Thelma Johnson Streat Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Thelma Johnson Streat Art Value Price Guide

Sep. 14, 2024
Thelma Johnson Streat, 1912-1959, Black Kings
Est: $3,000 - $5,000
Thelma Johnson Streat 1912-1959 Black Kings 1935 tempera on board 13 x 10-1/2 inches signed; titled verso This is one of Streat's most iconic images. She did at least a few versions of this image and a screen print. She was frequently asked to complete a similar painting as one she had already sold. There are minor differences with each, and also the titles sometimes differ slightly: we have seen versions of this image titled, Two Kings, African Kings, and Black Kings. https://blackartauction.squarespace.com/thelma-j-streat
Black Art Auction
Sep. 14, 2024
Thelma Johnson Streat, 1911-1959, Woman
Est: $1,500 - $2,500
Thelma Johnson Streat 1911-1959 Woman c. 1950 color screenprint on paper 14 x 11 inches (image) 19-1/2 x 13 inches (sheet) signed and titled in image; signed in pencil in margin REF: for more information about the artist's work, see our book, Thelma Johnson Streat, Faith in an Ultimate Freedom, http://blackartauction.squarespace.com/thelma-j-streat
Black Art Auction
May. 18, 2024
Thelma Johnson Streat, 1911-1959, untitled
Est: $6,000 - $8,000
Thelma Johnson Streat 1911-1959 untitled c. 1945 oil on board 24 x 17 inches signed Provenance: private collection, Northern California
Black Art Auction
Nov. 19, 2022
Thelma Johnson Streat, 1912-1959, Baby on Bird
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
Thelma Johnson Streat 1912-1959 Baby on Bird c. 1943 oil on board 20 x 28 inches signed Illustrated: Thelma Johnson Streat: Faith in an Ultimate Freedom, Thom Pegg, p. 65. http://blackartauction.squarespace.com/publications#/thelma-johnson-streat-faith-in-an-ultimate-freedom/ The Haida totemic symbol of the eagle represents power, grace, and intellectual ability. The three winged creatures in the sky might be seen as angels (Christian) or as owls (Native American). In either case, they would represent the wisdom and guidance of the dead. The emergence of a new life--rebirth--in a modern world, but utilizing the knowledge and heritage of the past seems to be the theme of this work. Streat uses "form lines", the distinctive design element seen in the art of the Northwest Coast people. Bill Holm, in his book, Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form describes them as "continuous, flowing, curvilinear lines that turn, swell and diminish in a prescribed manner. They are used for figure outlines, internal design elements and in abstract compositions."
Black Art Auction
Jun. 04, 2022
Thelma Johnson Streat, 1912-1959, untitled, Workplace Discrimination
Est: $2,500 - $3,500
Thelma Johnson Streat 1912-1959 untitled, Workplace Discrimination c. 1941 gouache and acrylic on board 15-3/4 x 11-1/2 inches signed. This work relates to a series the artist executed related to Executive Order 8802, prohibiting racial discrimination in the military industry.
Black Art Auction
Jul. 17, 2021
Thelma Johnson Streat, 1912-1959, Black Kings
Est: $5,000 - $7,000
Thelma Johnson Streat 1912-1959 Black Kings 1935 oil on panel 14 x 10.5 inches signed and dated
Black Art Auction
Jul. 17, 2021
Thelma Johnson Streat, 1912-1959, Girl With Flower
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
Thelma Johnson Streat 1912-1959 Girl With Flower c. 1950 oil on board 20 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches signed
Black Art Auction
Jun. 09, 2021
Thelma Beatrice Johnson Streat American, 1912-1959 A Line of Trees
Est: $1,500 - $2,500
Thelma Beatrice Johnson Streat American, 1912-1959 A Line of Trees Signed Streat. (lr) Oil on paper 7 1/8 x 18 1/2 inches (18 x 47 cm) C
DOYLE Auctioneers & Appraisers
Nov. 24, 2019
Thelma Johnson Streat Girl With Flower
Est: $6,000 - $8,000
Thelma Johnson Streat (1912-1959) Girl With Flower, c. 1950 oil on board signed 20-1/2 x 13-1/2 inches framed Thelma Johnson Streat was a multi-talented painter and dancer who focused her career on promoting ideas of multi-culturalism and raising the social awareness of inequalities among the lines of gender and race. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Streat worked with the WPA executing murals in San Francisco. She worked closely with Diego Rivera on the Art in Action mural in 1940. She continued to use the genre of murals to address social inequality toward African Americans in the early 1940s, after she arrived in Chicago. By the mid-1940s, her style became increasingly abstract, taking on a neo-primitivist feel, appropriating symbolism from many diverse cultures in an effort to communicate more universally. This turn in style has caused her work to be associated (in retrospect) with the Abstract Expressionists of the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1946, Streat added another dimension to her work: dance. Her multi-dimensional performances and exhibits were the first of their kind, with Streat performing modern dance movements in front of paintings she had done that were thematically associated.
