Auction Highlights: African American Art

Hughie Lee-Smith, *Ball Player,* oil on canvas, 1970. Estimate $150,000 to $250,000

Our sale begins with a wonderful group of artworks from the Harlem Renaissance that epitomize the period: a scarce woodcut by Aaron Douglas and a plaster bust by Augusta Savage. Post-war painting is represented by significant abstraction by Norman Lewis and Sam Gilliam, along with a significant, mid-career oil painting by the great Hughie Lee-Smith—his Ball Player, 1970, a powerful painting, epitomizes the artist’s evocative depictions of African American youth in desolate urban settings. Ball Player has been widely exhibited and was in the personal collection of the artist before being acquired by the current owners. Contemporary highlights include a large Kermit Oliver painting, a pair of early Simone Leigh terra cotta vessels and Howardena Pindell’s punched paper assemblage.

The auction will close with a special evening session, Art For Life, featuring contemporary art to be sold to benefit the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation. Donated works by such artists as Derrick Adams, Hank Willis Thomas and Carrie Mae Weems are expected.

Harlem Renaissance

^{(left) Augusta Savage, Head Of A Young Black Man, painted plaster, with a painted plaster base, circa 1931-35. Estimate $35,000 to $50,000; (right) Aaron Douglas, O, Lord!, woodcut on tissue-thin Japan paper, circa 1926. Estimate $15,000 to $25,000}

Post-War

Norman Lewis, *Tenement*, oil on masonite board, 1947. Estimate $120,000 to $180,000

Sam Gilliam, *Untitled*, acrylic, dye pigments, & bronze and aluminum powder on cotton canvas, 1967. Estimate $80,000 to $120,000

We are also excited to bring to auction—for the first time since 2008—a complete set of Jacob Lawrence’s masterwork in printmaking, The Legend of John Brown. With this 1977 portfolio, Lawrence translated his series of John Brown paintings into 22 stunning color screenprints.