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Collage of five diverse artworks from the Hammer Museum Collections side by side. From left to right: 1) Contemporary painting of two embracing figures with surreal elements. 2) Post-impressionist style painting of trees with vibrant blues and greens. 3) Black and white illustration of a face with intricate patterns. 4) Japanese woodblock print style image of a figure in a checkered robe. 5) Photograph of a couple dancing, the woman in a black dress and the man in white

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Digital Archive Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980
Art Raymond Saunders, American Dream
American Dream, by Raymond Saunders, 1968

Raymond Saunders, Artist
American Dream , 1968

Medium
Oil and collage on canvas
Dimensions
69 1/4 x 41 in. (175.9 x 104.1 cm)
Credit Line
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, Massachusetts; Gift of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Childe Hassam Fund). Photo courtesy of Mount Holyoke College Art Museum

In this mixed-media painting, Saunders blatantly interrogates the promises of the American dream and what it meant for African Americans living in the United States during the late 1960s. The reality of the dream was influenced by restrictive housing laws, discrimination, and inflation. A definitive red line demarcates the top and bottom of the canvas, to which Saunders has added a newspaper clipping depicting a happy African American couple standing in front of an automobile. Born in Pittsburgh, Saunders received his MFA from California College of Arts and Crafts, and went on to teach at California State University in Hayward. He is currently a professor of painting at California College of the Arts, Oakland.