Treadway Gallery
Oct. 08, 2019
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Totem Pole Figure.
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Totem Pole Figure. Color screenprint, circa 1945-50. 359x279 mm; 14 1/8x11 inches, full margins. A very good impression of this scarce print.
Swann Auction Galleries
Oct. 08, 2019
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Black Kings.
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Black Kings. Color screenprint, circa 1945-50. 342x270 mm; 13 1/2x10 1/2 inches, full margins. Signed in ink, lower right. A very good impression of this scarce print.
Swann Auction Galleries
Apr. 04, 2019
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Black Kings.
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Black Kings. Color screenprint, circa 1945-50. 342x270 mm; 13 1/2x10 1/2 inches, full margins. A very good impression of this scarce print.
Swann Auction Galleries
Apr. 04, 2019
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Totem Pole Figure.
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Totem Pole Figure. Color screenprint, circa 1945-50. 359x279 mm; 14 1/8x11 inches, full margins. Signed and inscribed "Children's City, Hawaii" in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this scarce print. After marrying her manager Edgar Kline and moving to Hawaii in 1952, Streat established Children's City, an arts center designed to introduce children to art and to the value of cultural diversity.
Swann Auction Galleries
Oct. 04, 2018
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Black Kings.
Est: $3,000 - $5,000
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Black Kings. Color screenprint, circa 1945-50. 342x270 mm; 13 1/2x10 1/2 inches, full margins. Artist's proof, aside from an unknown edition. A very good impression of this scarce print.
Swann Auction Galleries
Oct. 04, 2018
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Woman.
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Woman. Color screenprint, circa 1945-50. 356x279 mm; 14x11 inches, full margins. Artist's proof, aside from an unknown edition. A very good impression of this scarce print.
Swann Auction Galleries
Apr. 05, 2018
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) The Meatpacking District (Study for The Negro in Professional Life).
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) The Meatpacking District (Study for The Negro in Professional Life). Ink, crayon and watercolor on assembled wove papers, 1944-45. 381x445 mm; 15x17 1/2 inches. Provenance: the estate of the artist, Oregon. Thelma Johnson Streat developed a number of studies and maquettes that were submitted designs for mural projects after she left San Francisco. The artist's estate also includes the large drawing or mural cartoon The Negro in Professional Life that was entered to a juried contest at the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago in 1944. Newspapers described a series of 12 more murals. According to Judy Bullington, Streat's work tied for first place. A 1945 article in The Oregonian newspaper sheds more light on this educational series and describes what Streat was planning: "Her plan is simple. Through the medium of murals painted with a simplicity which will have appeal to all children, regardless of race or creed, exactly what her people contribute to industry." Bullington pp. 97-99.
Swann Auction Galleries
Apr. 05, 2018
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Untitled (Abstract Chapel Flower).
Est: $1,500 - $2,500
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Untitled (Abstract Chapel Flower). Gouache and pencil on cream wove paper, circa 1941-42. 305x178 mm; 12x7 inches. Signed in pencil, lower margin. Provenance: the estate of the artist, Oregon. In 1942, Thelma Johnson Streat's similar small gouache Rabbit Man, 1941, was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art - their first acquisition of a work by an African-American woman.
Swann Auction Galleries
Nov. 10, 2017
Thelma Johnson Streat, (American, 1912-1959), Totem Pole Figure, screenprint, 13 1/2" x 10 1/2" (image), 17 1/2" x 13 1/2" (sheet)
Est: $300 - $500
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959) Totem Pole Figure screenprint 13 1/2" x 10 1/2" (image), 17 1/2" x 13 1/2" (sheet)
Ripley Auctions
Nov. 10, 2017
Thelma Johnson Streat, (American, 1912-1959), Totem Pole Figure, screenprint, 13 1/2" x 10 1/2" (image), 17 1/2" x 13 1/2" (sheet)
Est: $300 - $500
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959) Totem Pole Figure screenprint 13 1/2" x 10 1/2" (image), 17 1/2" x 13 1/2" (sheet)
Ripley Auctions
Nov. 10, 2017
Thelma Johnson Streat, (American, 1912-1959), Black Kings, screenprint, 13 1/2" x 10 1/2" (image), 17 1/2" x 13 1/2" (sheet)
Est: $300 - $500
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959) Black Kings screenprint 13 1/2" x 10 1/2" (image), 17 1/2" x 13 1/2" (sheet)
Ripley Auctions
Sep. 29, 2017
Thelma Johnson Streat, (American, 1912-1959), Totem Pole Figure, screenprint, 13 1/2" x 10 1/2" (image), 17 1/2" x 13 1/2" (sheet)
Est: $300 - $500
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959) Totem Pole Figure screenprint 13 1/2" x 10 1/2" (image), 17 1/2" x 13 1/2" (sheet)
Ripley Auctions
Sep. 29, 2017
Thelma Johnson Streat, (American, 1912-1959), Woman, screenprint, 13 1/2" x 10 1/2" (image), 17 1/2" x 13 1/2" (sheet)
Est: $300 - $500
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959) Woman screenprint 13 1/2" x 10 1/2" (image), 17 1/2" x 13 1/2" (sheet)
Ripley Auctions
Sep. 29, 2017
Thelma Johnson Streat, (American, 1912-1959), Black Kings, screenprint, 13 1/2" x 10 1/2" (image), 17 1/2" x 13 1/2" (sheet)
Est: $300 - $500
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959) Black Kings screenprint 13 1/2" x 10 1/2" (image), 17 1/2" x 13 1/2" (sheet)
Ripley Auctions
Oct. 06, 2016
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) The Negro In Professional Life (Mural Study Featuring Women In The Workplace).
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) The Negro In Professional Life (Mural Study Featuring Women In The Workplace). Ink, crayon and watercolor on cardstock, 1945. 254x508 mm: 10x20 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right. Provenance: private collection, Oregon. Thelma Johnson Streat developed a number of studies and maquettes that were submitted designs for mural projects after she left San Francisco. The artist's estate also includes the large drawing or mural cartoon The Negro in Professional Life that was entered to a juried contest at the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago in 1944. Newspapers described a series of 12 more murals. According to Judy Bullington, Streat's work tied for first place. A 1945 article in The Oregonian newspaper sheds more light on this educational series and describes what Streat was planning: "Her plan is simple. Through the medium of murals painted with a simplicity which will have appeal to all children, regardless of race or creed, exactly what her people contribute to industry." In addition to a Chicago and New York mural, the article describes a Portland group "showing the Negro woman in Industry." Bullington pp. 97-99.
Swann Auction Galleries
Apr. 07, 2016
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Snake Dance.
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Snake Dance. Oil on board, circa 1948-50. 305x184 mm; 12x7 1/4 inches. Titled in pencil, verso. Provenance: the estate of the artist, Oregon.
Swann Auction Galleries
Dec. 05, 2015
Thelma Johnson Streat, (American, 1912-1959), Executive Order #8802 (Study), c. 1941, oil on board, 21" x 27.5"
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959) Executive Order #8802 (Study), c. 1941 oil on board signed 21" x 27.5"
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
Dec. 05, 2015
Thelma Johnson Streat, (American, 1912-1959), Kings, 1941, oil on board, 13" x 10"
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959) Kings, 1941 oil on board 13" x 10"
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
Jun. 06, 2015
Thelma Johnson Streat, (American, 1912-1959), Seated Woman, c. 1950, oil/masonite, 30" x 30"
Est: $5,000 - $7,000
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959) Seated Woman, c. 1950 oil/masonite signed 30" x 30"
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
Jun. 10, 2014
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Confirmation.
Est: $5,000 - $7,000
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Confirmation. Gouache on illustration board, circa 1942-43. 495x394 mm; 19 1/2x15 1/2 inches Provenance: The G Place Gallery, Washington, DC; private collection; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, CO. Exhibited: New Names in American Art, The G Place Gallery, Washington, DC, with the gallery label on the frame verso; The Renaissance Society, The University of Chicago, October 7 – October 31, 1944. The G Place Gallery at 916 G Place, NW, open from 1942 -1947, was run by Caresse Crosby who attempted to show more modern works by both European and American artists, including African-American artists like Streat, in Washington, DC. Crosby organized this traveling exhibiton of African-American art with works by over 35 artists including Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Selma Burke, Elizabeth Catlett, Eldzier Cortor, Sargent Johnson,William H. Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, Horace Pippin, Charles White and Hale Woodruff. Confirmation is an extraordinary example of a modernist painting by Thelma Johnson Streat, and a fascinating representation of African-American womanhood. Another gouache of hers, Rabbit Man, 1941, was the first painting by an African-American woman to be exhibited and purchased by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1942. Confirmation conveys Streat's focus on the many abstract forms found in Native American, Asian and African art - a modernist interest she had in common with the Bay Area sculptor Sargent Johnson. Indeed, there are strong stylisitc similiarities between this figure and Johnson's sculptures Forever Free, 1933 and Negro Woman, circa 1935, both in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Born on August 29, 1912, in Yakima, Washington, Streat began painting at the age of seven and received art training at the Portland Museum Art School in the mid-1930s. Streat moved to San Francisco in 1938 and began working in Works Progress Administration art programs. She participated in exhibitions at the De Young Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and others. She also painted murals that attracted attention for their intense content, such as her 1943 Death of a Black Sailor, which drew threats from the Ku Klux Klan. Her work is found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Mills College, Oakland, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the Honolulu Academy of the Arts; a one-person retrospective of her work was exhibited at the Portland Art Museum in 2003.
Swann Auction Galleries
Jun. 01, 2014
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959), Black Kings
Est: $8,000 - $10,000
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959), "Black Kings", c. 1945; oil/paperboard, 13" x 10", signed. A similar example by the artist is pictured in "Thelma Johnson Streat and Cultural Synthesis on the West Coast" by Judy Bullington.
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
Jun. 01, 2014
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959) Robot
Est: $6,000 - $8,000
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959) "Robot", c.1943; gouache/paper, 12.5" x 9", signed and titled. Exhibited: Art Institute of Chicago 1943
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
Jun. 01, 2014
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959) Portrait of Marian Anderson
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959) "Portrait of Marian Anderson", c. 1938; ink and graphite/paper, 7.5" x 9.5", signed and titled.
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
Jun. 01, 2014
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959), Hawaiian Girl in Yellow
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
Thelma Johnson Streat (American, 1912-1959), "Hawaiian Girl in Yellow", c. 1950; oil/paper, 22.50" x 17.50", signed.
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
Nov. 17, 2013
Thelma Johnson Streat
Est: $1,200 - $1,500
Thelma Johnson Streat (African American, 1911-1959), Abstract Composition, Screenprint. Size: 13" x 18.5".
Material Culture
Oct. 03, 2013
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Totem Pole Figure.
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Totem Pole Figure. Color screenprint, circa 1945-50. 359x279 mm; 14 1/8x11 inches, full margins. Signed and titled in the plate, lower left. Provenance: estate of the artist, WA.
Swann Auction Galleries
Oct. 18, 2012
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Meatpacking House.
