Romare Bearden Secondary Market Out Chorus

Secondary Market

Romare Bearden (1911-1988)

Out Chorus, ed. 59/60, 1979-80
Serigraph with Hand-Colored border, 22”x29 ¾” framed
Bell-Reid Collection
Price: Contact Galerie Myrtis

Romare Bearden was strongly influenced by the works of other artists, including musicians. “Out Chorus” echoes the beats of Harlem’s thriving jazz scene, and the music’s improvisational form.

Romare Bearden (1911-1988), considered one of America’s greatest artists, was a draftsman, painter, watercolorist, and most preeminently, a collagist. He received many honors during his life, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1987 from President Reagan. Born in North Carolina, and raised in Pittsburgh and New York’s Harlem, Bearden worked in various styles, including cartoon and drawing, social genre, modernism, abstract expressionism and photo-collage. Bearden was best known for the universal themes employed in his collage paintings and prints. He found his imagery in both the everyday rituals of African American rural life in the south and urban life in the north, combining those American experiences with his personal experiences and interest in classical literature, religion, and music.

Reference: Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum

Jacob Lawrence Secondary Market On The Way

Secondary Market

Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000)

On the Way, 1990
Lithograph, 40”x29 ½” framed
Bell-Reid Collection
Price: Contact Galerie Myrtis

In his late composition, On the Way, (1990), Lawrence captures African Americans as they move through the streets with his usual stylistic attention to detail and, at the same time, telling abstract forms. At first glance it is difficult to determine what is happening in this scene, as we see flat shapes and areas of vibrant color that create a brilliant overall design. Heightening the abstract quality of the composition, Lawrence subverts traditional perspective, where bold colors occupy the foreground and paler colors occupy the background. Instead, he applies saturated and vibrant colors not only in the foreground but also in the background. Bright blue and red in the figures located in the foreground are repeated in the window and brick wall in the background. Similarly, yellow objects–boards and other equipment related to the building trade–are carried by the foreground figures and are echoed in the yellow ladder in the upper right. Thus, the tonalities in the foreground and background merge to create shifting, incongruous space, emphasizing the tensions between the picture surface and implied background, and enhancing the overall energy of the scene.

While the colorful, animated design first draws the viewer into the composition, closer examination of On the Way reveals clearly defined figures and objects. Created after the height of the Civil Rights movement, Lawrence shows men and women moving quickly through the streets, on their way to their various destinations. Implicit in this activity is the notion of the African American community on its way to a better future—with the tools for building it in their hands.

Reference: The Phillips Collection

Ernest Crichlow Secondary Market

Secondary Market

Ernest Crichlow (1914-2005)

Artwork for Sale

Biography

Ernest Crichlow was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1914. He joined the Harlem Artists Guild in the 1930’s and worked alongside Jacob Lawrence, Charles Alston, and Aaron Douglas. The Artists Guild was supported by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which provided employment for many artists during the Depression.

For Crichlow, the WPA was essential to the formation of many careers of African-American artists. He said that the WPA was “the greatest stimu-lant the American art scene had ever had. it meant something to be an artist then. The WPA was our haven and offered us a real entrée into what was happening. We had a lot of hope . . . Before that, very few of us had anything resembling a real art education.” Crichlow was always a strong advocate for black artists. in 1969, he, Romare Bearden, and Nor-man Lewis jointly founded the Cinque Gallery, an institution devoted to the advancement of black artists.

Primarily a figurative painter, Crichlow concentrated on people who lived in his Brooklyn neighborhood. He stated, “i try to show all of the emotions . . . i’m interested in clarity.” in Woman in a Blue Coat, arguably his most important painting, a confident, self-assured woman is depicted. Unlike later works by the artist that deal directly with societal limitations placed on blacks, this work celebrates the depth of emotions conveyed by her countenance. This is an image contro-versial for its confident nature and its simplicity and for its disavowal of the political world beyond the frame. The slice of life quietly elevated the subject to heroic stature at a time when the everyday lives of African-American women were not typically considered worthy of representation. Reference: Understanding the Vision: Learning from the Hewitt Collection of African-American

Johnnie Lee Gray Secondary Market

Secondary Market

Johnnie Lee Gray (1941-2000)

bio |resume

Johnnie Lee Gray was born in Spartanburg County, South Carolina in 1941. In his early years Gray demonstrated artistic talent, painting and drawing as a way to express his emotions and depict his surroundings. Working alongside his grandparents in the fields of their sharecropper farm, and later as a carpenter, textile mill worker, house painter, Gray learned early on to use the materials of his milieu to create works of art that drew on his memories and experiences as a black American man. read full biography

Artwork for Sale

Malkia Roberts Secondary Market

Secondary Market

Malkia Roberts (1917-2004)

MALKIA (Swahili, “queen”) – “As a black artist and a black teacher, I have been gripped by the threads of an elemental and pervasive spirituality in the art of the so-called “Third World”. As a black woman, I feel strongly about my painting as a thread in that tapestry. I see it as an instrument of nourishment and strength for black people. Not political propaganda, not “anti-art”, but a source of positive imagery to negate subtle distorted stereotypes of the past, and to undergird our growing sense of identity, pride and direction.” Malkia Roberts, 1971 read more about Malkia Roberts

Artwork for Sale

Elizabeth Catlett Secondary Market

Secondary Market

Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012)

bio | video
 
Elizabeth Catlett is best known for her work during the 1960s and 70s, when she created politically charged, black expressionistic sculptures and prints. Catlett, a sculptor and graphic artist, was born in Washington, D.C. in 1919. She attended Howard University where she studied design, printmaking and drawing. read full biography

Artwork for Sale

Secondary Market

Secondary Art Market

The Secondary Art Market includes works of art that have been sold before and are available again for sale in the market place. Galerie Myrtis offers personalized divestment strategies to art collectors seeking to sell works through art auctions or private resale. Our expertise in the local, national and international art markets allows us to negotiate profitable sales for clients. We also offer confidential auction representation. For more information call 410-235-3711 or at sales@galeriemyrtis.com

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Artists with works available on the Secondary Art Market

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