News & Events

September, October, November 2008

The Historical Collections Council is an organization for collectors, dealers, and scholars interested in learning more about historic California art through visits to private collections, museum shows, and lectures.  Details on membership and events can be found at historicalcollectionscouncil.org.

September 20, 2008, 10 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.  Tour of three Laguna Beach Collections plus lunch at the home of collectors Mark and Jan Hilbert.  The collections include those of Joe Ambrose and Mike Fedderson (who own several Joseph Kleitsch paintings), Mark and Jan Hilbert (who collect California Scene watercolors) and Simon Chiu.  Lunch will be catered by Mark’s of Laguna Beach.  For more information contact Walter Lachman.

Few art curators can claim to have been born on their family’s dining room table, but farm-raised Martin Petersen, retired Senior Curator and Curator of American Art at the San Diego Museum of Art, came into this world that way on April 21, 1931.  

A quiet baby, raised far from neighbors, educated in a one-room schoolhouse, his main playmates through childhood were his elder brothers and sisters.  Even though animals and crops figured prominently in his early life, he enjoyed especially rich art and music experiences.  His earliest art recollection was being fascinated by the profile heads that his elder sister’s teacher, Ina, drew for him.  To her he gives credit for wakening his interest in art for, when Martin started school, Ina’s lessons slanted sharply toward her personal interest of art, music and performance.

When Petersen was in fifth grade, his family moved to Mason City, Iowa, setting for Meredith Wilson’s Music Man.  Through high school he flourished under teachers sensitive to art: in 5th grade Miss Baily and in 6th grade Miss Preme.  Under Miss Frederickson in 7th grade he won a first National Scholastic Award for watercolor.  His ninth grade teacher, Mrs. Dorothy McCray was the wife of Grant Wood’s assistant and she induced her husband to visit Petersen’s home to see his paintings.  McCray praised the work and suggested Petersen sell some works to get tuition for advanced study. ( On an earlier occasion Petersen had met Grant Wood himself.)  High school teacher Warren Ruby prodded Petersen by insisting he do “even greater things.”  Petersen was equally active singing tenor in various choruses.

At Mason City Junior College, which Petersen attended on a Rotarian scholarship, he designed the Trojan logo that is still used.  Transferring to the University of Iowa in the summer of 1949 and attending the following summers he was able to graduate in three years with both an Associate and a Bachelor of Arts degree.  His notable instructors were printmaker Mauricio Lasansky, painter Howard Warshaw (who later settled in California), sculptor Humbert Albrizio, and modernist painter James Lechay.

Inducted into the army in September 1952, after basic training in Texas, he narrowly missed being sent to Korea and was instead assigned to Germany.  This opened up Western Europe’s rich offerings of art and music to Petersen who traveled to museums and cultural sites whenever leave allowed.  In June 1953 he spent ten days in Rome and Lugano.

Returning to America in 1954, he entered the University of Iowa for his Master’s Degree, which he received in 1957.  His first one-man show was held at the Mason City Library Art Gallery in 1955.  Faced with going to Yale for his Ph.D., Petersen chose instead to apply for a job at the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, and the rest is history.

Petersen remained at the San Diego Museum for forty years where, besides his curatorial duties he pinch-hit writing publicity, arranging programming, guarding the premises, installing exhibitions, doing library work, and even serving as acting director on occasion.

In 1958, when Petersen first arrived in San Diego, American art history was still a step child to European art and only occasionally were classes offered on it in the area’s few colleges: San Diego State College, University of San Diego, and San Diego City College.  Petersen, however, had a special feeling for Western painters, such as Frederic Remington, Thomas Moran and William Keith and was even going to write his Master’s thesis on the Horse in Art until his advisor William Burke, Founder of the Christian Art Index, persuaded him to an esoteric topic in Medieval art.

The Fine Arts Museum of San Diego had a long history of supporting local artists.  Not only were several involved in the establishment of the museum, serving as patrons as well as board and committee members, but the museum owned works by such artists as Maurice Braun, Charles Reiffel, and Charles Fries.  Reginald Poland, the Museum’s first director, was very enthusiastic about American art – his father, William, authored a number of books and articles about art.  Robert Feke, the Early Newport Painter, as well as others in the field, was among the earliest publications in art history by American authors of the nineteenth century.   Poland encouraged acquisition of works by American artists including some active in San Diego.  He lectured widely and even traveled up to Laguna Beach in the 1930s to lecture.  In the Museum’s early years, most of the California collection was relegated to storerooms, although some was lent to city/county offices for decoration.  Museum wall space was devoted to Renaissance and Baroque Old masters.  Now that American art has come into its own, the museum proudly reserves an entire gallery for its American paintings by such East Coast notables as Thomas Eakins. Childe Hassam and The Eight (of New York) but also including California artists Maurice Braun, Guy Rose, and Charles Reiffel.

