Richard Wyatt Jr. (born 1955) is a contemporary muralist best known for his public art in and around the city of Los Angeles. His murals can be found at the

Watts Towers The Watts Towers, Towers of Simon Rodia, or ''Nuestro Pueblo'' ("our town" in Spanish) are a collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers, architectural structures, and individual sculptural features and mosaics within the site of the artis ...

, the

Capitol Records Building The Capitol Records Building, also known as the Capitol Records Tower, is a 13-story tower building in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Designed by Louis Naidorf of Welton Becket Associates, it is one of the city's landmarks. Construction began soon after ...

, White Memorial Hospital, the

Ontario Airport Ontario International Airport is an international airport two miles east of downtown Ontario, in San Bernardino County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles and west of downtown San Bernardino. It is owned and operat ...

, the Wilshire and Western Metro station, the

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

East Portal, and many other locations.

Early life

Wyatt was born in

Lynwood, California Lynwood is a city in Los Angeles County, California. At the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 69,772, down from 69,845 at the 2000 census. Lynwood is located near South Gate and Compton in the central portion of the Los Angeles ...

and grew up in

Compton Compton may refer to: Places Canada * Compton (electoral district), a former Quebec federal electoral district * Compton (provincial electoral district), a former Quebec provincial electoral district now part of Mégantic-Compton * Compton, Que ...

before moving to

Crenshaw, Los Angeles Crenshaw, or the Crenshaw District, is a neighborhood in South Los Angeles, California. In the post–World War II era, a Japanese American community was established in Crenshaw. African Americans started migrating to the district in the mid ...

. Wyatt graduated from Fairfax High School. He went on to attend the

Chouinard Art Institute The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard (1879–1969) in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In 1961, Walt and Roy Disney guided the merger of the Chouinard Art In ...

from 1966 to 1968 and also studied in a Tutor Art Saturday youth program at the

Otis Art Institute Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...

. It was at Otis that Wyatt met and studied with Charles White, whose work was a major influence on him, and with John Riddle, who helped him improve his technique and encouraged him to address social themes in his art. Wyatt earned his B.F.A. from UCLA in 1978, and by then he had already established contacts in Los Angeles' mural movement.

Career

Wyatt showed artistic promise from an early age. When he was twelve, he won $200 at the first Watts Chalk-In, a sidewalk art contest sponsored by the Studio Watts Workshop. At thirteen, he participated in an art show at the Los Angeles Bahá’í Center, where he exhibited alongside

John Outterbridge John Outterbridge (March 12, 1933 – November 12, 2020) was an American artist and community activist who lived and worked in Los Angeles, California. His work explores the issues surrounding personal identity such as family, community and the e ...

, who became a mentor and advocate. Other influential early mentors included Cecil Fergerson and Claude Booker, whom he met through his participation in the Watts Summer Festival. At the age of seventeen, Wyatt was selected to be part of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's 1972 "Panorama of Black Artists" exhibition, which garnered him widespread recognition and effectively launched his career as a member of the city's African American artistic community. Wyatt has worked as a teacher and lecturer, assisting

at the Watts Tower Arts Center from 1974–1978, and doing part-time, occasional teaching at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

and at the

. But since 1989, he has been able to devote himself full-time to his art.

Notes

External links

Official website

Artist's page at Mural Conservancy site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wyatt, Richard Jr. 1955 births Living people Artists from Los Angeles American muralists African-American contemporary artists American contemporary artists American contemporary painters African-American painters UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni Chouinard Art Institute alumni 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people