THE ARTISTS

For decades, the art world ignored artists of colour — an institutional neglect it’s now trying to correct. But in the 1960s and ’70s, in Los Angeles and New York, three galleries led the way in showing the work of black artists, many of whom are now among the most influential of our time.

- M. H. Miller

IN THE PAST few years, cultural institutions have been trying to create a more inclusive narrative of contemporary art history, one that contains more women and people of colour — people who were denied successful careers a half-century ago simply because they weren’t white men. Today, it’s not uncommon to see black artists with solo shows at museums and galleries that just five years ago might have ignored them entirely.

Despite this correction, black-owned commercial galleries remain rarities in America. For a brief period in the 1960s and ’70s, however, there was an alternative art world — first in Los Angeles, then in New York — that offered a view of contemporary art that was vibrant and welcoming. Five decades later, it’s even more influential than it was then.