.News & Events

December 2007  

November 10, 2007.  Visits to Three Laguna Beach Collections: Ehrlich Collection, Selman Collection, lunch at Picayo, and Hall Collection.  Limited to 40 people – priority given to members who have joined the HCC within the last three years.

December 9, 2007, 5:30 p.m..  Annual Christmas Party, at the home of Bob and Nadine Hall in Emerald Bay.  Bob was a former HCC president, and in his retirement from real estate, he is now painting watercolors.

The Historical Art Council of the Laguna Art Museum held a special home/art tour on Saturday, November 10.  The day began with a look at the art in the beach house belonging to Ed and Yvonne Boseker.  During the visit, James Irvine Swinden, vice-president of The Irvine Museum, spoke on the early Laguna Beach artists.  Lunch was at the St. Regis Resort’s Club 19.  The afternoon was spent at Ray and Beverly Redfern’s home.  Owner of Redfern Galleries in Laguna Beach, Ray put together a textbook collection of California Impressionism.  Visitors also viewed the Redfern’s rock, mineral and sculpture garden and saw the recently completed eighteen-foot mural on the back wall of their home that recreates a Hanson Puthuff painting.  Special guest, Jean Stern, spoke about their collection. 

The American Art Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art visited the Beverly Hills home of Ruth and Bob Mirvis on September 16^th.   The Mirvis’s collect art glass and pottery, as well as Art Deco objects, but most important to us – California paintings.  George Stern led a tour of their collection talking about works by Joseph Kleitsch, Granville Redmond, Jessie Arms Botke, Armin Hansen, Alfredo Ramos Martinez, Alfred Mitchell, and Phil Paradise.

The Huntington Library, that acquired the entire life work of Los Angeles based architectural/garden photographer Maynard L. Parker, has received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant that will allow cataloging of the 65,000 images to make them accessible to the public.  (A brief article on Parker’s photo of a Cliff May designed ranch home appears in Huntington Frontiers, Fall/Winter 2007.)

The American Art Galleries have been reinstalled at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and among the works hanging is Arthur Frank Mathews’s Monterey Cypress, California, ca. 1930, a promised gift of Nancy Daly Riordan.

October 12, 13, 14, 2007.  Jack Palance Estate Auction, Jack Palance’s Holly Brooke Ranch, Tehachapi, Ca.  See www.jackpalaceestate.com.   Over 3000 lots: Western theme paintings, metal work, objets d’art, antique cars, furniture, Indian rugs, and many of Palance’s own paintings.

Trotter Galleries of Carmel has opened a second gallery in Pacific Grove, the Gallery’s original site.  Its new website is www.TrotterGalleries.com. 

Harvey Jones, former Senior Curator of Art at the Oakland Museum of California retired in December 2006.   (See his biography in the May 2005 Newsletter.)   He writes that retirement suits him and his health seems stable with hopes of further improvement.  He can be reached at home at harvey462@earthlink.net.  Oakland’s new Senior Curator of Art is  Phil Linhares.

 The Huntington Library in San Marino announces the acquisition of Arthur B. Davies’s painting California Mountain Scene, 1905.  Davies, an important New York City modernist and organizer of the infamous 1913 Armory Show, visited California and painted only a few works.  This work depicts a panorama of the Sierra Nevada near Lake Tahoe.  It is reproduced on the museum’s website.

The Biltmore Salon, located in the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles from about 1925 to 1990, was one of the most instrumental of the city’s art galleries.   Its history is now being written by Dean, of Waterside Studios, using archives owned by Steve Rose who now runs the Biltmore Galleries in Scottsdale, Arizona.  If anyone has any information about the Biltmore they would like to share, please contact Dean at watersidestudios@comcast.net.   

The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History owns a complete 20-volume set of Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian, published between 1907 and 1930.  The library also owns original (1907-1917) correspondence between Charlotte Bowditch and Curtis along with photographs and receipts.  California Indians are included in Curtis’s oeuvre.

The Autry National Center, Collections online, displays Eva Scott Fenyes’ watercolors of missions and adobes, Carl Eytel’s drawings of the desert, paintings by such artists as Joe deYong, Will James, Maynard Dixon, Albert Bierstadt, John Woodhouse Audubon, etc., drawings by Native Americans, hand-painted posters (1930s-1950s) by H. Arden Edwards, works by WPA artists of the 1930s, 19^th century letter sheets, movie posters and lobby cards, Native American baskets, textiles, bead and leather work.  Begin at www.autrynationalcenter.org/mweb/base.html

Janet Fireman, long time Curator of History at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County – and thus in charge of that museum’s art collection – retired several years ago and is now editor of California History, published by the California Historical Society in San Francisco.  That magazine, over the years, has carried many articles on historic California art.   Janet can be reached at jfireman@nhm.org.

