# Alonzo Davis

Alonzo Joseph Davis Jr. (February 2, 1942 – January 27, 2025) was an 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.

## Background

Davis was born on February 2, 1942, in Tuskegee, Alabama. He grew up near Tuskegee University where his father was a professor of psychology. 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. 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.
Davis moved to Sacramento in 1987, and to a residency in Hawaii in 1988. He later moved to Hyattsville, Maryland, and died at a hospital in nearby Largo, Maryland, on January 27, 2025, at the age of 82.

## Brockman Gallery

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. They opened the Brockman Gallery in 1967 on Degnan Avenue in Leimert Park. The name "Brockman" refers to Alonzo and Dale's maternal grandmother's maiden name. Brockman Gallery has featured the works of Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Dan Concholar, Melvin Edwards, David Hammons, John Outterbridge, and Charles White. In 1973 the brothers also founded a non-profit organization called Brockman Productions to support art in the African-American community.

## Teaching career

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. In 1976 Davis started working at Brockman Gallery full-time.
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.
Davis, an alum of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, has a fellowship offered there in his name for writers, composers, and artists of African or Latino ethnicity.

## Art

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. The mural suffered weathering and was considered unrecoverable. The mural was painted over in 2001 by CalTrans.

## Citations

* 1 2 "The Alonzo Davis Fellowship" (PDF). Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
* 1 2 3 Risen, Clay (February 4, 2025). "Alonzo Davis, 82, Whose L.A. Gallery Became a Hub for Black Art, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved February 4, 2025.
* ↑ Riggs 1997, p. 129.
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 Gyorody, Andrea (August 26, 2011). Jones, Kellie (ed.). Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980. Prestel. p. 258. ISBN 978-3791351360.
* ↑ Dorsey, Bianca (2007). "Asia in the Mix". The International Review of African-American Art. 21 (3): 47.
* ↑ Aton, Francesca (January 30, 2025). "Alonzo Davis, Artist Who Founded One of America's First Black-Owned Galleries, Dies at 82". ArtNews.com. Retrieved January 30, 2025.
* 1 2 Tilton & Charlwood 2001, p. 78.
* ↑ 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.
* ↑ "Pacific Standard Time: A timeline". Los Angeles Times. September 18, 2011. Archived from the original on May 31, 2014. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
* ↑ Tilton & Charlwood 2001, p. 79.
* ↑ Peabody, Rebecca; Bradnock, Lucy, eds. (2011). Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles Art, 1945–1980. Getty Publications. p. 117. ISBN 9781606060728.
* ↑ Grantham, Tosha. "The Alonzo Davis Fellowship". Hampton University. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
* ↑ Hunt, Darnell; Ramon, Ana-Christina, eds. (April 19, 2010). Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities. NYU Press. pp. 246–247. ISBN 9780814773062.
* ↑ 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.
* ↑ "An interview with Alonzo Davis". Hyattsvillewire.com. November 21, 2012. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
* ↑ "Eye on '84". Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles. Archived from the original on July 27, 2014. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
* ↑ "Bringing back a piece of L.A.'s Olympic glory". University of California, Santa Barbara. March 1, 2013. Archived from the original on July 25, 2014. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
* ↑ Nashak, Robert (May 23, 2013). "Uncovered Olympic Glories: Murals Restoration on the 101 Freeway | Los Angeles | Artbound". KCET. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
* ↑ "Mural Repair Grant Stops Short of Need". Los Angeles Times. July 8, 2003. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
* ↑ "Taggers, Caltrans Take a Toll on Freeway Murals". Los Angeles Times. May 3, 2001. Retrieved June 21, 2014.