Conceptualizing African-American Art: the Market, Academic Discourse and Public Reception
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CONCEPTUALIZING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ART: THE MARKET, ACADEMIC DISCOURSE AND PUBLIC RECEPTION Shawnya L. Harris A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Art Chapel Hill 2012 Approved by: Lyneise E. Williams John P. Bowles Jan Hannig Carol Magee Hans Van Miegroet © 2012 Shawnya L. Harris ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT SHAWNYA L. HARRIS: Conceptualizing African-American Art: The Market, Academic Discourse and Public Reception (Under the direction of Dr. Lyneise E. Williams) The concept of an ‘African-American art market’ presents a new field of scholarly inquiry. However, objects labeled and fashioned as ‘African American art’ allude to a broader visual culture composed of objects, buyers, sellers and critics than previously acknowledged in scholarly literature. This dissertation will provide a nuanced picture of how an ‘African-American art market’ has been conceptualized and how this understanding reflects a complex web of tensions and relationships between objects, consumers, sellers and even scholars and critics of the work. Since the current literature on the field of African- American art provides only scant attention to the consumption of African-American art and virtually nothing about its place in the art market, this study will demonstrate how art historians could critically interpret African-American art in relation to market dynamics through an investigation of art related publications, oral interviews, public display venues. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The undertaking of writing a dissertation is a complex one in concept, process and completion, yet not without the involvement of several players, who may or may not know the power of their influence on this work and hopefully more work to come. I wish to thank my dissertation advisor, Prof. Lyneise Williams, for providing insight into her own path as a graduate student and becoming my biggest cheerleader throughout my doctoral study. Her enthusiasm, warmth and nurturing support of my development have provided great motivation. I would like to thank Prof. John Bowles for engaging me intellectually as potential colleague in the field of African-American art and his thoughtful comments on improving my project. I also wish to thank Prof. Hans van Miegroet as well for providing inspiration and excitement for my topic through his course on art and markets at Duke University. Finally, I would like to thank Prof. Carol Magee for challenging my assumptions and providing constructive feedback on dissertation drafts. During my research period, I met and engaged with several scholars, museum professionals, art collectors, gallery owners and other middlemen and am great indebted to them for their time and candid commentary on the inner workings of the art market. Although not an exhaustive list, some of these individuals include: art dealers Peg Alston of Peg Alston Fine Arts; halley harrisburg of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery (New York, NY); Bill and Navindren Hodges of Bill Hodges Gallery (New York, NY); Lamar Wilson (Nashville, TN); Byrma Braham of Avisca Fine Art (Marietta, GA); Charlotte Sherman of Heritage iv Galleries (Los Angeles, CA); George N’Namdi of G.R. N’Namdi Gallery (Chicago, IL and Detroit, MI); Ellen Sragow of Sragow Gallery (New York, NY) and Corrine Jennings of Kenkeleba House (New York, NY); several collectors including Jerome C. Gray, Dr. James Hill, and Bennie F. Johnson (all of Washington, D.C.); Robert E. Holmes (Los Angeles, CA); Walter O. Evans (Savannah, GA) as well as Robert E. Holmes, Esq. (Los Angeles, CA); artists Dr. Willie E. Hooker (Charlotte, NC); Juan Logan (Chapel Hill, NC); and Emma Amos (New York, NY); auctioneer Nigel Freeman of Swann Auction Galleries (New York, NY); and finally art fair producers Josh Wainwright of the National Black Fine Art Show (Cabin John, MD) and Evelyn and Mercer Redcross of the Philadelphia International Art Expo (Philadelphia, PA). For those not mentioned, I can only say to charge the error to my brain and not my heart. As an interdisciplinary effort, I am eternally grateful to members of the Department of Statistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill including Profs. Jan Hannig and Steve Marron, and, finally, my statistical research partner and fellow graduate student, Pu (John) Dongqiuye, for providing statistical counseling and expertise on auction data collected. The inclusion of this methodology contributed greatly to my perspective and is the beginning of other interdisciplinary endeavors that I would like to pursue in the future. During my dissertation research and writing process, I was fortunate to be able to secure a minority dissertation fellowship at Middle Tennessee State University for the 2010- 2011 academic school year. I wish to thank the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and the Chair of the Department of Art and all associated faculty and staff for making this opportunity a success for me. Their generosity in terms of material and funding resources enabled me to dedicate time to my project v however, their warmth, efficiency and collegiality have been vital to my professional development. Several personal friends and loved ones have been a constant and consistent form of encouragement. I would like to thank my biological and “adopted” families in Virginia, New York, Washington, D.C., Connecticut, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee for their advice, prayers, humor, stories, gossip, warm meals and place of lodging that sustained me as I crisscrossed highways for research and renewal. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the essential presence of my Creator, the first “master” Artist, for giving me the privilege to use my talents to educate people who were at first made in his own image and then later created their own. Without him I would fail. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... viii LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... x INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter I. OVERVIEW OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN ART PATRONAGE .................................... 19 II. TURN YOUR HAND AND MAKE FASHION: DEALERS OF AFRICAN- AMERICAN ART ............................................................................................................ 46 III. FAIR COMPARISONS? NOTIONS OF QUALITY AT BLACK ART FAIRS............. 88 IV. SWANN GALLERIES AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN ART AT AUCTION .............. 114 V. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 138 FIGURES .............................................................................................................................. 145 TABLES ............................................................................................................................... 165 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 173 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Elizabeth Catlett Print Ad, Black Art: An International Quarterly, c. 1976. ...... 145 Figure 1.2 Hale Woodruff, The Card Players, Oil on canvas, 1978. Hewitt Collection, Bank of America Collection. .................................................................. 146 Figure 2.1 Cover of Halima Taha, Collecting African American Art : Works on Paper and Canvas, New York: Crown Publishers, 1998. ............................................... 147 Figure 2.2 Cover of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery. African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks. New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 1993. Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery ............................................................................... 148 Figure 2.3 Cover of William H. Johnson : Works from the Collection of Mary Beattie Brady, Director of the Harmon Foundation, [exhibition] September 14- November 11, 1995. New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 1995. Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery ............................................................................... 149 Figure 2.4 Cover of Bill Hodges Gallery, African American Artists II, New York: Bill Hodges Gallery, 2000. ................................................................................ 150 Figure 2.5 Ad for Romare Bearden, Jammin’ at the Savoy, 1981-1982, Color etching and aquatint. Black Art: An International Quarterly 5, no 3, (1981): 64. ............................ 151 Figure 3.1 Example of Exhibitor ad, Seventh Annual National Black Fine Art Show catalogue (2003):16. Courtesy of Keeling Wainwright and Associates. .............................. 152 Figure 3.2 Cover of 10th anniversary National Black Fine Art Show catalogue, 2006. ....... 153 Figure 4.1 Jacob Lawrence, The Builders, Tempera on board, 1947 ................................... 154 Figure 4.2 Elizabeth Catlett, Nude Torso, Carved mahogany wood, 1969 .......................... 155 Figure 4.3 Cover of auction catalogue African-American Fine Art. New York: Swann Galleries, 2007. ..................................................................................................................... 156 Figure 4.4 Norman Lewis, Untitled, Oil on Canvas,