Mentor Huebner’s website www.mentorhuebnerart.com has been updated.

The “Galleries” section of this website has been updated with pointers to many new websites relating to California art and artists.  New galleries added are Anderson Shea Fine Art in Santa Barbara, Stewart Galleries in Palm Springs, and S. R. Brennen Galleries in Palm Desert.

Thirteen Ray Boynton murals in the Modesto, Ca., Post Office painted in 1936 under a WPA project are under the threat of destruction.  A February 1, 2005 article in the Modesto Bee On-Line explains that the Modesto Federal Building and Post Office at 1125 “I” St., a landmark since the early 1930s, was declared “surplus government property” by the federal General Services Administration.   As of 2007, civic leaders are still deciding how the former buildings will be re-used – as a homeless shelter, a museum, etc.  When the building was renovated in the mid-1960s, six of the murals vanished.  They still have not been located.  Subjects included Modesto-area manufactories such as meat packing, dairying, threshing, plowing, and dehydrating fruit.

The Museum of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will finally be a reality on eight acres in Hollywood, just a block southwest of Sunset and Vine, immediately adjoining the Academy’s existing Pickford Center.  The Museum’s mission is to celebrate and explore how film has reflected and shaped world culture through exhibits, public programs, and hands-on exhibits.  The AMPS has a strong track record of exhibits documenting the various kinds of art that lie behind motion picture production and these will ostensibly be moved to this complex when it is finished.  See the website www.moviemuseum.org.

Another new museum is the ASIFA – Hollywood Animation Archive.  Located at 2114 West Burbank Blvd., Burbank, Ca. 91506.  The Archive has been in operation for two years.  To date it has digitized well over 15,000 images and 2,500 animated films.  On its website are listed nearly 450 articles on various aspects of animation.  Volunteers work daily to build out its animation database.  The Cartoon Hall of Fame section includes biographies of animators.  See www.AnimationArchive.org or call 818-842-4691.

The Art Guild of the Oakland Museum of California’s Art Department should have been included in the list of art councils in the last Newsletter.   (The Art Guild is primarily interested in post-1945 California art.)  The Art Guild supports the museum’s Art Department through fundraising, service, education and outreach.  The Guild’s programs include art-related trips to destinations throughout the U. S. and abroad and day tours with curators to Bay Area art venues.  Guild volunteers publish a bimonthly newsletter and help maintain the art research library.  For more information see the website: www.museumca.org/global/art/build.html.

Alcala Gallery of La Jolla sends out a periodic post card on which newly acquired paintings are reproduced.  The Autumn 2007 card reproduces works by Alfred Mitchell, Maurice Braun, Edgar Payne, Charles Fries and Evylena Nunn Miller.

William J. Tuttle, pioneering film makeup artist, died Monday, July 30, 2007 of complications related to old age.  He was 95.  During his 35-year career at MGM, he created innovative techniques, trained many fellow makeup artists, and his innovative work on the “7 Faces of Dr. Lao” prompted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to officially recognize his craft.  He won the first Oscar in 1965.  Tuttle was born April 13, 1912 in Jacksonville, Fla. and raised by his mother.   In his teens he had to drop out of school to help support her and his younger brother.  At 18, Tuttle moved to LA where he took art classes at USC with Charles Schram, who became his longtime makeup-effects collaborator.  His first job was with Twentieth Century Pictures but he soon moved to MGM where the goal was to make all actresses beautiful and all actors handsome.  In 1975 Tuttle created his own line of makeup called Custom Color Cosmetics, which was the most popular makeup among Hollywood professionals for at least two decades.  When MGM dismantled its back lot in the 1970s, Tuttle was left with many plaster life masks of actors which he used to develop the makeup for the living person.  More than 100 of these were given to USC where he taught from 1970 to 1995.   (from the LA Times obituary, Friday, August 3, 2007, OC, B8)

Vincent Andrew Aldrin, son of artist Anders Aldrin, passed away August 8, 2007.  After retiring as a contractor for custom designed and built homes, Vince promoted his father’s paintings and pastels resulting in several exhibitions, catalogues and magazine articles.  Currently in the works for Anders Aldrin is a show titled “Los Angeles 1924-1942” at Sullivan Goss Gallery in Santa Barbara.  A book, showing Aldrin’s paintings side by side with contemporary photographs of the same sites by Gil Garcetti will be published.

