‘Doyle Lane: Master of Clay’ — first major museum retrospective of the pioneering African American ceramist at The Huntington

The Huntington (The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens) in San Marino, California, has opened the exhibition “Doyle Lane: Master of Clay” at the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art, as Hyperallergic reports. The exhibition runs from September 13, 2026 through March 1, 2027 and is the first major museum retrospective devoted to Doyle Lane (1923–2002), the Los Angeles ceramist.

The exhibition brings together more than 100 works and archival documents tracing Lane’s development over nearly a century: from functional vessels to monumental murals that transformed ceramics into light-filled abstract constructions.

On view are his intimate vessels, his “weed pots” (the famous small vases with multicolored glazes), “clay paintings,” jewelry, beads and major architectural commissions — such as the 1964 mural for Mutual Savings and Loan in Pasadena.

The exhibition situates Lane within mid-century California modernism and the Southern California studio ceramics movement, while also addressing the obstacles he faced as an African American (and gay) artist at the time.

Doyle Lane was born in New Orleans in 1923, studied at USC (University of Southern California) and became one of the first successful African American studio ceramists; he died in 2002.