(Sunday, December 5, 2004)

It was with great interest that I read the Miami Herald article entitled Dealers Try to Highlight Works by Black Artists. I am an African American lawyer whose passion for the visual arts gave rise first to collecting, then representing black and white brokers of African and African American art and, ultimately, to becoming a full time art dealer for some of the finest artists from around the world, most of whom happen to be black.

The absence of works by black artists at the 2004 Art Basel Miami in South Beach was indeed quite conspicuous. The explanations offered by many of the dealers in your article failed to explain this phenomenon adequately. For example, Bernice Steinbaum suggests that the absence of black artists is the result of their failure to build sufficient track records of exhibitions and sales, so they remain below the radar of art critics, dealers and collectors. I agree that a large percentage of black artists do not have documented track records, but what about the hundreds who do? Therefore, I believe that we need to ask a more fundamental question: Why doesn’t the radar pick up the talented black artists?

Marcus Mascher (Berlin Gallery owner) offers the explanation that blacks are not visible in the international art world because western European culture dominates. But this does not adequately explain the absence of black artists either. Europeans have long embraced the creative ingenuity of black artists of all types, and there is ample evidence that once their art is displayed in America, or abroad, the work of black artists is generally well received. For example, Romare Bearden's art is currently the subject of a solo traveling exhibition orchestrated by the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and is at both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney in New York City. The responses have been overwhelmingly favorable. Thornton Dial is another highly acclaimed artist whose works have appeared at major institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum, the Smithsonian and the 2000 Whitney Biennial. He will have a major exhibition next year at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Clearly, these are world class museums that recognize the excellence of these and other fine African American artists. Despite this, neither one was represented by the galleries selected for participation at Art Basel Miami. Similarly, how can there be any justification for not having works by other luminaries and exciting artists who have also been receiving critical acclaim such as Jacob Lawrence, Sam Middleton (Netherlands), Sam Gilliam, or Arlington Weithers (Guyana/NY). Weithers' work has been acquired by the Brooklyn Museum and was recently the subject of favorable comment in the New York Times. And, there are many, many others.

I saw wonderful works by Jean-Michel Basquiat which ranged from $750,000 to $1,300,000. What separates Basquiat work from that of other elite black artists is not, in my opinion, the quality of the work. I believe his association with Andy Warhol and others in New York City facilitated his backing of the established white art dealers. Artwork by many of the black artists whose works I promote meet the criteria of the art displayed at Art Basel Miami, including track records of sales and exhibitions. Moreover, if displayed at Art Basel, the art would likely be an immense hit with the collectors and critics. There appears to be two primary reasons that more black artists aren’t at international shows such as Art Basel: (1) few black artists are represented by the "top" galleries, and (2) few black dealers and galleries have been able to break into the historically European dominated art world so they can be considered to be among the "top" galleries.

I believe we need to come up with ways of addressing both problems. While the occasional black artist such as Basquiat has been able to gain representation by largely white galleries, I believe that until black art dealers and galleries are granted entry to the exclusive clubs of dealers and galleries that populate the top international shows such as Miami Art Basel, much of the work by accomplished black artists will continue to be overlooked. Of the nearly 200 galleries and dealers selected for the 2004 Miami Art Basel . . . none were black.

Miami Beach Art Basel director Samuel Keller did not grow up in a family environment with a deep appreciation for art and presumably did not have immediate access to the art world elite. His passion for the richness of visual creativity combined with life forces and hard work has enabled him to reach the highest levels of the international art community. I trust that his understanding of the importance of this access to full participation and recognition will be applied to opening the door a bit wider for galleries and dealers who could bring more than a nominal sampling of talented and critically recognized black artists to the international community of art critics, dealers and collectors.

Jerry Thomas, Jr., Esq.