Permanent displays of historic (pre-1945) California paintings can be found at many institutions.  (The websites for some of these institutions can be found at www.californiaart.com at the end of the ‘Galleries’ section.)  Arranged North to South.

(See earlier Newsletters for exhibits that might still be on view.)

PAST

April 18 – October 31, 2006.  A Master’s Brush with the Sea: William A. Coulter, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.  See KahnFoundation.org/WACoulterExhibition.htm

October 6 – 27, 2007.  Sam Hyde Harris, A Retrospective, Michael Hollis Fine Art, 238 Pasadena Ave., South Pasadena, Ca. 91030.  See also www.michaelhollisfineart.com.

October 12, 2007, 6-10 p.m.  Art Night, Pasadena.  13 Pasadena art/book/music locations open their doors with shuttles plying between them.  Most important to the HCC is the Pasadena Museum of California Art where the show “California Colors: Benjamin Brown” is on view.  At the Pasadena Public Library is a show “L. A. Skin: Multicultural Festival” which features Leo Politi’s Children of Los Angeles exhibit.  Told by Ann Stalcup, Politi’s story is accompanied by dance and music by Tierra Blanca Dance Center.  At the Pasadena Playhouse at 39 South Molino Ave., a show “Exploring Design Crafts” displays fabulous scenic designs, costumes, music and dance through models and renderings of the Playhouse’s grandest shows.  (See Publications in California Art, no. 8 for the several important designers who worked at the Playhouse before 1940.)  See also pasadenaartweekend.com for more details on this and other weekend presentations.

October 13 – 14, 2007.  The Golden California Antiques Show, Glendale Civic Auditorium, Glendale, Ca.  Promotes the art of pre-WWII California including Monterey, California Rancho, Spanish Colonial & Revival, Mission Arts & Crafts, Old Mexico, American Indian, California & Southwestern Fine Art, Furnishings, Pottery & Accessories.  See the website: www.goldencaliforniashow.com.

October 13 – November 25, 2007.  1957, Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery, Santa Barbara.  The works in this unique idea for a show include some created by artists of interest to collectors of historic art.  Included are works by Karl Benjamin (the hard-edge abstractionist), Lorser Feitelson (post-Surrealist and modernist), Richard Haines (abstracted realist), Dan Lutz (watercolorist and expressionist), Bentley Schaad (abstracted realist) and Elise Seeds (1930s modernist). 

Through October, 2007.  Defining the American West after 1890, Adamson-Duvannes Galleries, San Vicente Blvd., L. A.  After the western frontier was declared officially closed in 1890, a new generation of artists began to define the West from memory and nostalgia, capturing the country’s imagination, including George Brandriff, Dean Chapman, J. Bond Francisco, A. B. Frost, Warren Newcombe, Ralph Blakelock, Ben Carre, Armin Hansen, John Hubbard Rich, Millard Sheets and Lemuel Wiles, among others. (from Art Scene, October 2007)

Through October 20, 2007.  Recent Acquisitions, George Stern Fine Arts, West Hollywood.

Through October 29, 2007.  Yosemite’s Structure & Textures: Photographs by Eadweard Muybridge, Carleton Watkins & Others, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto. 

Through November 9, 2007.  CalAsia, Gallery C, 1225 Hermosa Ave., Hermosa Beach.  Asian artists from California from 1940-2007, curated by Chip Thom.  Includes sculptor Ruth Asawa, painter George Chann, and watercolorist Tyrus Wong, among others.

Through  November 10, 2007 (opened September 27, 2007).  The Jones Collection Liquidation, Claremont Fine Arts.  Kasey Jones assembled his collection of California Style watercolors over the last 15 years.  Among the over 75 works are some by Millard Sheets, Rex Brandt, Barse Miller, Phil Paradise, Charles Payzant, George Post, Robert E. Wood, Tom Craig, George Gibson, Ken Potter, Jade Fon, Gerald Brommer, Milford Zornes and others.   See also www.claremontfinearts.com.

