Skip to main content
Tags: jane fonda | art | auction

Jane Fonda Selling Thornton Dial Collected Artworks at Auction

Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda (Getty Images)

By    |   Monday, 02 January 2023 11:45 AM EST

Jane Fonda will be auctioning off a trove of art that she has collected over the past two decades.

Taking place on Jan. 18, the Christie's annual Outsider and Vernacular Art auction in New York will comprise 14 artworks by the late American artist Thornton Dial, his brother, Arthur Dial, and his son, Thornton Dial Jr.

As the auction house notes, Fonda has been a longtime collector of Black artists from the American South. She previously collected mostly Plein-air paintings by women, but that changed during a trip to art historian Bill Arnett's house in the 1990s.

"It was chock-a-block full of these paintings by Thornton Dial, by Lonnie Holley, by Joe Minter, by so many other Black artists of the South," she recalled. "You literally had to suck your stomach in to go through the door."

Fonda explained that the "dynamism, the energy, the courage, the rawness of these works" moved her, and she "bought a number of things right then and there."

Over the ensuing years, Fonda would acquire her collection by visiting the artists Arnett was supporting at their home studios and yard art displays in Birmingham and surrounding communities in Alabama.

"I don't know of more powerful statements about the challenges faced in the Jim Crow South than these works of art," she said. "These aren't just commentaries on social wrongs. These are testaments to them by people who experienced it, who lived it."

The 14 pieces from Fonda's collection that will be auctioned range from animal-shaped benches by Dial Jr., each estimated to fetch $2,000 to $4,000, to a larger-than-life-sized painted canvas-and-plywood image of Uncle Sam from 1989, expected to sell for $20,000 to $40,000, and a large-scale mixed-media wall works by Thornton Dial, estimated to sell for between $50,000 and $100,000.

This is not the first time that Fonda has auctioned pieces of art by Dial from her collection. According to CNN, the actor and activist sold the highly textural 1999 assemblage "Trophies (Doll Factory)" for $277,000 in 2019.

Zoe Papadakis ✉

Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


TheWire
Jane Fonda will be auctioning off a trove of art that she has collected over the past two decades.Taking place on Jan. 18, the Christie's annual Outsider and Vernacular art auction in New York will comprise 14 artworks by the late American artist Thornton Dial, his brother,...
jane fonda, art, auction
337
2023-45-02
Monday, 02 January 2023 11:45 AM
Newsmax Media, Inc.

Sign up for Newsmax’s Daily Newsletter

Receive breaking news and original analysis - sent right to your inbox.

(Optional for Local News)
Privacy: We never share your email address.
Join the Newsmax Community
Read and Post Comments
Please review Community Guidelines before posting a comment.
 

Interest-Based Advertising | Do not sell or share my personal information

Newsmax, Moneynews, Newsmax Health, and Independent. American. are registered trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc. Newsmax TV, and Newsmax World are trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc.

NEWSMAX.COM
America's News Page
© 2025 Newsmax Media, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Download the Newsmax App
NEWSMAX.COM
America's News Page
© 2025 Newsmax Media, Inc.
All Rights Reserved