Antique Helper Auctions announces a series of Boutique Auctions, to be held as part of the company’s monthly Art and Antiques Auctions.  The theme of the April 21st auction will be historically significant art by African-Americans (1900-2000).

Managed by Thom Pegg, of Tyler Fine Art in St. Louis, each Boutique Auction will be comprised of 20-30 lots that relate to a common theme. 

The earliest painting, done about 1910, is an elegant still life, titled, Mountain Laurels, by Charles Ethan Porter, a highly collected artist from Connecticut. 

Several of the artists represented worked at the Southside Community Center in Chicago in the 1940s.  This was a hub for African American artists and intellectuals in the Midwest.  One such work, Eldzier Cortor’s Interior with a Woman, is a steamy interior with one of the artist’s stunningly beautiful African American female figures depicted as the central subject.  Pegg believes this painting will likely exceed it’s pre-sale estimate of $30,000-$50,000.

Augusta Savage, an important African-American woman artist from the Harlem Renaissance, is represented with her most well known sculpture, Gamin (c. 1930). Gamin depicts a young savvy street urchin beaming with street smarts and innocence.  A similar example is part of the collection of the IMA.

Artworks by Abstract expressionist, Norman Lewis and Magic realist, Hughie Lee-Smith have recently sold for well in to six figures.  A large work on paper done in 1964 by Lewis seems very attractive with an estimate of $3,500-$4,500.  Lee-Smith’s Monarch, an oil depicting a young African American boy is expected to bring between $8,000-$10,000.  Original works by these important African-American artists will also be sold: Romare Bearden, Charles Alston, Walter Williams, Charles Sebree, Elizabeth Catlett, Claude Clark, Benny Andrews, and J.W. Hardrick.