Cover image:  War Babies poster on display at Librairie Marian Goodman (detail)
 © Entrée to Black Paris

Dagny Corcoran, Director of Books and Multiples at the Librairie Marian Goodman in the Marais, invited me to see this bookstore's impressive collection of catalogs of works by black artists as well as to view an exhibition of works by Los Angeles artists that she curated there.

I was intrigued and impressed by both!

The catalogs were displayed on a long table on the left side of the store.  They represent a veritable "Who's Who" among black contemporary artists, from Alma Thomas to Mark Bradford.

Catalog Display (1)
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Catalog Display (2)
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Catalog Display (3)
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Additional catalogs were displayed on stands on a table across the aisle.

Catalog Display (4)
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Catalog Display (5)
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One of the individually displayed catalogs presents works by Ed Bereal, one of four artists whose works were featured in the controversial War Babies exhibition at the Huysman Gallery in Los Angeles in 1960. 

Catalog Display - Ed Bereal
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War Babies is featured in the exhibition that is displayed at the rear of the store.  Works subsequently created by the artists who contributed to this show are held in contrast with works created by another "breed" of contemporary artists, the Ferus Gallery "Studs."

Photo © Jerry McMillan; Design © Joe Goode
Image of graphic displayed at Librairie Marian Goodman
© Entrée to Black Paris

"The Studs" Group Show at Ferus Gallery, 1964
Exhibition Poster
Image of graphic displayed at Librairie Marian Goodman
© Entrée to Black Paris

War Babies was one of the earliest racially integrated exhibitions shown in postwar America.  Bereal and his fellow contributing artists - Joe Goode, Larry Bell and Ron Miyashiro - were all born in the late 1930s and grew up during the Second World War.  The works they submitted for the show forcefully challenged the stereotypical attitudes of the era.

The signature poster that advertised the show incited significant controversy because of its exaggerated ethnic and religious clichés. Curator Corcoran describes it as follows:

It depicted the four friends seated at a table, covered with an American flag littered with crumbs and cigarettes. Each of the artists posed with a stereotypical prop: Ed Bereal (African American) held a watermelon, Larry Bell (Jewish) was eating a bagel, Joe Goode (Catholic) held a mackerel, and Ron Miyashiro (Japanese American) was using chopsticks ...

Liberals and conservatives alike criticized the poster, and Hopkins' backers refused to continue to support the gallery. Huysmans Gallery closed in the summer of 1961.

Corcoran has devoted a table to the display of photos and documents that present the evolution of Bereal's artistic practice through the 1960s, including his shift to boycotting art shows and creating art for social justice after the 1965 Watts riots.   In her communication with me, she quotes him as saying "The deeper I got into the ghetto the further the art scene started to fade."

The table display includes information about Bodacious Buggerilla, the guerrilla theater troupe that Bereal founded. Corcoran states that the troupe performed "on street corners and church steps, in laundromats, prisons, and nightclubs" and that it "attacked the status quo and its institutional racism and capitalism while also teaching Black youth how to empower and defend themselves."

Table Display - Ed Bereal (1)
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Table Display - Ed Bereal (2)
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Table Display - Ed Bereal (3)
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In contrast to the War Babies artists, Corcoran indicated that the Ferus Gallery Studs "came to be known for their clean, apolitical aesthetic of meticulous object-making."

Works by all four War Babies artists and works by Billy Al Bengston, Vija Celmins, Edward Keinholz, Ken Price, and Ed Ruscha of the Studs are on display at the bookstore through Saturday, March 26, 2022.  These works include two framed self-portraits of Ed Bereal.

Ed Bereal self-portraits
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Libraire Marian Goodman
66 rue du Temple
75003 Paris
Telephone: 01 42 77 57 44
Website: mariangoodman.com
Metro: Rambuteau (Line 11)
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 11 AM - 7 PM

View of Librairie Marian Goodman
Crédit photo : Rebecca Fanuele
Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery