The art market was historically a white-dominated domain. With growing liberalism and a supportive sociopolitical space, black, and especially black women artists are generating increasing interest.
Sherry Shine, The Journey Continues Together, ca. 2019, painted, sewn, fused, stitched, appliqued quilt. Courtesy E&S Gallery Inc.
The month of February was declared Black History Month, a national observance, fairly recently, in 1976, by the 38th president of the United States, Gerald Ford. It is a time to celebrate the achievements of African Americans and recognize the harsh, sub-human treatment millions of people were forced to endure as a result of mass displacement. The United States was built by the hands of slaves at their expense, and while many Americans use Black History Month as a time to remember slavery, it is often viewed as a part of the distant past. While that may be true, modern slavery exists in other forms such as human trafficking, which according the most recent reports from the U.S. Department of Justice, 40% of victims were black, an overwhelming majority. However, Americans’ developing interest in one another, a product of growing liberalism, is now shedding light on these disparities and calling for a society of equal opportunity.
Betye Saar, The Phrenologer’s Window (formerly Black Phrenology Man), 1966, assemblage of two-panel wood frame with print and collage. Courtesy the Getty Center and Michael Rosenfeld Gallery.
A topic that had remained taboo for a long time, as statistics aren’t as easily accessible, is black inclusion in a white-dominated art world. Large scale changes that are happening are satisfying to some degree, like the newly renovated MoMA’s promise to include more artists of color, a far cry from its past, like the “In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King” exhibit. Debuting seven months after his death, MoMA displayed and sold works donated by American artists, with all proceeds going to the King-founded Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Initially, the exhibit was set to have zero African Americans involved as either jury members or artists. It did ultimately feature 24 black artists out of the total 81, but the initial sentiment was already known. Only three black women, Betye Saar, Faith Ringgold, and Vivian Browne, were included, their pieces costing a mere fraction of their multi-thousand-dollar counterparts. On one hand, having more black representation at the exhibit would’ve sent a powerful message during the Civil Rights Era, but on the other, with the intention of raising as much money as possible, MoMA placed their focus on artists buyers wanted to collect at the time. Of course, institutions like museums inform the art market, but in many ways, sociopolitical climate is the hidden agent that informs institutions of what and who they should represent. Analyzing the auction history of black artists’ work, female one in particular, aligns with the exciting theory that a supportive sociopolitical space positively affects inclusivity in the art world.
Elizabeth Catlett, Untitled (Civil Rights Protest), 1974, ink, collage, and pencil on heavy wove paper. Courtesy Swann Galleries.
One artist whose work has been in demand recently is social advocate Elizabeth CATLETT. Catlett was the granddaughter of slaves, and despite growing up in an educated, middle-class household, was denied admittance into the Carnegie Institute of Technology simply because she was black. Instead, she enrolled at Howard University, where she studied design, printmaking, and drawing, and was influenced by the art theories of Alain LeRoy Locke, a Harlem Renaissance and black modernism leader; James Amos Porter, the first African American art historian; and Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Upon receiving her Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the University of Iowa, the first student from the university to do so, she moved to Mexico City to work with the Taller de Gráfica Popular, an artist’s print collective for sociopolitical art. As an outspoken woman of color involved in left-wing activism, she found herself under investigation by the US House Un-American Activities Committee during the 1950s, and in 1962 became a citizen of Mexico, where she remained until her passing in 2012.
Elizabeth Catlett, Seated Woman, 1962, carved mahogany. Courtesy Swann Galleries.
While Catlett has always been successful in terms of attaining her goals of artistic activism, her work was not always seen as high art people wanted to collect, even following her passing. Since 2016, however, Catlett has continuously had low amounts of lots offered due to high demand. Her highest total realized auction prices of the decade occurred in 2019, and while her median prices per artwork fluctuates, they more than doubled from 2016 to 2019, a difference in total spending of over $500,000.
Another woman who found great success in the past year is contemporary artist Mickalene Thomas, whose versatility proved to be a major advantage in creating interdisciplinary work. Thomas’s mother, runway model Sandra ‘Mama Bush’ Bush, raised her children Buddhist, and unfortunately, she and Thomas’s father struggled with drug abuse and marital problems, weaving a complex fabric that served as a backdrop for the artist’s childhood. Thomas later studied pre-law and Theatre Arts before switching her focus to painting, receiving her BFA from Pratt Institute and MFA from Yale University. Her unique background, combined with her identity as a gay woman of color, formed an intersectionality that is mirrored by her blurring of lines between genres and mediums. Her work is somehow a nod to Blaxploitation, suburban kitsch, the Harlem Renaissance, Cubism, Dada, Pop Art, and Post-Black Art, all at the same time. Perhaps best known for her texturally-rich pieces, or the short documentary, “Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman,” which debuted on HBO in 2014, Thomas’s work overrides dehumanizing narratives by highlighting the power and beauty of black women, returning the gaze so often put onto them.
Mickalene Thomas, Naomi Looking Forward, 2013, acrylic, oil, and enamel on wood panel. Courtesy Sotheby’s.
While Catlett focused more on an aspect of social advocacy, Thomas’s focus on beauty is still politized commentary, but one of the black female body. Similarly, Thomas’s work has been increasingly celebrated and is generating demand. She has already had varying lots offered at auction, staying consistently low since 2014. Last year, the sale of just five lots amounted to $3.9 million, a stark outlier within the last decade, due to a drastic jump in value per artwork. Her pieces that did exceptionally well include a portrait of two women, sold for 495% above estimates, and another of model Naomi Campbell, which sold for 283% above estimates.
Kara Walker, Pocketwatch, scene No. 5, 1999-2000, screenprint in black on Somerset paper. Courtesy Phillips
Other artists whose works have been met with increasing interest include Kara walker and Jordan Casteel. Walker is known for her silhouetted scenes alluding to slavery in the antebellum South and pseudo-scientific phrenology, a method used to decipher a person’s intelligence and behavior in support of racial inequality. She draws on both events of the past and art of the past, like Betye Saar’s phrenological piece from MoMA’s “In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King.” Casteel, on the other hand, is an up-and-coming artist whose vibrant and intimate oil painting portraiture started hitting auctions in 2019. Her work aims to humanize history and represent black culture in contemporary society. Every piece of hers has sold for two, three, and even four times more than their highest estimated value.
Jordan Casteel, Self Portrait, 2012, oil and paper collage with ink, graphite, and colored pencil on canvas. Courtesy Phillips.
The interest in collecting art made black women tie directly into the American people’s broadening diversity and open-mindedness towards social issues. According to the Pew Research Center, Americans are steadily becoming more liberal in their beliefs, with 2019 being the most liberal-leaning year of all time. As the non-white population increases several percentage points each generation, the population diversifies and partakes in greater cultural exchange. The growing desire to understand who each are other extends into supporting what each other does, and in turn, affects the inclusivity of the art market and institutions. When the majority of Americans look for more accurate, diverse representations of America, their desires will be catered to. As this socially liberal and multicultural trend continues to rise, as it’s predicted to, the long struggle for inclusivity is finally one bearing fruit.
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