‘The Art of Living Black’:
Exhibition of more than 50 African American artists celebrates its founders, brings together the works of an often-overlooked community
Richmond Art Center exhibition features African American artists’ works.
Making the invisible men, the many black men, whom Ajuan Mance sees every day visible is quite a trick — involving diligence, stealth and an eye for a story written across a stranger’s face — and the Oakland artist is clearly up to the task.
That’s the mission of Mance’s “1001 Black Men” series,” which is evident in “1001 Black Men #536: The Mayor of Bancroft Ave.” In that acrylic, embedded with an Afro pick representing her logo or signature, Mance captured an older man, one hand on his cane, the other gently pressed to his chest, as she drew in a cafe.
“I love drawing older men because I think they wear their experience on their bodies and, especially for someone like him — he looked to be probably in his 80s — I feel like, as a black man who has lived to that age, when African American men have the shortest life span next to Native Americans, it makes him a heroic figure in itself,” says Mance, 47, who teaches African American literature at Mills College and is 666 drawings into “1001 Black Men.” “There’s the calmness of having lived this long life, from before integration, and survived.”
So it’s only right that the “Mayor” found his way back to the community exhibition — the Art of Living Black’s annual show at the Richmond Art Center — and open studios tour that made Mance realize a dozen years ago that, yes, she could show her artwork, too.
“I actually saw in the newspaper that there was this open studios weekend and visited some studios and thought, wow, I want to be a part of this. I had not shown very much art at all. It was really an introduction to being in an art community,” says Mance, who now organizes an open studio at Mills as part of the nonprofit’s art tour. “When I saw there were so many black artists showing their work in the East Bay, I thought, if this is happening, I want to be surrounded by that kind of community. Like most artists, we work in isolation, so any chance you have to share ideas, you take it.”
Now presenting new works by more than 50 artists from throughout the Bay Area at its open studio preview exhibition, the Art of Living Black was founded 18 years ago by the late sculptor Jan Hart-Schuyers and late painter Rae Louise Hayward.
“They went around to galleries — this was a long time ago — and they just didn’t see black artists there, especially in any numbers,” says President Steven Hopkins, who has kept what he describes as this “love project” going with the help of a board since wife Hayward’s death in 2008. “It really was a shame because they knew so many good black artists, and they wondered, how can we bring all these good people together and have them on display?”
Some participants — such as Oakland Abstract Expressionist Bill Dallas, 76, who is losing his eyesight yet throws open the doors to his intimate painting-packed studio as part of the event — have been involved since close to the event’s inception, while others — like graffitiinspired artist Melanin “Dead Eyes” Buford, 38, who learned of the show from his artist father, Lawrence — are showing work for the first time.
Hart-Schuyers and Hayward may be gone, but it speaks volumes about their spirit and the needs of local black artists that their undertaking lives on.
“It’s unique — there’s nothing else like this in Northern California,” Mance says. “There’s no other place you can go every year and see a cross section of the area’s black artists.”