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Alonzo Davis

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Alonzo Davis
Born (1942-02-02) February 2, 1942 (age 82)[1]
Tuskegee, Alabama
Education
Websitealonzodavis.com

Alonzo Davis is an African-American artist and academic known for co-founding the Brockman Gallery in Los Angeles with his brother Dale Brockman Davis. In reaction to a perceived lack of coverage of black art, Davis became an advocate for black art and artists. His best-known work is the Eye on '84 mural he painted to commemorate the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Personal life

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Davis grew up near Tuskegee University where his father was a professor of psychology.[3] Davis's family moved from Tuskegee, Alabama to Los Angeles, California in 1955 where he was exposed to Asian art. Davis became a practitioner of Zen meditation although he did not convert to Buddhism.[4] Davis, then an art student at Pepperdine, disagreed with the overwhelmingly white focus of his coursework and sought to understand the black art scene in America. He and his brother Dale, also an artist, traveled across the country to meet other black artists including the "Spiral Group" in Harlem led by Romare Bearden and Hale Woodruff.[3]

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The Davis brothers got the idea for opening the Brockman Gallery during the drive back to Southern California from the 1966 Meredith March in Jackson, Mississippi.[5] They opened the Brockman Gallery in 1967 on Degnan Avenue in Leimert Park.[6][7] The name "Brockman" refers to Alonzo and Dale's maternal grandmother's maiden name.[8] Brockman Gallery has featured the works of Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Dan Concholar, Melvin Edwards,[9] David Hammons, John Outterbridge, and Charles White.[10] In 1973 the brothers also founded a non-profit organization called Brockman Productions to support art in the African-American community.[3]

Teaching career

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Alonzo taught at Crenshaw High School until 1970 when he left to teach at series of schools including Manual Arts High School, Mount Saint Antonio College, Pasadena City College, and UCLA. Davis participated in Ruth G. Waddy's "Art West Associated" movement to agitate for the inclusion of black art in the mainstream museums of Los Angeles.[11] In 1976 Davis started working at Brockman Gallery full-time.[5][12]

From 1991 to 1992, Davis taught at the San Antonio Art Institute. He then served as dean of the Memphis College of Art from 1993 to 2002.[3]

Davis, an alum of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts,[13] has a fellowship offered there in his name for writers, composers, and artists of African or Latino ethnicity.[2]

Art

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Davis painted a mural, Eye on '84, one of the ten murals commissioned under Los Angeles' 1984 Olympic Murals project. Davis's mural was located on the southbound I-110 at the Third Street on-ramp across from Judy Baca's Hitting the Wall. His mural, acrylic on concrete, depicted a series of internationally recognizable symbols including the Olympic Rings.[3][14] The mural suffered weathering and was considered unrecoverable.[15][16][17] The mural was painted over in 2001 by CalTrans.[18]

Davis moved to Sacramento in 1987 and to a residency in Hawaii in 1988.[3]

Citations

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  1. ^ Riggs 1997, p. 129.
  2. ^ a b "The Alonzo Davis Fellowship" (PDF). Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Retrieved 2014-05-31.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Gyorody, Andrea (August 26, 2011). Jones, Kellie (ed.). Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980. Prestel. p. 258. ISBN 978-3791351360.
  4. ^ Dorsey, Bianca (2007). "Asia in the Mix". The International Review of African-American Art. 21 (3): 47.
  5. ^ a b Tilton & Charlwood 2001, p. 78.
  6. ^ Blaine, John; Baker, Decia, eds. (1973). "Single Arts Experience Orientation". Community Arts of Los Angeles (Report). Los Angeles Community Art Alliance. p. 4. hdl:10139/2728. OCLC 912321031.
  7. ^ "Pacific Standard Time: A timeline". Los Angeles Times. 2011-09-18. Archived from the original on May 31, 2014. Retrieved 2014-05-31.
  8. ^ Tilton & Charlwood 2001, p. 79.
  9. ^ Peabody, Rebecca; Bradnock, Lucy, eds. (2011). Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles Art, 1945–1980. Getty Publications. p. 117. ISBN 9781606060728.
  10. ^ Grantham, Tosha. "The Alonzo Davis Fellowship". Hampton University. Retrieved 2014-05-31.
  11. ^ Hunt, Darnell; Ramon, Ana-Christina, eds. (2010-04-19). Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities. NYU Press. pp. 246–247. ISBN 9780814773062.
  12. ^ Jones, Kellie (2006). "Black West, Thoughts on Art in LA". In Collins, Lisa Gail; Crawford, Margo Natalie (eds.). New Thoughts on the Black Arts Movement. Rutgers University Press. p. 71. ISBN 9780813541075. alonzo dAVIS artist.
  13. ^ "An interview with Alonzo Davis". Hyattsvillewire.com. 2012-11-21. Retrieved 2014-05-31.
  14. ^ "Eye on '84". Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles. Archived from the original on 2014-07-27. Retrieved 2014-06-21.
  15. ^ "Bringing back a piece of L.A.'s Olympic glory". University of California, Santa Barbara. 2013-03-01. Archived from the original on 2014-07-25. Retrieved 2014-06-21.
  16. ^ Nashak, Robert (23 May 2013). "Uncovered Olympic Glories: Murals Restoration on the 101 Freeway | Los Angeles | Artbound". KCET. Retrieved 2014-06-21.
  17. ^ "Mural Repair Grant Stops Short of Need". Los Angeles Times. 2003-07-08. Retrieved 2014-06-21.
  18. ^ "Taggers, Caltrans Take a Toll on Freeway Murals". Los Angeles Times. 2001-05-03. Retrieved 2014-06-21.

References

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Further reading

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