Est: $35,000 - $50,000
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Meatpacking House. Watercolor on paper, circa 1944-45. 787x1663 mm; 31x65 1/2 inches. Provenance: estate of the artist; thence by descent to the current owner. This striking mural study is an extraodinarily large paper maquette that has survived from the artist's post-WPA period. Streat was one of the few artists to paint directly with Diego Rivera on his Pan-American Unity mural at the 1940 Golden Gate Exposition. The state supervisor of the WPA project, Beatrice Judd Ryann, described them at work on the mural: "Rivera stands high up on the scaffold, his awkward bulk emphasized by the color girl, Thelma Streat, beside him, tall and slim in her blue jeans." The artist developed a number of studies and maquettes that were submitted designs for mural projects after she left San Francisco. The artist's estate also includes the large drawing or mural cartoon The Negro in Professional Life that was entered to a juried contest at the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago in 1944. Newspapers described a series of 12 more murals. According to Judy Bullington, Streat's work tied for first place. A 1945 article in The Oregonian newspaper sheds more light on this educational series and describes what Streat was planning: "Her plan is simple. Through the medium of murals painted with a simplicity which will have appeal to all children, regardless of race or creed, exactly what her people contribute to industry." In addition to a Chicago and New York mural, the article describes a Portland group "showing the Negro woman in Industry." This study was also featured in the August 24, 2009 "WPA Mural Studies" episode of the PBS television show History Detectives (Season 7, Episode 9). Bullington pp. 97-99.
Swann Auction Galleries
Feb. 16, 2012
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Medicine and Transportation.
Est: $3,000 - $5,000
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Medicine and Transportation. Tempera and oil on board, circa 1940-44. 400x400 mm; 15 1/2x15 1/2 inches. Provenance: acquired directly from the artist; thence by descent to the current owner. Exhibited: Portland Museum of Art, Portland, OR, 2003; Arthop Art on Alberta, 2009. This striking mural study is an extroadinary maquette, likely from the artist's post-WPA period. Streat was one of the few artists to paint directly with Diego Rivera on his Pan-American Unity mural at the 1940 Golden Gate Exposition. The state supervisor of the WPA project, Beatrice Judd Ryann, described them at work on the mural: "Rivera stands high up on the scaffold, his awkward bulk emphasized by the color girl, Thelma Streat, beside him, tall and slim in her blue jeans." The artist devleoped a number of studies and maquettes that were submitted designs for mural projects after she left San Francisco. The artist's estate also includes the large drawing or mural cartoon The Negro in Professional Life that was entered to a juried contest at the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago in 1944. Newspapers described a series of 12 more murals. According to Judy Bullington, Streat's work tied for first place. A 1945 article in The Oregonian newspaper sheds more light on this educational series and describes what Streat was planning: "Her plan is simple. Through the medium of murals painted with a simplicity which will have appeal to all children, regardless of race or creed, exactly what her people contribute to industry." In addition to a Chicago and New York mural, the article describes a Portland group "showing the Negro woman in Industry." This study was also featured in the August 24, 2009 "WPA Mural Studies" episode of the PBS television show History Detectives (Season 7, Episode 9). Bullington pp. 97-99.
Swann Auction Galleries
Feb. 23, 2010
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Mask.
Est: $6,000 - $9,000
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959) Mask. Gouache, crayon and pencil on thin cardstock, circa 1945. 305x305 mm; 12x12 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right. Provenance: private New York collection. This is the first known painting and only the second work of art by this artist to come to auction. Swann Galleries sold her color screenprint, Black Kings, at auction on February 17, 2009. Thelma Johnson Streat was a multi-talented artist who focused on ethnic themes in her work. Born on August 29, 1912 in Yakima, WA, Streat began painting at the age of seven and received art training at the Portland Museum Art School in the mid-1930s. Streat moved to San Francisco in 1938 and began working in Works Progress Administration art programs. She participated in exhibitions at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and others. Her gouache, Rabbit Man, 1941, was the first painting by an African-American woman to be exhibited and purchased by the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1942. She also painted murals that attracted attention for their intense content, such as her 1943 Death of a Black Sailor, which drew threats from the Ku Klux Klan. Her work is found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the Honolulu Academy of the Arts. The Portland Art Museum gave a retrospective of her work in 2003.
Swann Auction Galleries