Alonzodavis, an artist based in Los Angeles, celebrated the cultural turning mix of murals and public sculptures in Southern California, celebrated the gallery in the late 1960s that brought the people's awareness to the Renaissance of Black Art. 。 27 Largo, Maryland. He was 82 years old.
Christopher Henen, who represents Davis's job, has confirmed death at the hospital. He did not identify the cause. Davis moved to Hyatt Building, Maryland in the early 2000s.
In the 1960s, black cultural activities exploded in the 1960s, but many black painters and sculptors work to invade the mainstream art market dominated by white artists and galleries. I was dissatisfied with.
This situation was particularly serious in Los Angeles. There, the black artist responded powerfully to the social and racial riot caused by the civil rights movement and anxiety in the 1965 city's Watz section, and was rioted by police stagnation. Was hindered.
The creative energy found a house in the blockman gallery. Davis and his brother, Dale Blockman Davis, were also established in Raymart Park, southwest of Los Angeles, Los Angeles.
“There were many artists who have been politically important after the Watts Riot,” said Davis in the 2006 documentary “Remart Park: Los Angeles Southern Village.” I talked. “We filled the gap and voice there. Especially on the west coast, we opened the windows that could not be used before.”
They did more than a showcase artist. Blockman has become a community hub where politics, art, and education intersect. In 1973, the brothers created the Blockman Production, a partner organization that conducted art festivals, concerts, and continuous education programs for the southern and surrounding people in Los Angeles.
Davis continued to grow as an artist himself. Special for mixed media sculptures that travel in southern United States, Africa, Latin America, and under the influence of white artists such as Jaspersons and Robert Trauscheembergs, and ambiguous the boundaries between representative works and abstract work. It is converted.
He liked working in the series, took a single element (fabric, bamboo shaft), and spent many years. One of his most famous series was the Power Paul, a 10 -year -old polished bamboo, a 10 -year polished bamboo, a symbol of the authority of West African culture.
Many of his jobs were open to the public and were often entrusted by local government agencies. In 2005, he created a “Power Paul” version of the Philadelphia International Airport.
He was particularly attracted to a large mural, which is a common artistic style around Los Angeles. He drew a street side work throughout the 1970s, and in 1983 he was in charge of 10 artist projects to create a mural along the city expressway for the 1984 Olympics.
Davis's contribution, “The '84”, was composed of three trump rail murals along the retaining wall of the port of the port.
“This is a new image reflecting new energy. This is not a California myth,” he told the Philadelphia Inquireer in 1983. They will be our new landmark and introduce the true photos of Los Angeles as a multicultural community. “
Alonzo Joseph Davis Jr. was born on February 2, 1942 in Taskie, Alabama, and his father Alonzo Senior taught psychology, and his mother Agnes (Moses) was librarian.
His parents divorced when Alonzo was a teenager, and later he and his brother moved to Los Angeles with his mother.
He got a bachelor's degree of art education at the University of Pepperdine in 1964 and was able to teach high school art in Los Angeles for several years. He drew and carved a picture again, but he was desperate for a black artist to tighten out of his gallery and art history programs.
In 1966, his brothers and his brothers worked on a cross -country pilgrimage with a green Volkswagen beetle, visiting a famous black artist and creative community in the southern, New York and Canada.
In New York, they met the painter Romare Bearden. Romare Bearden's work will later participate in Blockman. In Mississippi, they walked alongside civil rights activists, James Meredis, between Memphis, Miss, and Jackson.
Their last stop was Chicago, and then drove almost non -stop to Los Angeles, talking about their experience and planning.
“We have passed through corn fields and deserts to return to Los Angeles,” said Davis in an interview with American Art Company Black Art. Is it great if you can open an art gallery? “
One year later, they opened a blockman named after his maternal grandmother.
Davis returned to the classroom in 1970 and had a major influence on the black artist and Davis's generation of painters in the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. It was White who encouraged Davis to work in the series.
He obtained a bachelor's degree of art in 1971 and the Master of Fine Arts from Otis in 1973.
The Blockman Gallery has proved permanent success. As a result, Davis did not find much time for his work. He wanted to travel, so he left the gallery and Los Angeles to operate a state art program in Sacramento in 1987.
A year later, he took a residency in Hawaii, and then became the Director of the San Antonio Museum of Art. He was the Director of the Memphis Art University from 1993 to 2002, and then moved to Maryland.
His marriage with Rebecca Braceweight ended with a divorce. He survived by his brothers. His partner, Kay Lindsey. His daughter, Paloma Allen Davis and Treasure Davis. And two grandchildren.
Within a few years of the Los Angeles Olympics, the mural created by Davis and other artists to celebrate was covered with graffiti, worn with highway pollution, and in 2007 by highway ions.
In 2014, Los Angeles' mural reserve launched a one -year restoration project. Many works were recovered, but Davis's triple altar painting, which was buried for several decades and paint for several decades, has been lost forever.
