Value, Access, and the Role of Black Art Collectors during the Financialization of the Visual Arts in New York City, 1975–1991.

This article investigates the centrality of Black art collectors in the dissemination of Black art and culture as the art world became less accessible to Black artists, ironically, during the 1980s art boom. The essay chronicles the controversy over a proposed move of the Studio Museum in Harlem to Museum Mile on the predominantly White Upper East Side, investigates the importance of cultivating a Black art-buying constituency, and assesses the quest of Black visual artist Romare Bearden and his allies for mainstream recognition at the cost of a Black arts institution. This article draws on newspaper articles, personal correspondence, and organizational records to examine the politics of Black middle-class patronage networks and their impact on Black artists and art institutions as the art world became financialized in the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]