Julie Mehretu, ‘Dissident Score’, (2019-21) Courtesy the Artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, © Julie Mehertu.

Last month, contemporary visual Artist Julie Mehretu donated one of her works for an online auction hosted by Artsy with proceeds going to the Art for Justice Fund, an initiative founded in 2017 by philanthropist and art patron, Agnes Gund. The Art for Justice Fund aims to disrupt mass incarceration while funding artists, art initiatives and activists highlighting inequality and promoting justice. Mehretu’s painting, Dissident Score (a new work created specifically for the online auction) was estimated to raise between three to four million but ending up beating that projection, selling for $6.5 million. This sale sets a new auction record for the Ethiopian-American artist.

Artsy’s significant sale comes after a recent stream of works by Black contemporary artists, shattering records at auction. Artists like Nina Chanel Abney, Jordan Casteel, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Mickalene Thomas and Rashid Johnson reached record highs at Christie’s inaugural 21st Century Evening Sale last month. In that same auction, a Basquiat painting titled In This Case garnered a whopping $93.1 million becoming the second-most expensive Basquiat work ever to appear at auction.

Artsy is a leading online art marketplace that in part, makes the art world more accessible. They act as a liaison between the buyer and the gallery. In this single lot sale, Artsy has solidified itself amongst its traditional auction house peers as a leading voice in art dealing. In a tweet from Artsy CMO,Everette Taylor, he pointed out how major of a moment this was for both Mehretu as well as the digital art platform itself.

Over past 20 years, Julie Mehretu has been taking the art world by storm with her large-scale, gestural paintings,  drawings of re-imagined atmospheres, architectural renderings and aerial views of urban grids. She’s been leading the charge for more representation in regards to the presence and impact of Black Abstractionists. Her work often explores themes around space, time and exploring historical periods in art by building up layers of acrylic paint on canvas overlaid with pencil, pen, ink marks and thoughtfully considered thick strokes of paint.

Artist Julie Mehretu -auction
Julie Mehretu. Photo By Liz Hafalia/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images.

“Mass incarceration, solitary confinement, youth imprisonment, and putting kids in prison for life without parole are sins of our society, slavery in another form,” Mehretu said in conversation with Ford Foundation President Darren Walker. “It is way past time for a collective reimagining of crime and punishment as we know it.” With her donation of Dissident Score, Mehretu joins contemporaries Mark Bradford, Nick Cave, Stanley Whitney, Titus Kaphar and Jeff Koons, who have all supported Art for Justice prior. As of now, the fund has dispersed over $92 million towards putting an end to mass incarceration — which disproportionately affects Black and Brown communities — and funding artist leading the conversation on issues such a social justice and prison reform.

To learn more about Mehretu and her art practice, you can purchase her 2019 retrospective monograph book here.

To stay up to date on the happenings in the art world and learn more about the art marketplace, visit Artsy.To learn more about the Art for Justice Fund and their mission, visit their website.

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