diff --git a/src/osx/cocoa/dataview.mm b/src/osx/cocoa/dataview.mm
index 21a18323fb..24577504e2 100644
--- a/src/osx/cocoa/dataview.mm
+++ b/src/osx/cocoa/dataview.mm
@@ -2940,7 +2940,9 @@ void wxDataViewRenderer::SetAttr(const wxDataViewItemAttr& attr)
     {
         if ( !colText )
             colText = data->GetOriginalTextColour();
-        [(id)cell setTextColor:colText];
+
+        if ( colText )
+            [(id)cell setTextColor:colText];
     }
 
     if ( [cell respondsToSelector:@selector(setDrawsBackground:)] )