California Art History
with an emphasis on representational art
Other online texts and images
page 1 1894... through California...
page 2 Carmel... through Natural...
page 3 Ocean... through Wayne...
(above: Guy Rose (1867-1925), Monterey Cypress, circa 1918, oil on canvas, 21 1/8 x 24 inches, Crocker Art Museum. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Carmel Mission Basilica's Web site includes information on exhibits of California art and artists. Accessed July, 2015.
Catherine Opie: 700 Nimes Road was an exhibit held June 10 - Sep 11 at University of Michigan Museum of Art, which said: "This exhibition presents new and recent work by Los Angeles-based artist Catherine Opie, one of the essential figures in contemporary photography. Beginning in 2010, Opie spent six months taking photographs at the Bel Air, California, residence of Elizabeth Taylor (19322011). The exhibition includes fifty works drawn from two series, Closets and Jewels and 700 Nimes Road. Opie's lens captures the essence of the Hollywood legend through her personal objects and mementos, and portrays Taylor's life experience and eccentricity as an illusory subject, one that cannot be specifically designated or precisely described. In the artist's words, the project is not about the relationship to celebrity but about 'the relationship to what is human.'" "Catherine Opie's 700 Nimes Road review - LA's triple-threat shines like a diamond" by Jordan Riefe was posted 9 February 2016 by theguardian.com. The article has numerous quotes by the artist. Accessed August, 2016.
Chapters: Book Arts in Southern California is a 2017 exhibit at the Craft and Folk Art Museum which says: "The exhibition features over 100 artists' books (unique and mass editions), altered and sculptural books, zines, and artist-driven publications made in Southern California between the 1960s and present day." Accessed 2/17
Chouinard Art Institute, from Wikipedia. Accessed July, 2015.
Claremont Modern: The Fiesta Artists of Padua Hills, 1953-1959, an exhibit held November 18 December 18, 2011 at the Claremont Museum of Art. Accessed July, 2014
Coastline to Skyline: The Philip H. Greene Gift of California Watercolors, 1930-1960, an exhibit held October 11, 2008, through January 4, 2009 at the Hood Museum of Art. Includes essay by Barbara J. MacAdam, Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art, audio lecture and press release. Accessed January, 2015.
Contraption: Rediscovering California Jewish Artists is a 2018 exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum which says: "Contraption: Rediscovering California Jewish Artists is a group show that presents the work of sixteen California-identified artists of Jewish descent - both historical and living - whose work refers to the machine either literally or metaphorically." Also see press release Accessed 3/18
Creating an Artistic Basis: Local Artists Groups from the Early 20th Century, an exhibit held August 2, 2010 to October 8, 2012 at the San Diego Historical Society Museum. Includes press coverage. Accessed April, 2015.
Drawing On The Past: Works on Paper is a 2018 exhibit at the Irvine Museum Collection which says: "Drawing on the Past is a remarkable display of drawings, pastels, watercolors and etchings by California artists dating as far back as the 1880s." Accessed 8/18
Dusk till Dawn is a 2017 exhibit at the Irvine Museum which says: "Usually, an artist will paint a beautiful landscape bursting in bright sunlight with colorful trees and flowers, things one would expect to see during the day. This exhibition is different as the paintings on display show those same subjects but at night or at the outer edges of the day, when the sun is setting or when it is rising." To read more after exhibit closes, go to "Past Exhibitions" section of museum website. Accessed 6/17
Early Artists in Yosemite from Yosemite Indians and Other Sketches (1936) by Mrs. H. J. Taylor, from www.yosemite.ca.us. Accessed July, 2015.
Early California Art Blog, with illustrated texts about exhibits at museums, historic artists and other information, by William A. Karges Fine Art Accessed July, 2015.
(above: Franz Arthur Bischoff, Arroyo Seco, 18 x 24 inches, Steven Stern Collection. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Early Days in California: William Keith, John Muir, and Joseph LeConte, an exhibit held January 15 - May 21, 2005 at the Saint Mary's College Museum of Art. Accessed April, 2015.
Early Los Angeles Art Galleries, Clubs, Museums, Art Schools and Teachers from California Art Club. Accessed July, 2015.
Early Sculpture and Sculptors in San Diego by Bruce Kamerling from San Diego History Center . Accessed July, 2015.