Through November 10, 2007.  Peter Krasnow, paintings, sculpture, prints, Tobey C. Moss Gallery, L. A.  This mini overview emphasizes early lithography inspired by Krasnow’s move to California, and late abstract totems in wood.  Krasnow evolved from academic figuration to modernism in the 1930s.

Through November 10, 2007.  Rico Lebrun, paintings, drawings, prints, Tobey C. Moss Gallery, L. A.

Through November 25, 2007 (opened July 31).  Edward Weston, Enduring Vision, The Getty Center, L. A.  Photographs spanning Weston’s entire career.

Through November 25, 2007 (opened October 5, 2007).  Imogen Cunningham and Rondal Partridge Paired, East/West Gallery, 714 Bond Ave., Santa Barbara.  Photographs.

ON VIEW

Ongoing.  Ventura Municipal Art Collection, City of Ventura Municipal Art Gallery & Downtown Cultural District, City Hall, 501 Poli Street, Ventura.  Includes work by Cornelis and Jessie Arms Botke and Beatrice Wood.

Through December 8, 2007 (opened November 9, 2007).  Thaddeus and Ludmilla Welch, North Point Gallery, San Francisco.   Married when Thaddeus was a sophisticated European-trained artist and Ludmilla a teen-ager eager for lessons in art, the couple suffered many vicissitudes before they achieved comfort.  For many years they lived in a remote cabin at Steep Ravine in Marin County and together sketched the area’s picturesque rolling hills.  The exhibition features paintings by both artists recently discovered in the attic of Ludmilla’s sister’s grandson.  They include a variety of sizes, subject and media (sketches and watercolors).  Also included from a different provenance is Thaddeus’s major painting of Pikes Peak, Colorado, dated August 1888.  (From a 3-fold brochure that contains 4 color reproductions.)

Through December 15, 2007 (opened November 16, 2007).  California Scene Paintings, 1930 to 1970, Sage Hill School, Johnson Family Library, 20402 Newport Coast Drive, Newport Beach, Ca.  For further information call 949-219-0100, x. 1425.

Through December 16, 2007 (opened September 28).    Art of the Motion Picture Illustrator, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills.  Focuses on artwork created from the late 1940s through the early 1990s from the personal collections of three outstanding illustrators: William B. Major, Harold Michelson, and Tyrus Wong.  These works, which rely on art school training, comprise a classic period of motion picture illustrating predating the computer.  Major and Wong attended Otis Art Institute, while Michelson studied in New York.  Major and Michelson both worked at Paramount.  Wong worked for three years at Disney where his distinctive watercolor style shaped the look of Bambi.  He went on to three decades of illustration at Warner Brothers.  (from the website) 

Through December 22, 2007 (opened September 29, 2007).  Dance the Line: Paintings by Karl Benjamin, Louis Stern Fine Arts, West Hollywood, Ca.  Benjamin was a hard edge abstractionist who rose to prominence in the 1950s.  This show is accompanied by a sizeable, hard cover catalogue with many reproductions.  (see “Books” below.)

Through December 30, 2007 (opened June 23, 2007).  Desert Painters & Photographers, Palm Springs Art Museum.  Paintings and photographs from the 20^th century showing the desert in a variety of styles.

Through December 31, 2007 (opened June 1, 2007).  Monterey Artists, Stevenson House of the Monterey State Historic Park, Monterey, Ca.  Consists of twelve diverse paintings and drawings from the collections at the Larkin House, Casa Soberanes and the Stevenson House.  The show augments the existing permanent collection displayed a the Stevenson House, former residence of writer Robert Louis Stevenson, and home to some of the artists in this new exhibition, including Jules Tavernier, C. S. Price, and August Gay.  Artists included are Percy Gray, Charles Bradford Hudson, M. Evelyn McCormick, Francis McComas, Arthur Hill Gilbert, Lionel Barrymore, Armin Hansen, Helen Bruton and Paul Whitman.

Through December 31, 2007 (opened November 1, 2007).  Early Desert Painters 1900-1960, Edenhurst Gallery, Palm Desert.

Through December 31, 2007 (opened November 16, 2007).  California Impressionists of the Southland: The Shimmering Visions of Dedrick Brandes Stuber 1878-1954 and Richard Dey DeRibcowsky 1880-1936, Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery.  Additional works by Arthur Merton Hazard, Gustave Adolph Magnussen, Sam Hyde Harris, Anna Hills, Florence Upson Young and others.

