California African American Museum on Tuesday

After a delightful lunch with my friend Margaret at Smitty's in Pasadena, I roamed to the Exposition Park area of L.A. to visit CAAM.  The museum now has several excellent exhibits of Art by African Americans.

The first one I visited were photos by Roberto Chile entitled "Afrodescendents."  These are photos he took in Guanabacoa, Cuba which was the site of where ships carrying captured Africans docked and sold into slavery.  Most of the Africans brought as slaves were sold in South American and the Caribbean.  Up to two-thirds of the population of Cuba identify as part African. The pictures are meant o show "the sublime beauty of certain aspects of Afro-Cuban culture while inviting you into the emotional intimacy of daily life."

Roberto Chile

The next exhibit I visited is entitled "The Legacy of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company:  More than a Business.  This is a savings and loan company that was founded by African Americans under the leadership of William Nickerson, Jr.Norman Houston and George Beavers.  Their one room business grew and they built a a new office on Central Avenue and later a new building designed by African American architect Paul Williams in 1948 on the corner of Western and Adams Blvds.  At the same time they commissioned two historic murals for the lobby by artists Charles Alston and Hale Woodruff and hired artist William Pajaoud to curate and collect what became the largest U.S. collection of corporate-owned African American art.  Many of the items were sold in a bankruptcy in 2009.  But many were collected for this exhibit and can be seen below.

The Embrace by Elizabeth Catlett

Photos of the large murals are being exhibited.  The one above is called Colonization and Exploitation by Charles Alston.  Below is Settlement and Development by Hale Woodruff.

Other exhibits at the museum are "Soul Stirring:  African American Self-Taught Artists from the South," "Things That Cannot Be Seen Any Other Way:  The Art of Manuel Mendive," ""Diverted Destruction 6" and "The March on Washington A Tribute, 50 Years Later."

Above a painting by Roy Ferdinand born in Gert Town New Orleans 1959 died 2004..."The Goya of New Orleans."

Below are Manuel Mendive's works.