E. Charlton Fortune: The Colorful Spirit is a 2017 exhibit at the Pasadena Museum of California Art which says: "One of California's most trailblazing artists, E. Charlton Fortune (1885-1969) had a thriving career as a painter until the age of forty-three, when she began a pioneering new vocation in liturgical art. E. Charlton Fortune: The Colorful Spirit pairs the artist's impressionist and modernist landscapes with her ecclesiastical paintings, sculptures, furnishings, and other designs produced for the Catholic Church." Also see press release. Accessed 9/17
El Camino del Oro is a 2019 exhibit at the UCI Institute and Museum of California Art which says: "Although the missions in Baja California are older-the earliest of which was established at Loreto in 1697-the first mission in what is now the state of California was founded in San Diego by Spanish Franciscan friars in 1769. Over the next fifty years, Spanish missionaries established a total of 21 missions throughout California, stretching as far north as Sonoma. They were connected by El Camino Real, also called the Royal Road or the King's Highway, a route that today's Highway 101 approximates." Accessed 5/20
Exuberant Earth: Ceramics by Ruth Rippon is a 2017 exhibit at the Crocker Art Museum which says: "Featuring 90 pieces from the 1950s through the 1990s, Exuberant Earth: Ceramics by Ruth Rippon collectively demonstrates the breadth of the 90-year-old artist's prolific and influential career." Also see press release Accessed 12/17
Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California, an exhibit held September 20, 2014 - April 12, 2015 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Includes videos. Accessed April, 2015.
Form and Landscape: Southern California Edison and the Los Angeles Basin, 1940-1990, an online exhibit from Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, featuring numerous essays and photographs. Accessed August, 2015.
The Founding of the California Art Club: December 1909 from California Art Club. Accessed July, 2015.
Form and Landscape: Southern California Edison and the Los Angeles Basin, 1940-1990, an online exhibit from Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, featuring numerous essays and photographs. Accessed May, 2014.
Full Spectrum - Paintings by Raimonds Staprans is a 2017 exhibit at the Crocker Art Museum which says: "Born and raised in Riga, Latvia, Raimonds Staprans has lived in Northern California for more than six decades - nearly his entire career... Many of his paintings showcase the landscape and architecture of the Golden State, having an equal basis in reality and the artist's imagination." Also see 3//13/17 article in Sacramento Bee. Also hear or see Archives of American Art oral history interview with Raimonds Staprans Accessed 8/17
Gallery 32 and Its Circle: Los Angeles' African American Art Community in the 1960s and '70s, an exhibit held January 24 - March 22, 2009 at the Laband Art Gallery at Loyola Marymount University. Includes media reviews. Accessed February, 2015
The Golden Twenties: Portraits and Figure Paintings by Joseph Kleitsch is a 2017 exhibit at the Pasadena Museum of California Art which says: "The Golden Twenties is the first museum exhibition to assemble Kleitsch's remarkable portraits and figure paintings. With a jewel-toned palette influenced by his native Hungary and a lighter, golden palette developed after his arrival in California, the works demonstrate the artist's exceptional ability to reveal the unique personality, demeanor, and essence of each subject." Also see press release. Accessed 9/17
Groves of Gold: California Fruit Box Labels, an exhibit held March 19 - August 14, 2005 at the California Heritage Museum. Accessed December, 2015
Harmony of Light: Spring in California is a 2018 exhibit at the Irvine Museum Collection which says: "Harmony of Light comprises a selection of paintings by California Impressionists that show Spring in California from nearly a century ago. Although the year-round mild climate was a key factor in the growth of the Golden State, it was in the Spring that nature put on her most glorious display." Accessed 4/18
Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University opened in 2016. According to Chapman University, "The collection, which includes oils, watercolors, sketches and lithographs of urban and industrial scenes, coastal views, farms, ranches and landscapes of everyday life, is a significant repository of art of the 20th century by California artists." Orange County, California is blessed with three museums dedicated to California art. The Hilbert Museum, in the City of Orange, and Mission San Juan Capistrano, Landmark, Chapel, Museum and Gardens, in the City of San Juan Capistrano, are connected by a 35 minute train ride between Metrolink stations. Both museums are within a one block walking distance from their respective stations. By auto, they are 1/2 hour apart. The UCI Institute and Museum of California Art, in the City of Irvine, is available by auto 15 minutes from the Hilbert Museum and 20 minutes from Mission San Juan Capistrano. Accessed July, 2021
Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia is a 2017 exhibit at the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive which says: "The BAMPFA presentation highlights the key role the Bay Area -- and especially Berkeley -- played in the art, architecture, and design of the counterculture movement. Creative innovators in Bay Area communities sought to create radical change -- technological, political, and ecological -- on the streets, in the classroom, and in government policy. See the press release. Accessed 3/17
History of the Carmel Art Association is presented on the CAA website. Includes brief biographies of several historic artists. Accessed May, 2015.
