Lewis Watts
Luma Kanda in His Bookstore in Oakland, 1995
Estimated Value: $2,200
Archival pigment print
22 x 17 inches
Unframed
AP
Signed, verso
Donated by the artist, courtesy of Rena Bransten Gallery.
This portrait was done as part of a project I was doing in Oakland. I was looking at traces of African American culture as reflected by the mid-century Great Migration that is very present in the "cultural landscape" of Oakland.
Luma Kanda had an amazing space and he has continued to collect and distribute African American literature after its closing.
About the Artist:
Lewis Watts
Lewis Watts is a photographer, archivist/curator and Professor Emeritus of Art at UC Santa Cruz. His research and artwork centers around the “cultural landscape” primarily in communities in the African diaspora. He is the author of Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era (Chronicle Books, 2006 and Heyday Books, 2020), New Orleans Suite: Music and Culture in Transition (UC Press, 2013), and Portraits (Edition One Press, 2020). His work has been exhibited at and is in the collections of Autograph London; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Cité de La Musique, Paris; The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; The Oakland Museum of California; Berkeley Art Museum; the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley; The Special Collections of the McHenry Library UC Santa Cruz; The McEvoy Foundation San Francisco; The Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase NY; The Amistad Center for Art and Culture, Hartford, Conn; Light Work, Syracuse NY; and The Paul Sack Collection, San Francisco among others.
Website: arts.ucsc.edu
Instagram: @lwattsjr