The White-Glove Sale of the Johnson Publishing Company’s Art Collection Shatters Expectations, With 85 Percent of Lots Setting New Records

A collection of artwork that once adorned the offices of the
legendary Johnson Publishing Company shattered records left and
right yesterday at Swann Galleries. The sale marked a
concluding chapter in the turbulent history of a much-admired
institution that changed the landscape of American magazines with
the publication of Ebony
and Jet before declaring bankruptcy last
year.

Still, the power of the Johnson name—as well as a growing
interest in African American artists who have often been pushed to
the art-historical and art-market margins—combined to create what
was, in the words of the auction house’s director of African
American fine art Nigel Freeman, “a perfect storm of an auction.”
The white-glove sale—100 percent of the 87 lots found buyers—racked
up $2.7 million, more than doubling the expected high estimate.

A staggering 51 of the 85 lots in the sale set new auction
records for the artists, including Carrie Mae Weems, Richard
Mayhew, and Loïs Mailou Jones. An additional 22 lots marked
artists’ auction debuts. Freeman noted that while the estimates may
appear conservative after the fact, so many of the artists featured
in the sale had few, if any, public auction histories—which is not
unusual in the highly skewed art market, where artists of color, and black artists
in particular, have been systemically overlooked or undervalued for
decades.

“The biggest factor was the excitement regarding the Johnson
Publishing Co. provenance and the quality of the collection,”
Freeman told Artnet News. “It made all the difference.”

And indeed, the works, created by 75 artists over the
course of the publishing company’s history, reflect the lived
experiences of African American people in the United States and
abroad. Many of the works had not been seen by the public in more
than 70 years until they were displayed at Swann ahead of the sale.
The collection—which comprises sculptures, paintings, and
drawings—was previously housed in Johnson’s downtown Chicago
offices, which opened at 820 S. Michigan Avenue in 1971.

The sale, which unfolded over the course of three and a half
hours, was characterized by dramatic shattering of pre-sale
estimates and records that served as a stark reminder of how much
the market has yet to catch up in its recognition of artists who
have proven hugely influential to American art history. The highly
coveted first lot was Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Moonrise by Kasbah
(Morocco) (1912) which sold for $365,000, the second highest
price for his work at auction and considerably over its $250,000
high estimate. Ossawa Tanner created the turquoise canvas during a
trip to Tangiers and other Moroccan cities.

The sale also ended with a bang, as Carrie Mae Weems’s
photographic series Untitled (1996), consisting
of seven chromogenic prints with overlaid sandblasted text, sold
for $305,000, more than double its $150,000 high estimate and an
auction record the MacArthur Foundation grant-winning artist.

According to Freeman, the most sought-after lot was Barbara
Johnson Zuber’s Jump Rope (ca. 1970), which sold for
$87,500 against a high estimate of $1,500. Zuber, who died in 2019,
was the first African American woman to graduate with a BA from
Yale University.

Meanwhile, a portrait of boxing legend Jack Johnson by Robin
Harper (who now goes by the name Kwasi Seitu Asantu) also knocked
out expectations: the work sold $185,000, 35 times its high
estimate. The image ran on the cover of Ebony
magazine in March 1978 for an issue dedicated to heavyweight
champions.

Other highlights of the sale included Loïs Mailou
Jones’s Bazar Du Quai, Port Au Prince,
Haiti (1961), which sold for $75,000, a record for the
artist at auction; Richard Mayhew’s Departure
(2006), which fetched $233,000, three times its high estimate;
and Elizabeth Catlett’s cast bronze
sculpture Sister (1973), which sold for
$175,000.

Some may decry the fact that the entire collection will not end
up in a museum (although some institutions were likely among the
bidders for individuals objects). But at least part of Johnson’s
legacy will be preserved for the public. Last summer, four
foundations teamed up to buy the
company’s historic archive for $30 million. They donated it to the
National Museum of African American History of Culture in
Washington, DC; the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles; and
other cultural institutions.

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Company’s Art Collection Shatters Expectations, With 85 Percent of
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