artnet.com offers first-ever sales of artworks by artists of the African diaspora
NewYork/Frankfurt (ots)
Matching buyers and sellers worldwide by creating the only secondary art market for this work
February site-wide event features art auctions and information
artnet.com, the premier site on the web for art and e-commerce, has established the first-ever secondary market for artworks from the African diaspora. artnet.com again demonstrates that it is a new generation auction house modernizing the business of art. Artworks from the African diaspora are collected by an audience who is passionate about the culture, and is also quickly growing in popularity among traditional collectors. In February, artnet.com's special event Embrace Heritage will focus on this newly created secondary market.
artnet.com also launched a strategic partnership with one of the most prominent African-American sites in the United States, http://blackworldtoday.com, which will provide artnet.com access to its audience of approximately 20,000 visitors per month. This relationship will continue with future co-branded events.
Embrace Heritage, in honor of the month-long focus on African-American heritage in the United States, provides art dealers and collectors worldwide with the opportunity to bid for more than one hundred works by artists representing the African diaspora in ten different countries and spanning three decades. artnet.com auctions include artworks by these artists that are also sought-after by traditional buyers, such as Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence and Elizabeth Catlett. Some of these works are already in the collections of famous museums, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, The Tate Gallery in London and the Stedilijk Museum in Amsterdam.
In addition, Embrace Heritage provides collectors with in-depth information on the African-American art market, including articles in Artnet Magazine by the foremost expert on African-American art, Halima Taha. Embrace Heritage also includes a special exhibition of artworks from artnet.com's gallery network.
artnet.com is the leading online art marketplace matching 800 galleries, 20,000 works of art and over 6,000 artists with art buyers worldwide. artnet.com also features online auctions, an art bookstore, a daily art magazine, and the fine art auctions database which features auction 2 mllions auction price records for artworks by 185,000 artists from the last 10 years . artnet.com has experienced significant growth in web traffic from its high-end niche audience. Page requests have doubled from one million in June to 2.2 million in December 1999. Since launching online art auctions in March 1999, auction have totaled 1.9 million US dollars with 871 artworks changing hands.
Background information on the artists: Romare Bearden (1912-1988): Bearden studied at New York University, Columbia University and the Sorbonne. Inspired by daily life in the African-American community, he mainly produced collages, works marrying a stylized realism to vivid colors and contrasts.
Jacob Lawrence (1917): Even at the very beginning of his creative period back in the early 40s, museums and eminent collectors showed keen interest in his art. Described as tradition-rooted, Lawrence has always remained true to his style - a combination of abstract figures and quintessential themes.
Elizabeth Catlett: Born at the beginning of the 20th century in Washington D.C, Catlett is a BA of Howard University, where she taught after 1930. She has won several awards, including a first place for her "Mother and Child Figure" at Chicago in 1940. Her works are dynamic and powerful, their themes dedicated solely to the situation of the African-American woman.
About artnet.com Founded in 1989, artnet.com is internationally recognized as the premier Internet site for art and e-commerce worldwide. artnet.com provides a full range of information and transaction services for the art market, including online exhibits, auctions, member gallery and artist sites, magazine, bookstore and art research tools and resources. artnet.com AG is a public company traded on Germany's Neuer Markt. AOL Keyword: artnet
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VP Corporate Development Untermainkai 20 61 Broadway, 23rd Floor D-60329 Frankfurt New York, NY 10006 www.artnet.com Further information from Tel.: 001-212-497-9700 x256 Fax: 001-212-497-9707 Michael Rust Tel.: +49(0) 69-2 38 09 - 23 Fax: +49(0) 69-2 38 09 - 75
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