In 1902, when Sargent Claude Johnson’s mother died, he became an orphan at 15. He and his siblings moved into his aunt and uncle’s house shortly afterwards. Chance would have it that his aunt, May Howard Jackson, was a pioneering Black sculptor who specialized in poignant portrait busts. Johnson never forgot his aunt’s teachings. He later enrolled in the California School of Fine Arts, where he studied with the sculptors Beniamo Bufano and Ralph Stackpole. Until his death in 1967, Johnson worked arduously, producing jaunty African masks and small-scale figures. In this eye-opening exhibition, 41 works from the Huntington’s collection are on view, shedding light on one of the first Black artists working in California to achieve a national reputation. —Elena Clavarino