About Us
BLACK ART AUCTION held its inaugural auction on May 16, 2020 during a global pandemic and began its journey with bidder #1. We are fast-approaching the close of our 6th year. We have held live auctions, timed auctions, single collection auctions, auctions including multiple lot estates, and even single lot auctions. Our bidding audience has grown to thousands since bidder #1. We count numerous museums, both here in the States and internationally as clients. That is so important—but we did not accomplish that on our own. If you all did not participate, we never would have had the opportunity to make that happen.
Black Art Auction is solely dedicated to the sale of art by African Americans. Our goal is to increase awareness of the lives and work of these artists who have contributed historically, but in many cases, have been overlooked in the general art market.
Black Art Auction has already established numerous price records for artists’ work, surpassing a million dollars for a single painting. We are also proud to offer works by historically significant Black artists that are affordable—in the hundreds of dollars.
In addition to the auction house, Black Art Auction offers a private sales division. The private sales division offers individual works by many artists as well as selections from estates of artists represented by BAA. New offerings in the private sales division will appear from time to time on the homepage of the website, but if you are looking for a work by a specific artist, please send us an email and we can let you know if we have anything currently or if something is on the horizon.
Black Art Auction regularly produces scholarly essays and publications on individual works and on the work of particular artists. These are all available for free on our website. Some of these are available in a print version. We have enlisted internationally recognized scholars to contribute essays about single works or artists. Barthe scholar, the late Dr. Margaret Vendryes, wrote a fantastic single work monograph on the rare image of Josephine Baker, including her ponytail. Dr. Theresa Leininger-Miller, author of New Negro Artists in Paris: African American Painters and Sculptors in the City of Light, 1922-1934 wrote an essay on the work of Albert Alexander Smith. Susan Stedman (Majors), who recently guest curated the Origins of Creating Community: Cinque Gallery Artists, for the Art Students League of New York, wrote an essay on the work of William Majors.
Recently, we presented a short documentary film about the collection of James Parker, featuring interviews with Halima Taha, Richard Powell, and Earl Hooks, Jr. We regularly feature insightful essays by scholar and curator, Chenoa Baker.
All of us at Black Art Auction are very appreciative of the interest and enthusiasm from all the buyers, sellers, scholars, and fans of the great works we have had the opportunity to learn about and represent. We look forward to sharing with you the exciting opportunities each new year presents.