This analysis of Swann Galleries's African American art sales in New York is available to AMMpro subscribers. Subscriptions begin with a free month for the curious.
Swann Galleries has developed the African American art market with a singular focus for a decade. Their sales have helped define the category for collectors, locate works and provide a measure of demand. Over the decade, sales totals have almost quadrupled. The following charts break that growth into finer detail.
Much of the market interest comes from the rising value of particular artists who drive the category. This season, Norman Lewis's Block Island led the sale with a $389k price, far from his most valuable price at auction which is $965k which was achieved in the Fall of 2015.
Swann's sales have developed the market for artists like Barkley Hendricks where other houses have gone on to tap broader pools of collectors to push the prices even higher.
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