Independent Visions: Women Artists of California 1880-1940 is a 2015 exhibit at the Irvine Museum which says: "The exhibition highlights a wide variety of artistic styles, including the Tonalist style of the late 1800s, the Impressionist period of the early 1900s, and the Regionalist style of the 1930s and 1940s. The works vary from classically-inspired portraits and still-lifes to bold Modernist paintings that document the progressive trends of women painters." Accessed 12/18
Inner Visions: Women Artists of California, an exhibit held March 17 through June 7, 2012 at The Irvine Museum. Accessed February, 2015.
Interview With Gordon McClelland, Curator of "Narrative Visions," an exhibition at the Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University. The interview was conducted June 6, 2016. McClelland discusses the California Scene paintings collection of Mark Hilbert. The Art Collections at Chapman University blog page for the interview also contains a video. Accessed August, 2016
In the Land of Sunshine: Imaging the California Coast Culture is a 2016-17 exhibit curated by Gordon T. McClelland at Pasadena Museum of California Art. PMCA says the exhibit: "...assembles approximately 90 paintings inspired by the stunning vistas, lifestyles, and industries existing along the 840 miles of California coastline. Spanning from the mid-1800s to the present day, the oils, acrylics, and watercolors represent the diversity of California's artistic style as well as the surfers, sailors, sport fisherman, and residents who have settled in the beaches, harbors, cities, and ranches that dot the coast." Also see the press release and "How California's beaches inspired amazing artwork" by Michelle Mills, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, 9/28/16. Accessed 10/16.
(above: Theodore Wores (1859-1939), Monterey Coast: 17 Mile Drive, 1919, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
I See Beauty in this Life: A Photographer Looks at 100 Years of Rural California, an exhibit held October 28, 2012 - March 23, 2013 at California Historical Society Museum. Includes gallery guide and numerous photos of gallery walls. Accessed June, 2014
L.A. Skin & Ink is a 2012-13 exhibit at the Craft and Folk Art Museum which says: "The exhibition will move through the transformation of tattooing from its traditional base of military and outlaw cultures into an art form of great distinction and adoption into contemporary culture." Accessed 2/17
Lasting Impressions: Twenty Years of The Irvine Museum, an exhibit held January 26-June 6, 2013 at The Irvine Museum. Accessed February, 2015.
Los Angeles Murals by Ruth Wallach, from USC Libraries. Accessed August, 2015.
Los Angeles Museum of Art provides via the Reading Room section of its website online exhibition catalogues regarding "Pacific Time" exhibitions from 1958 through 2001. Accessed July, 2015.
1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition references:
The Lure of Chinatown: Painting California's Chinese Communities is a 2014 exhibit at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art which says: "Featuring paintings spanning over several decades, The Lure of Chinatown: Painting California's Chinese Communities provides a captivating narrative of how the image of Chinatown transformed in reaction to changing social, political, and artistic developments." Accessed 10/18
(above: Theodore Wores (1859-1939), The Chinese Fishmonger, 1881, oil on canvas, 41.2 x 52.5 inches, Smithsonian American Art Museum. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Margaret Kilgallen: that's where the beauty is is a 2019 exhibit at the Aspen Art Museum which says: "Using her exhibition history as a chronological tool to guide viewers through the space, that's where the beauty is. examines Kilgallen's roots in the longstanding histories of printmaking, American and Non-Western folk history and folklore, and feminist strategies of representation." Also see Mission School in Wikipedia. Accessed 3/19
Mastering the Medium: Works on Paper, an exhibit held June 19-September 19, 2013 at The Irvine Museum. Accessed February, 2015.
Moods of California is a 2017 exhibit at the Irvine Museum Collection which says: "Our Golden State is a multi-faceted expanse of land that boasts seven unique ecological regions, each with distinctive flora, fauna and climate. These regions are: North Coast, Central Coast, South Coast, Shasta-Cascades, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley and Desert. This exhibition explores the various landscapes that characterize California." Accessed 12/17
Naked Hollywood: Weegee in Los Angeles, an exhibit held November 13, 2011 - February 27, 2012 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Includes Gallery Guide. Accessed March, 2015.
Narrative Visions: 20th Century California Art From The Hilbert Collection is a 2016 exhibition at the Hilbert Museum. See the 2/24/16 KCET article by Liz Goldner for information about the museum's inagural exhibition. Accessed 7/21
page 1 1894... through California...
page 2 Carmel... through Natural...
page 3 Ocean... through Wayne...
(above: Henrietta Shore, Study for Mural of Rock Breakers, Smithsonian American Art Museum. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
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