The Wall Street Journal-20080216-WEEKEND JOURNAL- Picks -- Auctions- Other Voices- New York-s Swann Galleries Readies A Major Sale of African-American Art

Return to: The_Wall_Street_Journal-20080216

WEEKEND JOURNAL; Picks -- Auctions: Other Voices; New York's Swann Galleries Readies A Major Sale of African-American Art

Full Text (240  words)

Last February, New York's Swann Galleries became the first major auction house to hold a stand-alone sale of African-American paintings and sculptures. The effort brought in $2.3 million and broke records for 19 artists, thanks in part to wealthy African-Americans joining the collecting field, the auction house says. On Tuesday, Swann's sale is expected to bring in as much as $5.6 million and will feature such major artists as Jacob Lawrence, Charles White and Romare Bearden, whose "Untitled (Three Figures)" watercolor could bring in as much as $35,000. Below, two of the 264 works on offer.

Elizabeth Catlett

'Torso, Portrait of Joan'

$200,000 to $250,000 estimate

Ms. Catlett moved to Mexico in the late 1940s, where sculptor Francisco Zuniga taught her how to work with terra cotta. She would spend the next several decades sculpting the earthy material into stylized views of confident African-American women like 1960s art educator Joan Delores Sandler, portrayed here. Last year, Swann sold a wooden torso by Ms. Catlett for $120,000.

Aaron Douglas

'Emperor Jones'

$35,000 to $50,000 estimate

This Harlem Renaissance artist gained fame for blending Art Deco details with African tribal patterns, and in the past year his prices at auction have taken off. In October, Sotheby's sold one of his cityscapes for $97,000, nearly doubling its high estimate. Here, his gouache portrayal of the title character from a 1926 Eugene O'Neill play also hints at the contemporary silhouette art of Kara Walker.