Hayward King (1928-1990)

Hayward King was born on March 28^th, 1928, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Pasadena, California. King grew up in Pasadena and attended public schools there. After high school, King attended Pasadena City College and UCLA before moving to San Francisco in 1948 to enroll in the arts program at the California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute). At the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA), during the height of the Post War abstract art movement, King would study under notable artists such as David Park, Richard Diebenkorn, James Budd Dixon, and Elmer Bischoff.

In 1954 King, along with Wally Hedrick and several other artists and poets, founded “The Six Gallery” at 3119 Fillmore Street in San Francisco. Artists such as Joan Brown and Manuel Neri would have their first shows at the Gallery. The Six Gallery would later become known as where the Beat Generation movement began. On Friday, October 7^th, 1955, The Six Gallery hosted an important and now historical poetry reading event known as the “Six Gallery Reading” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Gallery_reading.

In 1955 Hayward King received his BFA from CSFA. Also, in 1955 King received a Fulbright Grant Scholarship to study art at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, where he resided until 1957. From 1958 to 1962, he was the registrar at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI). In 1962, King became the registrar of the San Francisco Museum of Art (now San Francisco Museum of Modern Art – SFMOMA) and the first African American museum administrator in the Bay Area. Hayward King also served as the director of the Richmond Art Center from 1966 to 1970, Second Vice President of the Western Association of Art Museums from 1968 to 1970, and curator at the Bolles Gallery, San Francisco 1970 to 1974. He taught at the San Francisco State University from 1971 to 1978, was the curatorial consultant at the Palo Alto Cultural Center from 1972 to 1976, and was the director at Stuart Gallery in Berkeley, 1978-1979.

Museums and Exhibitions:
1955  The Six Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1959  San Francisco Museum of Art. 78^th Annual Painting and Sculpture Exhibition of the San Francisco Art Association
1959  Spatsa Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1960  California Palace of The Legion of Honor, San Francisco
1960  Edward Dean Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1961  California Palace of The Legion of Honor, San Francisco
1963  University of California, Davis, CA

Literature:
1996  Landauer, Susan.   The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism
1985  Albright, Thomas.  Art in the San Francisco Bay Area 1945-1980 / An Illustrated History
1992  Art of California: Selected Works From the Collection of The Oakland Museum

Sources:
askART.com
David Carlson, Carlson Gallery, California
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Gallery_reading
Landauer, Susan.   The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism
Albright, Thomas.  Art in the San Francisco Bay Area 1945-1980 / An Illustrated History

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