The Thursday, January 30 sale of African-American Art from the Johnson Publishing Company at Swann Galleries was an all-around success. The packed auction room saw all 87 lots find buyers, bringing $2.9 million—over twice the high-estimate for the auction—29 new auction records were established, and 22 artists made their market debuts.

Nigel Freeman, director of Swann Galleries’s African-American Fine Art department, remarked on the offering from the Ebony and Jet publishers: “It was an honor and a thrill to close this chapter of the Johnson Publishing Company’s illustrious history with a perfect sale of their works. The sale of the collection was the perfect storm of an auction—a prestigious name anchored with significant works by important artist, but with a wonderful new group of artists fresh to the secondary market, providing numerous opportunities for collectors.” 

Leading the sale was the earliest work in the collection, Henry Ossawa Tanner’s nocturnal oil on canvas Moonrise by Kasbah (Morocco), 1912, at $365,000. The high price for Tanner (second-highest at auction) was followed up closely by the most contemporary artist from the offering, Carrie Mae Weems. Weems’s 1996-97 Chicago Public Art Program commission of seven framed panels with sandblasted text on glass garnered a new auction record for the important contemporary artist at $305,000.

Many of the works in the collection came from the 1970s. Highlights included Dindga McCannon’s 1970 oil on canvas The Last Farewell. McCannon was present in the auction room as her work made its market debut to a roar of applause, at $161,000. Kenneth Victor Young’s vibrant 1971 oil on canvas abstraction in greens and yellows Upper Egypt crossed the block at $87,500. Fresh off its exhibition at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Francis A. Sprout’s 1971 acrylic on canvas Azo garnered $50,000, an auction debut for Sprout.

A number of market mainstays saw new auction records: Richard Mayhew with Departure, oil on canvas, 2006, at $233,000; Walter H. Williams’s White Butterfly, oil on canvas, 1969, at $125,000; and Bazar Du Quai, Port Au Prince, Haiti, oil on canvas, 1961, by Loïs Mailou Jones, at $75,000.

Elizabeth Catlett’s 1973 cast bronze sculpture Sister was won for $149,000. Additional highlights in sculpture featured Richmond Barthé, whose cast bronze bust The Negro Looks Ahead, 1944, brought $50,000.

“An auctioneer can wait for an entire career to have a sale like Thursday’s, but when it happens it is a transcendent feeling—a validation of all our strength together,” noted the house’s President, Nicholas D. Lowry, who called the sale.

The next sale African-American Fine Art will be held on April 2. Visit swanngalleries.com or download the Swann Galleries App for more information.

Top lots                                                                                                                                  Prices with buyer’s premium

1*          Henry Ossawa Tanner, Moonrise by Kasbah (Morocco), oil on canvas, 1912.                                  $365,000
85†        Carrie Mae Weems, Untitled, seven panels of framed chromogenic prints & sandblasted text             $305,000
              on glass, 1996-97.
87†        Richard Mayhew, Departure, oil on canvas, 2006.                                                                              $233,000
83§        Robin Harper, Jack Johnson, oil on canvas, 1970.                                                                              $185,000
50§        Dindga McCannon, The Last Farewell, oil on canvas, 1970.                                                              $161,000
77          Elizabeth Catlett, Sister, cast bronze, with brushed patina & white inlaid eyes, mounted on               $149,000
              wood base, 1973.
33†        Walter H. Williams, White Butterfly, oil on canvas, 1969.                                                                  $125,000
13†        Thomas Sills, Red Berries, oil on canvas, 1959.                                                                                  $106,250
51§        Barbara Johnson Zuber, Jump Rope, oil on canvas, circa 1970.                                                          $87,500
55          Kenneth Victor Young, Upper Egypt, acrylic on canvas, 1971.                                                          $87,500
9†          Loïs Mailou Jones, Bazar Du Quai, Port Au Prince, Haiti, oil on canvas, 1961.                                  $75,000
19§        Larry Erskine Thomas, Africa: The Source, oil on canvas, 1967.                                                        $52,500
3            Richmond Barthé, The Negro Looks Ahead, cast bronze with dark brown patina, mounted on a          $50,000
              wooden pedestal, 1944.
58§        Francis A. Sprout, Azo, acrylic on canvas, 1971.                                                                                 $50,000
23†        Marie Johnson Calloway, Family, painted wood assemblage with collaged fabric & hair,                     $43,750
              mounted on board, 1968.
15          Loïs Mailou Jones, Vieille Rue, Montmartre (Rue Pinteau), oil on canvas, 1965.                                  $40,000
70†        Clifford L. Lee, Louis Armstrong, oil on canvas, circa 1970.                                                              $40,000
17          Peter E. Clarke, Summer Evening, gouache on paper, 1960.                                                               $37,500
48§        Herb Bruce, We’re Tired of Grinding, mixed media & newspaper collage on illustration board,          $37,500
              circa 1968-70.
57†        Leslie Kenneth Price, There’s a Void During the Day, There’s a Void During the Night, acrylic   $32,500
              on canvas, 1971.  

Key:       † = Auction Record for the Artist; § = Auction Debut; * = Second Highest Price at Auction

Additional Artist Records: Irene V. Clark (Lot 12, $30,000); Eva Hamlin Miller (Lot 14, $27,500); Joseph A. Kersey              (Lot 21, $3,000); Jimmie Lee Mosely (Lot 25, $6,250); Leo F. Twiggs (Lot 32, $25,000); Arthur Rose (Lot 34, $10,000); Shirley Bolton (Lot 37, $7,250); Walter J. Williams, Jr. (Lot 38, $6,250); Gloucester Caliman Coxe (Lot 39, $8,125); Ralph Arnold (Lot 40, $18,750); Ben F. Jones (Lot 45, $11,250); Omar Lama (Lot 49, $2,860); Lester L. Johnson, Jr. (Lot 61, $4,500); Turtel Onli (Lot 65, $4,500); Nathaniel Bustion (Lot 67, $16,250); Anna McCullough Tyler (Lot 74, $1,500); Ann Tanksley (Lot 75, $22,500); George L. Wilson (Lot 80, $13,750); Phoebe Beasley (Lot 86, $23,750)
             
Additional Auction Debuts: Valerie J. Maynard (Lot 7, $11,250); Georgette Seabrooke Powell (Lot 11, $12,500); Jim      S. Smoote II (Lot 24, $16,250); Mary Parks Washington (Lot 26, $16,250); Leon Lank Leonard, Sr. (Lot 28, $5,500); Billie L. Alexander (Lot 36, $7,800); Leon Meeks (Lot 43, $7,250); Sherman Beck (Lot 47, $5,460); J.D. Jackson (Lot 53, $7,000); James E. Kennedy (Lot 54, $7,000); Rossetta Dotson Minner (Lot 59, $2,125); Eileen Anderson (Lot 60, $8,125); Willie Tucker (Lot 62, $2,125); Corinne Mitchell (Lot 63, $5,000); Arthur Roland (Lot 64, $12,500); Douglas R. Williams (Lot 66, $4,250); Gloria R. Bohanon (Lot 68, $22,500); José J. Williams (Lot 78, $10,000)

Additional highlights can be found here.