Oral History Center University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Richard Mayhew Richard Mayhew: Painting Mindscapes and Searching for Sensitivity Getty Trust Oral History Project African American Art History Initiative, Getty Research Institute Interviews conducted by Bridget Cooks and Amanda Tewes in 2019 Interviews sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Trust Copyright © 2020 by J. Paul Getty Trust Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley ii Since 1954 the Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library, formerly the Regional Oral History Office, has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ********************************* Copyright in the manuscript and recording is owned by the J. Paul Getty Trust, which has made the materials available under Creative Commons licenses as follows: Manuscript is licensed under CC-BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and recording is licensed under CC-BY-NC (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Richard Mayhew, “Richard Mayhew: Painting Mindscapes and Searching for Sensitivity” conducted by Bridget Cooks and Amanda Tewes in 2019, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, under the auspices of the J. Paul Getty Trust, 2020. Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley iii Richard Mayhew Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley iv Abstract Richard Mayhew is a painter, as well as a retired professor of art. He was born on Long Island, New York, and displayed an early interest in art. He studied at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, the Art Students League of New York, the Pratt Institute, and Columbia University. Mayhew received a John Hay Whitney Fellowship in 1958 to live and study in Europe in the early 1960s. He was joined Spiral in 1963 and was a member of the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC). Mayhew has taught at many universities and art institutions, including Hunter College, Pennsylvania State University, San José State University, Sonoma State University, and University of California Santa Cruz. In this interview, Mayhew discusses: growing up in New York; family and education; Native American and African American identities; artistic training, including time at the Art Students League of New York; early artwork and work as an illustrator; receiving a John Hay Whitney Fellowship and living in Europe; working as a ceramic decorator and meeting his first wife; working to create the Creative Center for Arts and Science; Spiral, including its civil rights history, artists, and exhibitions; discrimination in the art world; working with the Rockland Center for the Arts; teaching, including schools and introducing interdisciplinary work to students; exhibitions, including his three retrospective shows in 2009; his children; meeting his second wife; and relationships with other artists. Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley v Table of Contents Preface by Ina Mayhew viii Interview 1: March 8, 2019 Hour 1 1 Birth on April 3, 1924 in Massapequa, Long Island — Early artistic interest — Observing Hudson River School painters and James Willson Peale — Working as a ceramic decorator and jazz singer — Parents' separation — Racial makeup of Amityville, Long Island — African American and Native American heritage — Brother's career in technical engineering — Hudson River School painters — Studying at the Brooklyn Museum Art School starting in 1948 — Studying in Europe — Feeling inspired by George Inness' paintings — Mayhew's paintings in the de Young Museum — Medical illustration work with James Willson Peale — Connection to nature, especially chickens — Starting at Columbia University in 1951 — Studying and teaching at the Art Students League with Edwin Dickinson and Reuben Tam — First exhibition —Struggling with Native American and African American identity — Identity as a mindscape painter — History of African American artists —Art history as Eurocentric — International influence on interdisciplinary thinking — Abstract expressionism — Working at the MacDowell Colony in 1958 — Careers of daughter and son — Ernie Crichlow — Felrath Hines — Showing work on the streets in Brooklyn — Influence of studying in Europe on Thicket series — Driving cross-country with painter Jack Bolen and seeing a variety of landscapes — Different forms of art in different American states — Musical influences and performances in New York clubs — Robert Isaacson Gallery Hour 2 23 Morning Bush in the Whitney Biennial (then the Annual) — Elaine de Kooning — Solo gallery exhibitions between 1962 and 1965 — Group exhibitions at the National Academy — Searching for the mystique of the sensitivity — Fellow artists Mayhew admired — Interdisciplinary approach to teaching — Illustrative work on Samuel Morse [and the Telegraph] — Illustrative work on Galileo and Experimental Science, William Harvey: Trailblazer of Scientific Medicine, and The First Book of Tools — Illustration for children's book Let's Find Out About Water — Paintings created in the 1950s, including seascapes — President Bill Clinton and painting West — Nelson Shanks — Going to Florence with a John Hay Whitney Fellowship in 1958 — Daughter Ina's production design on Queen Sugar — Influence of color illusion while in Florence — Listening to music while painting — Joining Spiral in the 1970s — Working as a ceramic decorator in the 1940s — Working at Cambridge China with his first wife, Dorothy, and his brother — Dorothy's support of art — Charles White — Interdisciplinary approach to art — Creating the Creative Center for Arts and Science — Board of directors of the Creative Center for Arts and Science — Board of directors' meetings — Helen Hayes Foundation Hour 3 53 Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley vi Meeting with Senator Arakawa — Fort Barry artist-in-residence program — Inability to establish artists program in the Presidio due to Department of the Interior Interview 2: March 9, 2019 Hour 1 58 Part of Montford Point Marines during World War II — Receiving Congressional Medal of Honor — A. Philip Randolph and the formation of Spiral — Bringing younger artists into Spiral, including Alvin Hollingsworth, Reginald Gammon, William Majors, Earl Miller — Emma Amos — Spiral's connection to the March on Washington — Spiral challenged establishments across the art world — Spiral exhibition in a West Greenwich Village storefront — Spiral artists and influence on universities as professors — Spiral artists and their work, including Charles Alston, Romare Bearden, and Reginald Gammon — Bearden's collage work — Felrath Hines — Discussions with Romare Bearden, Hale Woodruff, and Norman Lewis about the creative consciousness — Felrath Hines — Norman Lewis, his Procession painting , and the discrimination he faced in the art world — William Majors — Lack of gallery representation for Spiral artists — James Yeargans — Hale Woodruff — Emma Amos — Reginald Gammon — Franz Kline — Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg reviews of abstract expressionists — Reginald Gammon's works Hour 2 81 Generational conflicts between Spiral artists — Earl Miller's art and family —Jacob Lawrence — Ernie Crichlow — Merton Simpson — Alvin Hollingsworth — Calvin Douglas — Three total Spiral exhibitions with only one documented — Working to get museums to recognize African American artists — Origins of Spiral's name — Black and white theme of first Spiral show — Formation of Cinque Gallery — Impact of Spiral on young artists — Letter from former student — Woody King — Impact of Spiral on personal teaching — Spiral's connection to the March on Washington — Awards received — Edwin Dickinson — Challenging Eurocentric bias in art — Problem of the ego state of existence — Singing with Louis Armstrong's band — Artists of Spiral — Meeting William Majors and Red Grooms in Florence Hour 3 110 Painting Interlude in Florence — Series of desert paintings inspired by time in New Mexico and Arizona — Teaching at Indian school in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the 1980s — Learning to tap dance, mime, sing, and act in the 1940s — Playing with optical illusions in painting — Bayside Meadow — Halima Taha Interview 3: March 9, 2019 Hour 1 117 Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley vii Picketing Harlem on My Mind exhibition — Fighting for greater representation of women in art galleries — Organizing