Nigel Freeman: Building the Auction Market for African-American Art

African American artists and artists of the African diaspora have been getting a great deal of attention from the art world for the last five years. But Nigel Freeman built the African American art market one sale at a time at Swann Auction Galleries. For 15 years, Freeman developed collectors and courted consignors. He was instrumental in igniting the market for Barkley Hendricks and helped refocus market attention on a broad group of artists like Charles White, Hale Woodruff, Sam Gilliam, Elizabeth Catlett, Hughie Lee-Smith and Kenneth Victor Young. In this podcast, Freeman talks about how this market developed out of the spotlight and what has happened since these artists have gotten the recognition they deserve.