San Diego’s main art venue was “Antique Row” (the stretch of Adams Avenue between Texas Street on the west and Ohio Street on the east).   There, in the many antique shops, work by Western artists, including many of California’s early painters, could be picked up for a song – most under $100 -- but were often acquired by persons looking for a frame to put on another painting.  Petersen, who enjoyed “antiquing” recognized some signatures as being the same on paintings in the Fine Arts Museum collection and began to research the artists.

His best reference source for early artists was the library at the San Diego Museum of Art.  Some currently unknown person began a scrapbook of local art and artists in 1904 and this came into the collection of the Fine Arts Museum after it was established in 1922.  Significant early art writers, were Union-Tribune art critic Hazel Boyer Braun (wife of painter Maurice Braun), Museum Director Reginald Poland, Kathryn Morrison (Katherine Morrison Kahl was a member of the San Diego Art Guild and an art writer for the local media.  She became Mrs. McClinton and a recognized authority on early American art and antiques.  She was a cousin of the local social commentator, Eileen Jackson), and artist Ivan Messenger, just to name a few whose articles are now part of the Museum’s library holdings.  Other reference sources include historical societies throughout the state, letters, and unpublished college and university theses.

Artists and their kin proved invaluable sources.  Petersen met Braun’s daughter and son, Charlotte and Ernest, artist Alfred Mitchell and his wife Dorothy, Fries’ grand-daughter Mrs. Psaute and others.  Gallery owners willingly made their files available.  Data on Maurice Braun came from the daughter of John F. Kanst whose Los Angeles gallery showed Braun’s work in the early years of the twentieth century.  Information on the sculptor Donal Hord came from Dalzell and Ruth Hatfield whose gallery on Wilshire Boulevard in LA sold his work.  Also helpful was Fred Maxwell of Maxwell Gallery in San Francisco one of the early galleries to sell California art.  In San Diego, the two galleries that most frequently sold early California artists were the Kesler Gallery and the Old Town Gallery.  One of San Diego’s oldest venues for southern California artists, Orr’s, began handling their work by 1910.

The more Petersen knew about the artists the more interesting he found them and the more he wanted to tell others about them.  As notes turned into more lengthy articles, he sent out inquiries to many magazines, journals and newspapers and many were kind enough to consider his writings worthy of publication.  These journals included Art & Antiques, California Art, and Artists of the Rockies and the Golden West.  The last mentioned was edited by owner and publisher John Manson who became a good friend and who welcomed any and all articles Petersen sent.

As both old timers and a new generation of museum goers and collectors became interested, Petersen soon found himself asked to speak about the artists and to write scholarly articles.  He has lectured to so many groups that it’s difficult to recall exact names and places.  Groups have included local business, social, military, church groups and school classes using basically the theme Backyard Treasures.  He has many certificates of appreciation from Rotarian clubs among other forms of thanks.  While vacationing, in Mason City, IA, he lectured to museum groups on several occasions, and at the University of Nebraska he addressed an art history meeting on the horse in western America with examples by early California artists, such as Olaf Wieghorst, Stan Sowinski, and Jack Jordan.

In late 1969, Jim Moss, Director of the San Diego Historical Society, mentioned they had renovated a small gallery and wanted to display examples of early San Diego art.  Warren Beach, then Director of the Fine Arts Museum asked Petersen for ideas.  Petersen suggested loans from the vaults of the Fine Arts Museum.  The result was a successful opening show titled Contemporary Artists of San Diego.  Petersen’s first significant article on San Diego art concerned the group, and it appeared simultaneously in the Historical Society’s Journal of San Diego History, Fall 1970. 

As historic California art grew in importance, other significant curators and writers appeared on the scene.  About 1969 Petersen met Bruce Kamerling, Curator of Collections at the San Diego Historical Society.  (Bruce’s first article on historic San Diego art – on painter/ceramists Anna and Albert Valentien - was published in 1978 and others continued until his death in the early 1990s.)  Kamerling was doing a great deal of volunteer work for the Historical Society and the Museum of Man.  He was most interested in Egyptology and even taught himself to read hieroglyphs.  Their conversations most frequently revolved around local art and artists, and the two shared new discoveries.

Petersen was also instrumental in the career of Jean Stern, now Executive Director of the Irvine Museum.  When the two first met, Stern was visiting the San Diego Museum of Man to further his knowledge of his then interest pre-Columbian art and antique coins.  Stern became an employee of the Fine Arts Gallery when he curated the major Cross and the Sword exhibition in the mid 1970s. (See biography of Jean Stern in HCC Newsletter March 2007.)  Stern also curated a small gallery showing ancient Roman coins.  When Stern became Director of the Petersen Gallery in Beverly Hills and began to devote it to historic California art, he and Marty (no relation to the gallery’s owner) had even more in common.  Petersen cannot overestimate Stern’s influence in spreading the word about historic California art through the gallery’s exhibitions and publications.  Through Stern, Petersen met his dealer brother George (see biography in Publications in California Art no. 9, p. 653) who lent him Charles Reiffel’s scrapbook that proved so valuable when Petersen wrote the extended biography of Reiffel.  (Reiffel left no relatives.)

