Joseph Yoakum Drawing, ca. 1965
GUEST: I inherited this from my mother about ten years ago. I know very little about the artist Joe Yoakum. And what I learned, I learned this morning by going online.
APPRAISER: (chuckling) Okay.
GUEST: She would have bought this in either New York or Washington, D.C., probably around 1982.
APPRAISER: Well, you're right, this piece is by Joseph Yoakum, and he was born in 1891 in Missouri. He was of African American descent, and of some possible Native American descent. And he, at an early age, ran away from home and joined the circus. And then we know very little about him. He ended up on Chicago's South Side having a storefront where he lived and created art.
GUEST: Huh. Huh.
APPRAISER: All of his body of work have this clear pattern of this wonderful flowing; no hard lines, no hard shapes. Almost an abstract expressionist thoughts of landscapes.
GUEST: Hm.
APPRAISER: And the medium is ink and colored pencil on paper. He was most prolific in the 1960s. He passed away in 1972.
GUEST: Huh.
APPRAISER: But during the '60s, they said he was creating one artwork each day.
GUEST: Wow. Hm.
APPRAISER: Yeah. So we're going to say that because his prolific period was primarily between 1965 and 1970, we're going to date it in that time frame. And there is a label on the back of this. And the label is from the Corcoran Gallery.
GUEST: Right. Sure.
APPRAISER: They were a very progressive gallery in Washington, D.C. And this was in a show that they did in the early '80s.
GUEST: Oh, no kidding, huh. Huh.
APPRAISER: And the show was focusing on African American artists.
GUEST: I'll be. Huh. Oh, that's cool, yeah. Huh.
APPRAISER: And that's where your mother purchased it, yeah.
GUEST: Wow. Huh.
APPRAISER: He's had a very, very nice collector following. And recently, a couple of years ago, he had a one-man show in New York City at MoMA. 100 artworks they displayed...
GUEST: Huh.
APPRAISER: ...and that kind of sets you apart. The color of it is great. At some point in time, he actually started to varnish his artworks. So a lot of them turned yellow.
GUEST: Oh, geez. Oh.
APPRAISER: And obviously, yeah, those pieces are not very highly collected.
GUEST: Huh.
APPRAISER: So you have all the key elements that people want to see in a Joseph Yoakum artwork, that combined with the label, which is collector gold. So because of all these factors, including the recent MoMA show, I'm very comfortable valuing this, in a retail setting, somewhere between $50,000...
GUEST: Yikes.
APPRAISER: ...and $60,000.
GUEST: Ho-holy... holy smokes. Huh. Well, I hope it doesn't get rained on.
APPRAISER: I think your mother would be shocked.
GUEST: Yeah, I think she would be. I think she'd be pleased for sure.
$50,000 - $60,000 Retail
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Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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