A newly divorced Zola Maie Graves, aka Zoe Dusanne, arrived in Seattle in 1912 at the age of 28 to join her parent's hair salon family business. One year later, Zoe’s mother Letitia Ann Dennie Graves was listed as the first president of the Seattle Chapter of the NAACP, with Zoe by her side as Recording Secretary.
Zoe Dusanne, ca. 1950s; Courtesy UW Special Collections (SOC9583)
Many have never heard of Zoe Dusanne, though her image is memorialized in the Midtown Square mural created by Takiyah Ward, and a profile of her was recently included as part of Crosscut’s Black Arts Legacies project. Still, more information about her history as the proprietor of the first modern art gallery in Seattle, which opened in 1950, is being uncovered and contributed to historical records.
A small cache of letters from Dusanne to artist Sam Francis has led to a deeper inquiry into her life and history. The Getty Research Institute currently houses the Sam Francis Papers, among them a spiral-bound collection of photographs from Dusanne’s final exhibit in her Lake Union home, in 1959.
Zoe’s story is one of pioneering in a field where people of her hue and background were rarely welcomed, let alone leading. The unfolding of her career switch into art dealer at the age of sixty-six is fascinating and poignantly marked by her acquaintance with artist Mark Tobey, whom she met at Cornish College where her daughter Theodosia trained as a dancer and actress, even though white parents leveled complaints that the Graves family attended performances.
The entire essay on Zoe Dusanne can be read online as part of the Sam Francis archive. Researchers have amassed a great deal of information chronicling the life of this remarkable woman, including numerous images of Dusanne in her home/gallery which was demolished to make way for Interstate 5, and her art.
Many thanks to Beth Ann Whittaker, Associate Director of the Sam Francis Foundation in Los Angeles and Plain Sight Archive for seeking out ARTE NOIR to share this information. The following archive essay is an absolute must-read, regardless of whether or not you are an art enthusiast. This is a piece of Pacific Northwest history that could be easily overlooked were it not for this significant documentation.
The full essay can be found on the Sam Francis Foundation website.
Zoe Dusanne in her Gallery, c. 1955 with works from her own collection. From left, Piet Mondrian, Amaryllis (1907), Jean Arp, Balcon I (1925), Fernand Léger, Mechanique No. 2 (1921), Marcel Duchamp, Discs Bearing Spirals Roto-Reliefs (1923). Unknown photographer.
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