SONOMA, CA.- This retrospective of the late Oakland-based artist Arthur Monroe draws from a seven-decade span from 1958 to 2011, with more than 25 works, sourced from private collections, museums, and the artist’s estate.

Monroe’s works reflect his travels within several of the major cultural movements of the mid-century—the New York School of Abstract Expressionism; the literary scene of New York’s East Village; and the modern Jazz and Beat circle in New York and the Bay Area. In 1990 Monroe stated: “As a Black artist, I might have a tow to carry. I’m prepared to do that.”

Monroe’s colorful, spirited canvases are charged with the energy of the cultural crossroads that the artist was part of—his friendship with Charlie Parker, mentorship with the renowned artist Hans Hofmann, a studio facing that of Willem de Kooning’s, and evenings at the infamous Cedar Tavern with other artists, including Franz Kline and Jackson Pollock. As art critic, Jan Avvgikos, wrote in Artforum, “We need this art and this history. Now.”

Co-curated by: Linda Keaton, Alistair Monroe, and Anna Valverde.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Arthur Monroe was educated at The Boy’s School in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn and at the Brooklyn Museum Art School (BMAS). Monroe then trained at the Art Students League under the private tutelage of the seminal abstractionist Hans Hofmann. Monroe was part of the Abstract Expressionist art scene in the Bay Area, where after serving in the Korean War, he was part of the Beat Generation of writers, musicians, poets, and painters in San Francisco’s North Beach district. In the 1970s, Monroe set up one of California’s first legal live/workspaces at the Oakland Cannery, where he continued his work as an Abstract Expressionist, and was widely respected as an artist, educator, and community activist until his death in 2019.