New York (AFP)

Long underestimated, if not ignored, African-American painters now have all the attention of the art market, as evidenced by the great spring auctions in New York, which should see a series of records fall.

There is obviously Jean-Michel Basquiat, first black painter headlining the two main sales of Christie's and Sotheby's, respectively Tuesday and Wednesday, each with a canvas estimated at around 50 million dollars.

Also announced Robert Colescott, who should increase tenfold his current record and perhaps exceed $ 10 million, as well as Norman Lewis, Mark Bradford or Kerry James Marshall, all expected to exceed the million.

Never before have so many African-American artists been invited to what remains the flagship biannual event of the art market.

"There is a new appreciation and an increase in demand, which is reflected in the prices", and in the general visibility of these painters, in galleries and museums, explains David Galperin, responsible for prestigious evening sales at Sotheby's At New York.

"It is a correction", summarizes the African-American sculptor Sanford Biggers, whose gigantic "Oracle" statue has just been inaugurated at Rockefeller Center.

"For a long time the work (of black artists) was overlooked, when it was fantastic."

The citizens' movement born after the death of George Floyd contributed to this reassessment, but it was already widely engaged before, by the general opinion.

"The breakthrough was about five years ago," said Sherman Edmiston, president of the Essie Green gallery, which specializes in black painters, founded in 1979. "It's been a real struggle."

He attributes this breakthrough to a conjunction of factors, including the emergence of a generation of black collectors, led by influential figures.

Rapper and producer Swizz Beatz is often considered a pioneer, but P. Diddy, Jay-Z, Pharrell Williams and Kanye West are also referenced collectors today.

“Hip-hop was a cultural phenomenon and they led the way,” says Sherman Edmiston.

"They created a trend."

Added to this was the transformation of the art market, which made the logic of the investor and money triumph over that of the collector.

As the supply of traditional artists, almost all white, dried up, portfolios turned to African-American designers, at attractive prices.

"This is where black art really took off," said Sherman Edmiston.

- Overheating?

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With their growing influence in the artistic world, many of these works have included subjects that were almost absent until then.

Each in their own way, Basquiat, Jacob Lawrence or Kerry James Marshall have opened a window on the "African American Experience", the existence of blacks in the United States.

"A significant part of the art that we see today could not have existed without these artists", considers Ana Maria Celis, head of evening sales at Christie's, who notably mentions the American painter Jordan Casteel, 32, among the heirs of this movement.

If the black painters cannot be considered as a homogeneous whole, several of them "want to provoke a potentially delicate discussion" and, more broadly, "to question what art should say or how to do it", she says.

The public plebiscite this new trend of expression and, for three years, records have been linked.

The acceleration is such that prices regularly reach several times the initial estimate, a rare phenomenon for auctions of this level.

“There's a side: if he's (an artist) black, that's great,” observes Sherman Edmiston.

"If it's (an artist) black, I'll buy. But there has to be a distinction" between works and artists, he says.

For him, the market is even overheating.

“It's my impression. But maybe I don't see the future potential, that I'm missing out on something,” he said with a smile.

"It's even probable."

© 2021 AFP