African-American Fine Art on the Rise

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FARAI CHIDEYA, host:

I'm Farai Chideya. And this is NEWS & NOTES.

A stash of African-American fine art tucked away in a black-owned insurance company in south L.A. It used to be a bit of a secret. Now, no more.

Golden State Mutual auctioned off their entire collection earlier this month. The work sold for a total of more than $1.5 million, and some pieces sold for three times their appraised value. Is this an example of black fine art finding its audience? And who's the doing the buying?

Nigel Freeman runs the African-American fine art department at Swann Galleries. Freeman managed Golden State Mutual's auction. Also with us, we've got Bill Hodges of Bill Hodges Gallery. It's the only black-owned gallery on Manhattan's West 57 Street, that's an art hub known worldwide.

Gentlemen, thanks for coming on

Mr. BILL HODGES (Owner, Bill Hodges Gallery): Thank you.

CHIDEYA: So…

Mr. NIGEL FREEMAN (Head, African-American Fine Art Department, Swann Galleries): Hello.

CHIDEYA: Nigel, can you take us through some of the art that was sold, any famous names?

Mr. FREEMAN: Oh, of course. This was a wonderful collection and had many works by important African-American artists from Charles White and Elizabeth Catlett, Henry Ossawa Tanner, the beginning of the century, to someone like David Hammons, who's a contemporary artist today.

CHIDEYA: Oh, what sold for the most for single item?

Mr. FREEMAN: Our top block was the coverlet on our catalogue, a very important drawing by Charles White, it's called the General or Harriet Tubman in print, this is a large ink drawing by Charles White, and it's sold for $300,000. (Unintelligible) with our buyers (unintelligible) $360,000 total.

CHIDEYA: Now, Bill, what do you see as trends in terms of how African-American fine art is selling, and who's buying it?

Mr. HODGES: I think the trend is something that, probably, happened a few years ago, and it's spiraling upward. And predominantly, the people who are acquiring African-American artists' work today are the people within the Wall Street positions, the sports players. A lot of African-Americans are getting involved now because this is, I like to tell my other clients or I tell my clients, that this was the first generation of African-Americans that has been able to actually collect artwork.

CHIDEYA: So when you think about this sale, there's also recently been the acquisition of a Jacob Lawrence painting for the White House, not part of the same lot, $2.5 million. And that is a hallmark in a couple of ways. One, who the buyer was, and two, the amount. Nigel, do you agree with Bill that there's a new energy around collecting African-American fine art?

Mr. FREEMAN: Oh, yes, I would. I would characterize it slightly differently. I would agree, absolutely, with Bill that there's a whole new generation with affluence and means who have a great desire to acquire the essential works by the important African-American artists. And I think this is really a generational shift.

There was a generation before that could acquire works by African-American artists, but they bought them quietly. They went to artist's studios and amass collections without necessarily buying them directly from a gallery or at auction. And we're seeing today that that earlier generation are now thinking about selling their works, and so we see wonderful collections like Golden State coming to sale.

CHIDEYA: Now, I know that you can't talk specifics. But I'm assuming that most of these works went into private collections. How does that affect - you know, whether or not that's the case, in this specific instance? But should these works be essentially sought after by museums and educational institutions that couldn't show them publicly to…

Mr. FREEMAN: Oh - excuse me.

CHIDEYA: Go ahead.

Mr. FREEMAN: Now, I'd like to speak about that because it - we did not just sell to individual collectors. Early on when we acquired this collection after Golden State contacted us, I made a very early and broad attempt to notify museums and institutions so they could participate in our auction. You have to give museums advanced notice because it's not like someone who can just write a check, they have to go through acquisition committees, and it takes time for them to get their act together, to be ready to bid in auction. And we had a whole host of institutions and museums participating in this sale. Some were successful. Some were outbid by individuals, private collectors. But we certainly had a very broad and involved institution and museum-client base for the sale. And that…

CHIDEYA: Bill, what…

Mr. FREEMAN: And that's…

CHIDEYA: Sorry. Go ahead.

Mr. FREEMAN: Excuse me. No and that's something that we're making every effort to do - to reach out not just to individuals, but to museums and institutions.

CHIDEYA: Bill, this may not be something that you deal with directly in terms of how you sell your art, but even people who are private collectors can then choose to show in museums. How important is having access to artworks in public spaces so people who don't have $360,000 can go and access those works?

Mr. HODGES: I think it's extraordinarily important. For so many years, people would go into the museums and not see major works by African-Americans. Years ago, when the museums - the Philadelphia Museum acquired a Tanner, that was a major acquisition.

But for so many years, people would go into museums and not see works by African-Americans. I guess, Bearden and - Bearden especially was one of the people in the late '70s, in fact that they're from about 1963 on, you could see works by Bearden in the museums and it was heavily collected by museums.

But it's extraordinarily important to see pieces like Charles White, works like David Hammonds, works like - so many of the works that were in this particular field at one gallery. So it's a wonderful thing that institutions are, you know - because the question remains and you were saying, you know, seeing our people or African-Americans as a whole on the walls of museum because, you know, historically, they were not there because of the color of their skin. And it's been very well known - it's a well-known fact.

CHIDEYA: Well, Bill and Nigel, thanks so much for this.

Mr. FREEMAN: Thank you.

Mr. HODGES: Thank you.

CHIDEYA: Bill Hodges runs and owns Bill Hodges Gallery in Manhattan and Nigel Freeman heads the African-American Fine Arts Department of Swann Galleries. He joined us from NPR studios in New York.

And you can see some of the works sold in the Golden State Mutual auction, just go to npr.org.

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