'Painting in the Spirit' Brings Two Decades of Black Art Into New Hands

A new coffee-table book from artist Thomas Elias Lockhart III and longtime collector Taroue W. Brooks arrives with two purposes that rarely share the same binding: celebrating Black artistic legacy, and teaching Black Americans how to own a piece of it. "Painting in the Spirit: A Journey of Art and Soul," co-produced by the pair and reported by Forbes, packages 80 images spanning two decades of Lockhart's career as both a record of Black American history and an explicit primer for first-time collectors — arriving at a moment when spending on Black artists is rising sharply but ownership remains concentrated in very few hands.

Source: magnific.com

Naming a Ceiling Before the Passion Takes Over

Lockhart's advice for new collectors is disarmingly direct. Start with a print, ask an artist for a sketch to get something original at a lower entry point, or put a piece on layaway and build toward something larger. The logic underneath that counsel is straightforward — naming a spending limit before desire takes over is what keeps any new passion from running ahead of the wallet.

The editorial team at Live Sports Odds, whose vantage as observers of discretionary leisure spending informs their reading of this story, notes that this cap-first discipline is not unique to art collecting. A responsible gambling guide, for instance, codifies that same bankroll-limit and boundary-setting logic for anyone who gambles recreationally — defining a ceiling before the activity begins, and holding to it.

“You can start with a print. You can even ask artists for their sketches to get something original at a much lower price. Then you can build up — maybe put a piece on layaway, pay for it over time and move up from there.”

The principle is the same whether the category is art, sport, or any other discretionary pursuit. Decide what you can spend. Write that number down. Then engage.

How Lockhart Builds a Canvas and a Chronicle

Lockhart's process begins before a single color appears. He covers the entire canvas black first, working in reverse from most painters, then prays over each piece before proceeding. Every finished work is signed on the back with the initials TYG — short for "Thank You, God" — a spiritual marker as consistent as his brushwork.

The 80 images collected in "Painting in the Spirit" are not arranged as a simple retrospective. Sections trace the origins, struggles, and evolving identity of Black America, surfacing figures that mainstream art history has largely passed over. Black cowboys appear alongside enslaved women who served as wet nurses. The timeline moves from the era of slavery to the election of the first Black president. Lockhart frames the project as documentary as much as artistic.

"Before technology, it was the artwork that told us about society," he said. "We can also talk about where society is heading if we have a clear understanding of where we are right now."

A Surging Market Where Spending Stays Narrow

The market numbers behind the book's premise are striking and contradictory at once. Spending on Black artists grew 390 percent between 2008 and 2021, according to the Burns Halperin Report. Yet over that same period, work by Black artists represented just 1.9 percent of global auction sales.

The concentration problem is more telling still. Nearly 84 percent of all spending on Black artists between 2008 and mid-2022 was captured by only five artists, the Burns Halperin Report found. That means the surge in interest is real, but it funnels almost entirely toward a handful of already-established names, leaving the broader field undervalued and leaving most Black collectors out of the conversation entirely.

Brooks has a pointed explanation for how that gap perpetuates itself. Black artists, he argues, sell work on the street or through informal channels, resourced buyers acquire those pieces, and the value climbs over time in hands that were never the community's own. "Black artists are very talented, and they get their work sold on the streets," Brooks said. "People with resources buy it, and over time, that's when the value kicks in." The book is, in part, an attempt to interrupt that cycle before it repeats.

Three Entry Points and a Glossary

The practical architecture of "Painting in the Spirit" reflects Brooks's belief that the barrier to collecting is as much psychological as financial. The book includes a glossary of art-world terminology at the back — a quiet acknowledgment that the vocabulary of galleries and auction houses can feel designed to exclude newcomers. Making that language accessible is itself an act of invitation.

Lockhart's three-step entry strategy gives the invitation somewhere concrete to go. Prints offer a way into ownership without the outlay of an original. Sketches, often overlooked by buyers focused on finished canvases, provide a genuine original at a fraction of the cost. Layaway, a purchasing mechanism more common in retail than in galleries, allows a collector to commit to a piece and pay toward it incrementally before taking it home.

Brooks's vision for the book extends beyond any single purchase. His argument is structural: too few Black Americans are taught how to collect, preserve, and potentially build wealth through art, even as they create and sustain the culture that gives the work its value. The collaboration itself began when Brooks encountered Lockhart's work at an October art exhibit in Chicago, proposed the book on the spot, and was laughed off. Six months later, the two had produced it.

"He laughed at me," Brooks recalled.

Atlanta, Chicago, D.C., and a Martha's Vineyard Conversation Ahead

The book has already moved through several cities. Audiences in Atlanta, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. have engaged with the project and the questions it raises about ownership, legacy, and who gets to preserve Black culture in material form.

Brooks is direct about the motivation. "I hope this book is going to encourage people to become collectors," he said. "A lot of times, people don't know what they don't know."

An event on Martha's Vineyard is scheduled for August 2026, the next stop in a conversation the book is designed to extend. Lockhart's premise is that culture returns to the community the moment a work crosses a threshold and hangs on a wall inside a home. The Martha's Vineyard gathering is a close, concrete opportunity for that transfer to happen again.