Through  January 7, 2008 (opened November 24, 2007).  Beginning Collector, George Stern Fine Arts, West Hollywood.  The show is accompanied by a 3-fold brochure with 18 color reproductions and a priced checklist.

Through January 20, 2008 (opened October 6, 2007).  Julius Shulman’s Los Angeles, Los Angeles Central Library, L. A.  Borrowed from the archive owned by the Getty Research Institute, these 150 photographs, all in black and white, depict various sites in greater Los Angeles including skyscrapers, business districts, infrastructure and public landmarks.  Also included are iconic images of modernist private architecture for which Shulman is best known.

Through January 27, 2008 (opened October 28, 2007).  Wayne Thiebaud: 70 Years of Painting, Laguna Art Museum.  Thiebaud, a Bay Area artist of the mid twentieth century, painted pop objects in a representational but expressive manner. 

Through February 17, 2008 (opened October 25, 2007).  Coloring the West: Watercolors and Oils by Edward Borein, Santa Barbara Historical Museum.  (For catalogue, see “Books” below.)

Through  March 15, 2008 (opened October 23, 2007).  Romance of the Bells: The California Missions in Art, The Irvine Museum, Irvine, Ca.  See also: www.irvinemuseum.org.

Through March 17, 2008 (opened November 14, 2007).  In Love and Friendship: Schulz Originals from the Community, Charles M. Schulz Museum, Santa Rosa.  Over the course of his career, Schulz presented friends and acquaintances with original drawings, letters, birthday greetings and get well wishes.  As much as his cartoons, these show the artist’s humor and compassion.

Through May 16, 2008 (opened October 17, 2007).  Portrait of an Archive: Selections from the Architecture & Design Collection, University of California, Santa Barbara.  Ten designers who have helped to alter the face of twentieth-century California: Gregory Ain, Albert Frey, Edward A. Killingsworth, Paul Laszlo, Cliff May, Lutah Maria Riggs, R. M. Schindler, Whitney R. Smith, Robert B. Stacy-Judd and Kem Weber.  All artworks are from the University’s Architecture & Design Collection.

November 29, 2007 - ?.  100 Years of Art in San Diego: A Retrospective, San Diego Historical Society, Balboa Park.  This exhibition has a dual purpose – to showcase San Diego’s rich art history and to honor Bruce Kamerling who curated a show of a similar title in 1991 complete with a catalogue.  Artists include Charles Fries, Alfred Mitchell, Edith White, Belle Baranceanu, Dan Dickey, and Charles Reiffel.

November 29, 2007 - ?  Marston’s Department Store, San Diego Historical Society, Balboa Park, Costume and Textile Collection Gallery.  In 1878 George W. Marston founded Marston’s Department store in downtown San Diego that ultimately dealt in high fashion.  As an affluent member of San Diego society, he helped found the Historical Society, gave it his home (which is now open to the public) and donated land in Julian for Camp Marston, among other things.  The Historical society inaugurates its costume and textile gallery with a show titled “Dressing a City: Selected Styles from Marston’s Department Store, 1878-1961.”  This  includes a dozen or so costume pieces from its permanent collection that now comprises more than 7000 pieces.  The new gallery will rotate objects from the permanent collection on a regular basis.  (Roughly from the press release.)

November 30, 2007 - April 13, 2008.    Sunlight & Shadow: In Search of Jake Lee, Chinese American Museum, Los Angeles.  Watercolorist Jake Lee (1915-1991) painted nine paintings for the covers of Westways (publication of the Automobile Club of Southern California) between 1954 and 1978.  He was a designer and painter of watercolors.  This show is his first retrospective.

December 2007 and January 2008.  The California Desert Painters, Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery, Bodega Bay, Ca.  Features the works of John W. Hilton but also includes works by James Swinnerton, Dedrick Stuber, Paul Grimm, Orpha Klinker, Victor Clyde Forsythe, Paul Lauritz, Carl Sammons and Florence Upson Young.

December 1, 2007 – March 23, 2008.  From Martinez to Siqueiros: Latin American Artists from the Permanent Collection, Monterey Museum of Art.  Includes work by Xavier Martinez, Rufino Tamayo, and lithographs by David Alfaro Siqueiros.

December 8, 2007 – February 17, 2008.  Selections/California, Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard.  20^th & 21^st century California paintings from the permanent collection including works by Peter Adams and Paul Lauritz.

