- Title
- Self Portrait Inside Series
- Date Made
- 1974
- Medium
- Acrylic and spray paint with foil and postage stamp on canvas
- Dimensions
- 20 × 16 1/4 in. (50.8 × 41.28 cm)
Frame: 21 1/4 × 17 1/2 × 2 3/4 in. (53.98 × 44.45 × 6.99 cm)
Vitrine: 25 × 21 1/2 × 7 in. (63.5 × 54.61 × 17.78 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2024.25
- Collecting Area
- Modern Art
- Curatorial Notes
Alonzo Davis was both a mixed-media artist and the cofounder (with his brother Dale) of the Brockman Gallery, which from 1967 to 1990 championed the work of Black artists in Los Angeles. Davis’s work reflects his interest in a wide variety of cultures and his desire to make art that speaks globally. Self Portrait Inside Series incorporates foil, acrylic and spray paint, and a small arrow-shaped “tab” that can be opened to reveal a 1973 U.S. postage stamp collaged onto the canvas honoring Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859−1937; see https://collections.lacma.org/node/164688). Davis often used arrows in his work, suggesting a path or trajectory, reflecting what has been described as “a philosophical interest in direction, be it political and societal, personal, or cosmic.” The sketchy form in the background evokes Euclidean geometry and Egyptian pyramids, indicating the breadth of Davis’s cultural interests.
Lauren Hanson
- Selected Bibliography
- Hanson, Lauren, and Frances Lazare. Act on it!: Artists, Community, and the Brockman Gallery in Los Angeles = ¡Actuemos!: Artistas, Comunidad y la Galería. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2025.
- Copyright
- © Alonzo Davis, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA, by Jonathan Urban
