momentum was sustained all the way to the final section, a celebration of Romare Bearden’s centennial year, where two of his collages from the early 1970s sold in the high five figures.” - Nigel Freeman, Director of African-American Fine Art at Swann Galleries, in a press release after the February 17,2011 Sale 2237.
Collecting art, especially works by African Americans and those in the Diaspora, was once revered as taboo and with little to no value for a serious collector. No longer considered a hobby, African American art has always played a tremendous role in the fabric of not only The United States but the world as a whole. There are a number of factors that have contributed to its continued popularity: President Obama’s selections of works by several artists, including Alma Thomas, to grace the walls of The White House; The National Museum of African-American History and Culture; and several retrospectives at major museums of artists like Glen Ligon, Barkley Hendricks, Kara Walker and Radcliffe Bailey.
For a brief moment during the 1980s, there became this increasing interest in works by Old Masters such as Tanner, Charles White, Norman Lewis and many others. But it was during the late 90s that works by artists of African descent experienced a tremendous boom in the investment sectors. On June 26, 20011 at Phillips de Pury & Co’s first contemporary sale at Claridge’s in Mayfair, a Jean-Michel Basquiat self-portrait sold for an impressive 2.1 million pounds ($3.4 million). A few years ago, Swann Galleries of New York City, one of the few auction houses that deal African American art, sold their highest painting by Aaron Douglass for $600,000 though originally priced for $100,000. And who could forget that in 1981 actor and philanthropist Bill Cosby purchased Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Thankful Poor from the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf at a Sotheby’s auction for an astonishing $200,000-plus.
It seems that African American art is becoming more valuable monetarily and culturally. “We [Swann Galleries] started our African-American Fine Art department back in 2007 with a focus on bringing those types of works as well as artists to the forefront,” says Nigel Freeman, Director of African-American Fine Art“But much success is owed to Bill Cosby who is responsible for this boom of early collectors in the 1980s before the prices skyrocketed. It wasn’t until these instances that we were able to sell Romare Bearden collages for six figures. With no known records auction records no one knew how to price or even market these works. The demand was always there but I never knew why there wasn’t any supply.”