December 10, 2007 - ?  Playing God: The Art and Artists of Matte Painting, foyer of the Linwood Dunn Theater.  This exhibit sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, profiles the work of movie artists Peter Ellenshaw, Albert Whitlock, Matthew Yuricich and others through their matte paintings.

December 22, 2007 – June 22, 2008.  The Monterey Cypress: Celebrating an Icon, Monterey Museum of Art.  Paintings and photographs from the permanent collection showing the Monterey cypress.  Includes photos by Edward Weston and Leopold Hugo and paintings by William Ritschel, Mary deNeale Morgan and Charles Dickman.

January 20 – April 13, 2008.  A Seed of Modernism: Art Students League of Los Angeles, Pasadena Museum of California Art.  Explores the role of the Art Students League and modernism in Los Angeles during the first half of the 20^th century.  As the third oldest art school in Los Angeles, the Art Students League “always stood for academic modernity.”  Among the early instructors and directors were Warren Hedges and Rex Slinkard, both of whom studied with New York modernist Robert Henri and promoted his ideas on individuality.  In 1923 Stanton MacDonald-Wright, one of the co-inventors of Synchromism, assumed directorship.  For nine years he stressed his color theories and his interest in Asian art techniques and themes inspiring a unique style that blended both concepts.  After 1932 a series of artists directed the League including Lorser Feitelson and “disciples” of Wright, such as James Redmond, Donald Totten, and Benji Okubo.  Following Pearl Harbor and the incarceration of California dwelling Americans of Japanese descent, Okubo and another former student Hideo Date, established an Art Students League, modeled after its predecessor, at the Heart Mountain Internment Camp in Wyoming.  In 1949, Fred Sexton, another MacDonald-Wright protégé, revived the League in Los Angeles and ran the school until 1953 when it finally closed its doors.  The exhibition includes approximately 100 works of art along with relevant photographs and ephemeral material.  The show will be accompanied by a substantive catalogue featuring essays by Dr. Will South and by exhibition curators Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick and Julia Armstrong-Totten.  Biographical entries and a detailed chronology are by Phil Kovinick. (from a press release)

January 8 – June 28, 2008.  Lights! Camera! Glamour!  The Photography of George Hurrell, California Heritage Museum, Santa Monica.  Studio photographer for MGM, Warner Brothers, and Columbia, Hurrell shot some of the world’s most beautiful people establishing the Hollywood glamour portrait.  More than 60 images.  Accompanied by a catalogue.

January 13 – March 30, 2008.  Members Collect III, Wildling Museum, Los Olivos.  Curated by Alissa J. Anderson, the show will display privately owned works that depict America’s wilderness with a modernist tendency.   Some of the historic California artists are Ludmilla Welch, Ray Strong, and Millard Sheets.

January 19 – June 22, 2008.  Men, Ships and the Sea: Masterworks of California Painting by Armin Hansen and William Ritschel, Monterey Museum of Art.  The show reconsiders the contribution of these two contemporaries through selective artistic comparisons and newly reinterpreted historical and biographical influences.

January 19 – June 22, 2008.  The Etchings of Armin Hansen, Monterey Museum of Art.

January 23 – 27, 2008.  Los Angeles Art Show, 13^th Annual, FADA, Barker Hangar, Santa Monica, Ca.  For details, see LAArtshow.com.

January 26 – April 20, 2008.  Edwin Deakin: California Painter of the Picturesque, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento.  Nearly 50 paintings and rarely seen works on paper that span the breadth of Deakin’s career.  Of special interest are 19 paintings recently transferred to the Crocker from the State of California’s Department of Finance that have been restored and reframed.   Still lifes, figurals, missions.

January 26 – May 17, 2008.  Sam Maloof, Furniture, California State University, San Bernardino, Robert V. Fullerton Art Museum.

February 15 – May 4, 2008.  Julius Shulman: Palm Springs, Palm Springs Art Museum.  Photographs of mid century California modernist architecture.

March 2 – June 29, 2008.  Masterpieces of San Diego Painting: Fifty Works from Fifty Years, 1900-1950, Oceanside Museum of Art.  This exhibition opens the museum’s new 16,000 sq. ft. Central Pavilion designed by Frederick Fisher.  The show, which features some of San Diego’s most outstanding pre-1950 artists, such as Maurice Braun, Charles Fries, Charles Reiffel, Belle Baranceanu and Ethel Greene, brings to focus the museum’s mission to promote and foster the appreciation and understanding of regional art.  Curated by Bram Dijkstra and Catherine Gleason, the show will be accompanied by a catalogue.

