Celebrating PRIDE!!! Hayward King!

Hayward Ellis King with Jay Defeo as the live components of an elaborate still life set-up in what appears to be Studio 13.

Hayward King, untitled (Reference Calendar), c. 1961. Ink, felt tip marker, graphite, collage, on found paper 26” x 21.” Courtesy of Gred Flood.

Celebrating June PRIDE

Painter and printmaker Hayward King moved from Pasadena to San Francisco in 1949 with fellow students Deborah Remington, David Simpson, John Allen Ryan, and Wally Hedrick in order to attend SFAI. They were uninterested in the commercially-oriented schools of Southern California, which King found “too rigid,” and had heard of SFAI by reputation—according to King, it was “the only place to go on [the West] Coast.” King was drafted into the Korean War in 1950, but returned to SFAI after two years of service to complete his BFA in 1955. King, along with Remington, Hedrick, Simpson, Ryan and Jack Spicer co-founded the 6 Gallery where Allen Ginsberg first read his iconic poem Howl. King received a Fulbright to study at the Sorbonne, worked as the personal assistant for Edward Weston, was the Registrar at SFMOMA, and served as the Director of the Richmond Art Center at a time when a queer, Black director of an arts institution was unheard of.

Hayward King is one of the SFAI alumni featured in SFAI 150: A Spirit of Disruption on view now at SFAI—make an appointment to see the show!

https://sfai.edu/features/spirit/

With permission, SFAA is re-posting the emails Jeff Gunderson Librarian/Archivist Anne Bremer Memorial Library has been sending out since March 2020. Please enjoy this magnificent archive.

Carlos Villa Day!!! June 8th

Carlos in SFAI's Studio 15 as a student, by Jerry Burchard

1972 Poster for DeYoung Museum exhibit Rhythms & Reverberations: Sekio, Jabo, Villa

Library Quote Board, 2013

Carlos with coffee in the School's Courtyard

June 8th, Celebrating the 2nd year of the SFAI Archives officially designated: Carlos Villa Day in perpetuity….for bringing so many people together…...

Be on the lookout for a major exhibition, Carlos Villa: Roots, Rituals, and Actions at SF's Asian Art Museum and the Newark Museum & SFAI....and the publication by UC Press, Carlos Villa: Worlds in Collision all coming in 2022!!!

With permission, SFAA is re-posting the emails Jeff Gunderson Librarian/Archivist Anne Bremer Memorial Library has been sending out since March 2020. Please enjoy this magnificent archive.

Art & Swimming & San Francisco Bay

Joan Brown’s bathing suits. Photo courtesy of J. John Priola and Zack Sumner Schomp.

1974 Photo by Joanne Leonard, SFAI Faculty member.

A lifelong open water swimmer, Joan Brown (BFA,’59; MFA,’60) and her husband, Gordon Cook (with glasses—printmaking faculty, ’62-’69) get advice from legendary swimmer, George Farnsworth prior to the August 1974 Santa Cruz Pier Swim while Manuel Neri (MFA, ‘58) holds their clothes. Brown was the ringleader of a group of women swimmers that sued the all-male Dolphin and Ariel Clubs to admit females. Always one to make art of her everyday experiences and passions, Joan Brown did a series of paintings based upon her bay swimming and her swims from Alcatraz and across the Golden Gate.

***For a deep dive into SF Bay and Joan Brown see Becky Alexander's essay, "Joan Brown's Bathing Suits," which is in the UC Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive's online exhibition Orbits of Known and Unknown Objects: SFAI Histories: Matrix 277: https://matrix277.org/Object-40

With permission, SFAA is re-posting the emails Jeff Gunderson Librarian/Archivist Anne Bremer Memorial Library has been sending out since March 2020. Please enjoy this magnificent archive.