MAJOR PAINTINGS by Norman Lewis, Sam Gilliam, Charles Alston, Edward Bannister, and Romare Bearden are among the auction highlights at Bonhams in New York this week. The premium works by key figures of 19th and 20th century African American art represent the legacy of a family and a longstanding Black-owned gallery. Featured in the Post-War & Contemporary Art (Nov. 16) and American Art (Nov. 17) sales, the works are from the Estate of Sherman K. Edmiston Jr., a pioneering Harlem art dealer who died in May. Four decades ago, Edmiston and his wife, Essie Green Edmiston, went into the art business, focusing on artists they regarded as Black masters. Mrs. Edminston died in 2000. In her obituary, the New York Times described how the gallery was established. She “began showing art in her Brooklyn apartment in the 1970’s while running a full-time psychiatric social work practice. After meeting the painter Romare Bearden, she turned her attention toward art as a career. With a credit union loan she established the Park Plaza Gallery in Park Slope in 1979. This was followed by the Essie Green Galleries in Harlem in 1989.” From left, Romare Bearden, Essie Green Edmiston, and Sherman […]
The post Culture Talk: Lisa Edmiston on Auctioning Major Artworks by Norman Lewis, Sam Gilliam, and Romare Bearden From Estate of Her Father, a Black Gallery Owner in Harlem appeared first on Culture Type.