The following antiquarian book dealers have substantial holdings of out-of-print books on California art: Arcana on the Santa Monica Mall (310-458-1499), Ken Starosciak in San Francisco (415-346-0650), and Muz Art and Books, Sacramento (no telephone; searchable on www.abebooks.com).  If you know a title, it can be searched on www.abebooks.com or www.bibliofind.com to get comparative prices from dealers across the nation.  Searching a book on www.oclc.org -- registration is free -- will bring up local libraries that have the book.

Among dealers in new books on California art are the antiquarian dealers cited above, the bookstores of museums that specialize in California art (see list above under ‘Exhibitions’) as well as John Moran Auctioneer in Pasadena, Kerwin Galleries in Burlingame, George Stern Fine Arts in LA, Sullivan-Goss in Santa Barbara, and DeRu’s Fine Arts in Bellflower and Laguna Beach. 

George Stern Fine Arts, Gallery Selections, Los Angeles: The Gallery, 2007.  36 pp., 36 color repros.  On the cover is a partial view of Granville Redmond’s Field of Poppies.  ISBN:  978-0-9666692-6-8.

Dance the Line: Paintings by Karl Benjamin, West Hollywood: Louis Stern Fine Arts, 2007.  Catalogue for an exhibition held September 29 – December 22, 2007.  124 pps.  Hard cover.  Many color reproductions of the hard edge abstractions created by this mid-twentieth century artist.

David Judson, William Lees Judson, Artist, Judson Gallery of Contemporary and Traditional Art, Los Angeles.  Approx 64 pps.  Many color reproductions.  Soft cover.

D. Scott Atkinson, Everett Gee Jackson: San Diego Modern, 1920-1955, San Diego: San Diego Museum of Art, 2007.  112 pps.  Soft cover.  Many color reproductions.

Birth of the Cool, Newport Beach: Orange County Museum of Art, 2007.  Catalogue for the exhibition of the same title at the Museum.  Los Angeles art of the 1950s.

Marlene R. Miller, Coloring the West: Watercolors and Oils by Edward Borein, Santa Barbara, Ca.: Santa Barbara Historical Museum, 2007.   64 pps.  Many color reproductions.  Soft cover.

Marvin A. Schenck, Aurelius O. Carpenter: Photographer of the Mendocino Frontier – Photographs from the Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum, Ukiah, Grace Hudson Museum, 2006.  120 pp.  103 illus.  Carpenter was Grace’s father.

Sam Watters, Houses of Los Angeles, 1885-1935, New York: Acanthus Press, 2007.  Two volumes of almost 400 pages each and 400 illustrations each.

L. Frank and Kim Hogeland, First Families: A Photographic History of California Indians, Berkeley: Heyday Books, 2007.  288 pp. with 320 illus.

Roger Gastman and Sonja Teri, Los Angeles Graffiti, New York: Mark Batty, 2007.  128 pp. with 262 col. Illus.

David Clemmer, Serenading the Light: Painters of the Desert Southwest, Santa Fe: Schenck Southwest Publishing, 2006.  Second edition.  158 pp., 82 illus.

Andrea G. Stillman, Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 2007.  440 pp. with 417 illus and 89 reference illus.

Norman A. Geske, Beyond Madness: The Art of Ralph Blakelock, 1847-1919, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007.  228 pp.  139 illus.  In the early 1870s this East Coast artist traveled in the West and sketched in Northern California.

Tony Nourmand and Graham Marsh, Film Posters of the 30s: The Essential Movies of the Decade – From the Reel Poster Gallery Collection, Cologne: Evergreen, Benedikt Taschen Verlag, 2005.  128 pp.  121 col. Illus.

Catherine Grenier, Catalog L. A.: Birth of an Art Capital 1955-85, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007.  (American edition of the Pompidou’s 2006 exhibition titled Los Angeles, 1955-1985: Birth of an Art Capital).  384 pp., 400 illus.

Joseph Traugott, Gustave Baumann’s Southwest, Petaluma: Pomegranate Communications, 2007.  80 pp.  65 col.  Baumann worked in California briefly.

