Collection of production material for the exhibition catalog of the 1976 show “ Century Black Artists,” at the San Jose Art Museum. Included is the layout for the text and 43 original photographs of the artists and their work which were reproduced in the booklet.

The smallest photos are a snapshot of Yasmin Sayyed and a small contact print of Noah Purifoy, and the largest photograph is an 11 x 14 image of Raymond Saunders, shot by the noted portrait photographer Anthony Barboza. The remaining photographs are 8 x 10 inches. Each photograph is loose and has notations either recto or verso with a page number corresponding with their location in the maquette.

Many of the photos were shot by Frank J. Thomas, considered Los Angeles’s “resident photographer” for museums and galleries. His career began in 1945 and for the next three decades he documented the ever-changing art scene and the colorful, rotating cast of artists, gallerists, museum workers, and collectors.Thomas also ran a bespoke printing house, Tenfingers Press, with his wife Phyllis from 1959 to 1980. Other photographers the collection include Mary Ellen Andrews, who was the wife of exhibiting artist Benny Andrews, as well as the Oakland photographer Jonathan Eubanks, best known for his work documenting the Black Panthers, and the artist Lezley Saar, daughter of Betye. Absent are the portraits of Valerie Maynard and Leslie Price, as well as 4 photos of artwork. There is no photograph of Arthur Carraway in the proof material, nor in the finished product.

In 1976, the San Jose Art Museum put on the first major exhibition of Black artists in the area entitled “Twentieth Century Black American Artists.” Arranged by the Santa Clara County Black Caucus, the San Jose Fine Arts Commission, and the visiting curator Marie Johnson, the exhibition showcased a mix of contemporary Black artists living and working in the United States (with the exception of the Late Sargent Johnson) that shared “a feeling for natural forms and materials [and] a power and spirit which reflects the nature of a people.”

Established artists such as Charles White, Lois Mailou Jones, Sargent Johnson, Romare Bearden, and Jacob Lawrence were included alongside emerging artists Valerie Maynard, Benny Andrews, Arthur Carraway, Elizabeth Catlett, Leon Hicks, Marie Johnson, Benjamin Jones, Geraldine McCullough, Lev Mills, Evangeline Montgomery, Leslie Price, and Yasmine Sayyed. Also notable was the inclusion of the California-based assemblage artists David Hammons, Noah Purifoy, Betye Saar, and Raymond Saunders. The exhibition ran from September 3rd to October 8th, coinciding with the thematically-similar “Two Centuries of Black American Art,” exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A catalog of the 21 artists and the resulting 65 paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings, was published with a brief introduction from Johnson.

While the show exhibited works from a number of 20th-century luminaries, it arrived with seemingly little fanfare. It was hardly reviewed, and not without criticism, either. Henri Ghent, a Black art writer and former director of the Brooklyn Museum argued that the show did not focus enough on “quality black artists” and that careless curation was driven by art world politics. Furthermore, although Ghent recognized the positive features of this period, he also believed the trend of Black artist focused exhibitions as a whole were more “token efforts to appease social critics,” rather than a de facto appreciation for Black artists.

The present collection is an important primary document and a useful tool for understanding and reevaluating this groundbreaking show.

Marie E. Johnson-Calloway was an American assemblage artist and educator known for her “sculpted paintings” of Black figures. Born April 10, 1920 in Baltimore, Maryland, Marie Edwards received her Master’s degree in painting at San Jose State University. She curated multiple Black-centered shows in the late 1970s while continuing her own art practice. While Johnson-Calloway’s career did not receive the same level of recognition of her assemblage colleagues such as Saar, Saunders, and Joe Overstreet, her multimedia works were consistently featured in exhibitions for the length of her career. She was a professor at various colleges and universities before retiring in 1983 and became the president of the San Jose NAACP. Calloway’s life was dedicated to promoting Black artists and Civil Rights activism until her death on February 11, 2018.