Outsiders Welcome:
Brockman Gallery
& the Art of Inclusion

Words by Rosemarie Knopka

John Riddle at work.

The Brockman Gallery was at the center of a community of Black artists in Los Angeles from 1967-1990. The importance of the Leimert Park gallery is reflected in several current and upcoming exhibits. Soul of a Nation at The Broad; Charles White: A Retrospective at LACMA; The RIDDLE Effect at Craft Contemporary; and David Hammons at Hauser & Wirth are just a few recent exhibits that feature artists associated with the gallery in the 1960s and 1970s. Brockman Gallery, led by brothers Dale and Alonzo Davis, exhibited the work of Black artists that didn’t have a venue in mainstream galleries and museums in Los Angeles. As a result of this early support, today these artists have entered the canon of twentieth century American art, thus enriching our cultural lives through their influence on fellow artists and in major exhibits across the city.

A brochure cover for the Leimert Park Festival for the Arts c.1969.

The Los Angeles Public Library acquired the Brockman Gallery Archive in early 2019, and in my job as the Librarian Archivist in Digitization and Special Collections, I am processing the material so it can be made accessible for research, exhibits and events. The archive contains correspondence, flyers, publications, articles, brochures, price lists, photographs, and other paper-based materials that vividly create a sense of place. It conveys the roadblocks Black artists faced, while also showing compelling work created within a strong community. 

The Brockman Gallery connected with the local community and supported artists in many ways: with studio space, neighborhood festivals, film festivals, talks, symposia, mural projects, travel, and collaborations with other arts institutions. The space at 4334 Degnan Blvd. is now occupied by a public program space for the gallery Art + Practice, which was founded by the artist Mark Bradford, collector Eileen Harris Norton, and activist Allan DiCastro and seeks to “create a space in which artists of color are celebrated”. Two recent exhibits at Art + Practice featured artists that were associated with Brockman Gallery: Maren Hassinger and Senga Nengudi.

A flyer for the exhibit Contemporary Black Imagery c.1970.

A flyer for a Black Artists Association exhibit held at Galeria Del Sol from July 11 to August 8, 1969.

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983, an exhibit at The Broad, often references the Brockman Gallery. Black Unity (1968) by Elizabeth Catlett is an audience favorite for its beauty and symbolism. This cedar wood sculpture was shown at the Brockman Gallery and purchased for the personal art collection of Dale and Alonzo Davis. It was acquired by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in 2014.

Catlett moved from the U.S. to Mexico City and worked as a professor and a sculptor there for a time. Her letters to the gallery reveal warm personal relationships, concerns about money, insights into her practice, which she described as slow, and the discrimination she experienced because of her activism. She is quoted in the book Black Artists on Art, volume 2, edited by Samella Lewis and Ruth Waddy, as saying, “Art for me now must develop from a necessity within my people. It must answer a question, or wake somebody up, or give a shove in the right direction - our liberation.”

A brochure cover for the Collection of Alonzo and Dale Davis.

The exhibit Charles White: A Retrospective is meaningful not only because of the beautiful art on display, but also because of the long wait to see a large scale exhibit of his work at LACMA. Some in the African American community felt LACMA’s Three Graphic Artists exhibit in 1971 should have been devoted just to White, given his importance. Activist groups such as the Black Arts Council and the Black Artists Association sometimes had different objectives; the Brockman Gallery was instrumental in keeping lines of communication open between the museum and the Black arts community. The archive has many flyers for talks and events from a time when artists worked to have representation at this county institution, which relied on public funding but did not equally represent local communities.

A portrait of Charles White.

 A portrait of Charles White by Kent Twitchell, 1986.

The cover of the brochure for the Three Graphic Artists exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which was held in 1971.

A brochure cover for a Black Arts Council meeting at Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1969.

Kent Twitchell painting a mural of Betye Saar.

A Noah Purifoy sculpture in his studio.

Another sighting of Brockman-related work is at an exhibit curated by Los Angeles-based multimedia artist Elliott Hundley and MOCA staff called Open House: Elliott Hundley, which is on view through September 16th, 2019 at MOCA Grand Avenue. It includes the work of Brockman artists Betye Saar and Noah Purifoy. The exhibit wall text states that Purifoy and Saar were among the pioneers of West Coast assemblage in which artists used found and repurposed objects and images to create sculpture. Echoes of their influential techniques can be seen in Hundley’s work Hyacinth (2008), which is composed of paper, photographs, pins, plastic, corkboard, wood, string, found objects, feathers, silk, charcoal, pastel, oil stick, cardboard, fabric, wire, and ribbon.

David Hammons is best known for his monoprint process works, in which he combined body prints with the American flag in ghostly and evocative images that embody disenfranchisement. He is also known for his performance art, including Bliz-aard Ball Sale (1983) in which he sold snowballs outside Cooper Union, in New York. His work includes installation, portraiture, activism, performance, humor and intimacy, while keeping the art world at a distance.