Doug Harvey, et al., Heart and Torch: Rick Griffin’s Transcendence, Laguna Art Museum, 2007.  156 pp., 135 illus.  Rock music posters.

Scott A. Shields, “California Colors: Benjamin Brown,” American Art Review, v. XIX, No. 5, September-October 2007, pp. 130-140.  Discusses the exhibit at the Pasadena Museum of California Art.

Michael Dolgushkin, “San Francisco Illustrated Albertype Souvenir View Books,” California State Library Bulletin, no. 87, 2007, pp. 10-17.

Sam Watters, “Back to the Drawing Board: Planning the Huntington House,” Huntington Frontiers, Fall/Winter 2007, pp. 8-16.  Using original architectural drawings, photographs, postcards and other visual material, the Huntington Library is restoring Henry E. Huntington’s “Palace” that will soon be reopened and re-hung with art.

Philip Meador, “Reflections of an Artist’s Son: Joshua Meador 1911-1965,” Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery, News, October 2007.  Meador worked in the motion picture studios and painted landscapes in his free time.  See www.bbhgallery.com/BBH_Gallery_Monthly_October_07.htm. 

Ann Swift, “Artists & Authors of Piedmont from 1890 to 1930,” American Art Review, v. XIX, no. 6, November-December 2007, pp. 82-89.

Martin E. Petersen, “San Diego’s First Lady of the Arts: Alice Ellen Klauber & Friends,” published on the web by the Museum Artists Foundation, a San Diego group that supports various museums.  www.AliceKlauber.MuseumArtistsFoundation.org/Inside%20Front%20Cover.htm

Paul F. Starrs, “Edward Borein: Picturing California and the West,” American Art Review, v. XIX, no. 6, November-December 2007, pp. 90-97.

D. Scott Atkinson, “Everett Gee Jackson/ San Diego Modern,” American Art Review, v. XIX, no. 6, November-December 2007, pp. 120-123.

October 25, 2007, 5:30 p.m.  Illustrated lecture on Edward Borein by Paul F. Starrs, Ph.D., Santa Barbara Historical Museum. 

November 2, 2007, 7:00 p.m.  Screening of Maynard Dixon: Art and Spirit at the Wildling Art Museum, Los Olivos.  Produced by Jayne McKay and narrated by Diane Keaton.

November 4, 2007, 3 – 5 p.m.  Tour of the exhibition California Colors: Benjamin Chambers Brown by catalogue contributors Jean Stern and Scott Shields, Pasadena Museum of California Art.  Limited to attendees of a catered reception.

November 16, 2007.  6:30 p.m.    Thomas Gianetto speaks on Early Desert Painters to the Western Art Council of the Palm Springs Art Museum, reception at Edenhurst Gallery, Palm Desert. 

December 1, 2007, 1 p.m.  Sam Watters presents a lecture on his 2-volume book, Houses of Los Angeles, at the Brand Library and Art Center, Glendale.  (See “Books” above.)

December 1, 2007, 9:30 a.m.  Jessica Todd Smith will give a tour of the exhibition Pressed in Time: American Prints 1905-1950, to the American Art Council, at the Huntington Library.  After lunch, the group will meet at the Fenyes’ Mansion (Pasadena Historical Society) to view the plein air paintings it owns.  For information contact 323-857-6028.

For the websites of the many ‘bricks and mortar’ auction galleries dealing with American paintings, see Publications in California Art, No. 9, newsletter for November 1999.  For the most up-to-date auction prices, see www.askart.com if you are a member.  Auction Galleries that hold special sales of historic California art include Butterfields, which can be viewed at www.bonhams.com; Christies at www.christies.com, and John Moran at www.johnmoran.com.

Matthew’s Galleries in Lake Oswego, Oregon, seems to offer occasional California paintings.  See its website www.matthewsgalleries.com.

October 23, 2007.  John Moran, California & American Paintings, Pasadena Convention Center, 6:30 p.m.  John managed to pull off this show in spite of all the remodeling being done on the Center.  Congratulations and also on some of the high prices fetched.

October 24, 2007.  Christies, California, Western and American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Beverly Hills.

December 10, 2007.  Bonhams & Butterfields, California and American Paintings and Sculpture, Los Angeles and San Francisco, 6 p.m. 

February 19, 2008.  California & American Paintings Auction, John Moran, Pasadena.

CaliforniaArt.com © copyright 2007 Dustin Publications.