African-American Fine Art Featuring the Richard A. Long Collection

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Swann Auction Galleries, the first major auction house to hold regular sales of African-American fine art, continues to present robust offerings in the category this fall, with the auction of the art collection of Richard A. Long on October 9th. Highlighting the autumn African-American Fine Art auction, this selection of 60 works showcases the best items from Long’s collection, and incorporates early pioneers such as Henry Ossawa Tanner and Hale Woodruff, modern masters like William Artis and Alma Thomas, and contemporaries including Amalia Amaki and Radcliffe Bailey. Long is perhaps best known for his association with artists Beauford Delaney and Romare Bearden. The auction will feature a striking portrait of Long in color pastels and four other paintings by Delaney, in addition to a large grouping of nineteen works by Bearden, including two collages. Long previously gifted his portrait in oil by Beauford Delaney to the High Museum of Art. Long, a noted cultural historian and academic, was born in Philadelphia and received degrees from Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania. He traveled to Paris, his favorite city, twice a year, where he most likely began his friendship with Delaney. Long established his roots in Atlanta, where he founded the department of African-American studies at Atlanta University in 1968, and was appointed as the Atticus Haygood Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory University in 1987. He established an intellectual and artistic community at Emory and in his home where he frequently entertained luminaries such as James Baldwin and Maya Angelou. This auction represents the first and only opportunity for the public to view Long’s collection outside of his home. IMAGE: Romare Bearden, Untitled (The Trojan Horse), collage, circa 1977 ($15,000 to $25,000).