David Hammons performing Bliz-aard Ball Sale in New York in 1983.

A Brockman Gallery flyer for a 1970 David Hammons exhibit.

A 1969 flyer from the Black Artists Association congratulating David Hammons on receiving a first place award in the Los Angeles Annual Art Exhibition/1969.

A photograph of Injustice Case (1970) by David Hammons.

The Spring 2019 issue of LALA Magazine, which reports on art and culture in Los Angeles, featured the article Homage to Hammons by Max Lakin. To mark the current David Hammons exhibit at Hauser & Wirth, six artists commented on the influence of Hammons on their practice and work. Radcliffe Bailey insightfully remarked, “Hammons has a poetic way of saying things, like Amiri Baraka. One thing I respect is that he has created his own rules, his ability to forge a space outside of the white walls – I think of Miles Davis turning his back to the crowd. It resonates and speaks to the souls of Black folks.”

David Hammons work Injustice Case (1970) was first shown at the Brockman Gallery and is also part of the Soul of a Nation exhibit. The exhibit at Hauser & Wirth is the first time Hammons has had a solo exhibit in Los Angeles in 45 years.

The RIDDLE Effect, a highly anticipated survey of the work of John T. Riddle Jr., is on exhibit at the Craft Contemporary from June 2 to September 8, 2019. The exhibit will also feature the work of artists in his orbit, students and colleagues. John Riddle was a sculptor and an early part of the Black Arts Movement in Los Angeles, and he exhibited at the Brockman Gallery.

John Riddle at work.

John Riddle at work.

A flyer for a Brockman Gallery group show that includes John Riddle.

Archives of several Black American artists have recently been placed in high profile institutions. The papers of Suzanne Jackson, artist and founder of Gallery 32 in Los Angeles, as well as Noah Purifoy, are part of the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian. The Getty Research Institute acquired The Betye Saar Papers as it announced a new program, the African American Art History Initiative. At Los Angeles Public Library, we would like to honor the role of Dale and Alonzo Davis as educators and use the Brockman Gallery Archive materials to connect children with special collections.

Artist Jacob Lawrence talking with students at the Brockman Gallery in 1981.

In processing the Brockman Gallery Archive, I am learning about the Black Arts Movement in Los Angeles through the materials, by reading, visiting exhibits and going to museum talks. It is like a door opening into a vibrant arts community in Los Angeles as well as a troubling document of racism in the art world, and a testament to resilience and perseverance. It seems like everywhere I look now, I see the influence of the Brockman Gallery.

Please check out the Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections Instagram account @lapl_specialcollections for posts on our collections.

Further Reading

Jones, Kellie. Now Dig This!: Art & Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980. Prestel, 2011.

Jones, Kellie. South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s. Duke University Press, 2017.

Lakin, Max. Homage to Hammons. LALA Magazine. Spring 2019.    

Le Falle-Collins, Lizzetta. The Brockman Gallery and the Village. KCET.com. March 4, 2014.

Lewis, Samella S. and Ruth G. Waddy, ed. Black Artists on Art. Contemporary Crafts Publishers, 1969.            

Related Archives & Exhibits

African American Art History Initiative, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Art + Practice, Los Angeles
Time is Running Out of Time: Experimental Film and Video from the L.A. Rebellion and Today
On view now through September 14, 2019

The Broad, Los Angeles
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983
On view now through September 1, 2019

California African American Museum, Los Angeles
Plumb Line: Charles White and the Contemporary
On view now through August 25, 2019

Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles
THE RIDDLE EFFECT
On view now through September 8, 2019

Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980 Digital Archive

Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles
David Hammons
On view now through August 11, 2019

LACMA, Los Angeles
Charles White: A Retrospective
On view now through June 9, 2019

LACMA’s satellite gallery at Charles White Elementary School, Los Angeles
Life Model: Charles White and His Students
On view now through September 14, 2019

Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections
Brockman Gallery Archive

MOCA, Los Angeles
Open House: Elliott Hundley
On view now through September 16, 2019

Noah Purifoy Foundation, Joshua Tree Outdoor Museum

Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA
Suzanne Jackson: Five Decades
On view from June 28 to October 13, 2019

The Underground Museum, Los Angeles
Roy DeCarava: The Work of Art
On view now through June 30, 2019

UCLA Library, Center for Oral History Research, Los Angeles
African American Artists of Los Angeles, Oral History Collection

Rosemarie Knopka is the Librarian Archivist for Digitization & Special Collections at the Los Angeles Public Library. She was the Archivist at the Art Directors Guild from 2012-2017, and is a volunteer for the Feminist Library on Wheels, a free mobile lending library.