In the late 1980s, Steve Brezzo, then Director of the San Diego Museum of Art (name changed from the Fine Arts Gallery in 1978) encouraged Petersen to curate a show of historic San Diego painters.  The result was the 1991 Four Early San Diego Painters that included Fries, Braun, Reiffel and Mitchell.  The lavishly illustrated catalogue with its invaluable bibliography and lists of exhibited paintings spread interest to a younger generation and was released internationally in several languages.  (A museum member, Charles Cutter, said he stepped off a bus in Paris in front of a book store and in the window he beheld the book on display.) 

Petersen didn’t have a lot of time from museum duties to offer advice or encouragement to any of the best known local collectors of early California art.  Many collections were formed before he became aware of them.  He was only grateful to learn that those of Jim Milch, Dr. Albert Cutri, Dan Jacobs, and others, now well known, were available for study.  San Diego has other large collections, such as that of Paul Kress, but many collectors prefer to remain anonymous for practical reasons.  Some of the finest works by the early artists, however, still grace the walls of the original owners throughout the area.  He never knows what morsel will feed the eye when he walks into a home for the first time.

In 1996 Petersen retired from the Museum.  This gave him time to complete his extended biography of Maurice Braun, which is currently in the hands of The Irvine Museum where it may become an exhibition/publication. 

Relative to the art of early California and San Diego artists today, he refers readers to several early articles.  In 1951 Thomas B. Robertson, former SDMA Museum director, write a tribute to painter Maurice Braun, crediting him for being the city’s leading contributor to the national art scene.  Petersen believes other early artists, whose work is appealing to viewers, admired by critics, collected by museums and written about in books and magazines, have also made serious contributions to national art.  Certainly California’s historic artwork is no longer considered prosaic or isolated.  Maurice Braun said it best in 1928 when he prophetically wrote, “California has already contributed to the history of art in America, but she is destined to add far more brilliant pages, not in individual effort, but in the great number of artists who will be taking part in making a culture which is not yet imagined.”

The Laguna Art Museum celebrates the 90th Anniversary of the founding of the Laguna Beach Art Association on September 23, 2008, 6-9 p.m.  At the same time, the museum will hold its 2008 Annual Members’ meeting, at which several founding members and significant donors will be honored, as well as a special presentation on the history of the Laguna Beach Art Association.  For more information contact JoAnne Story at 949-494-8971 x 201.

Jerry Solomon Custom Picture Framing, currently located at 960 North La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles, will be moving to 5221 West Jefferson Boulevard, between La Brea and La Cienega.    Upcoming will be a “relocation” sale that will include frames, artwork and mirrors, among other things.  Jerry, known as one of the top framers in the city with an incredible variety of styles to choose from, has been in business at the La Brea location for decades and will probably be letting go of many valuable items.  If you are not on his mailing list, please contact the shop at 323-851-7241 for notice of this sale.

Wanted !!!  Paintings and prints by Z. Vanessa Helder.  Martin-Zambito Fine Art, 721 East Pike St., Seattle, Washington 98122.  Email info@martin-zambito.com.  206-726-9509.  Helder was a precisionist watercolorist of the 1930s and 1940s who was active on the East Coast and  in Washington and California.

The home of desert painter John W. Hilton has achieved historical site status.  The humble edifice nestled beneath palms near the Salton Sea in Imperial Valley was slated for demolition by the Bureau of Land Management but was saved by the Friends of Rancho Dos Palmas and given status by the Riverside County Historical Commission.   (For details see the website of Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery, www.bodegabayheritagegallery.com.)

The Walt Disney Family Museum is being built in two of the San Francisco Presidio’s empty barracks.  It is the dream of the Disney family headed by Walt’s daughter, Diane Disney Miller.  Not an amusement park, it displays objects and artifacts relating to the life and times of the animator.  There also is a display on how early animated films were made before computers.  For more, see the website: Disney.go.com/disneyatoz/familymuseum/

A traveling show of the works of painter Frank Coburn is being organized by the Plein Air Council of the Bowers Museum.   The Bowers was the lucky recipient of 42 of Coburn’s finest paintings that are even now being conserved in preparation for the show.  Many of these picture Laguna Beach before there were many houses dotting the cliffs.  If you would like to display the material, contact Ann Andres at 714-558-7775.  (Editor’s note.  About ten years ago I helped the Bowers Museum catalogue its painting collection and was thrilled to discover how many early California paintings were “hidden” in its storerooms.  Their Coburn’s are the finest I have ever seen from the point of view of freshness of paint application and uniqueness of subject – Coburn was almost the only pre-1925 Southern California artist to celebrate human intrusion in the landscape.  The Bowers also has almost 300 Evylena Nunn Miller palette knife paintings made on her trip around the world, not to mention the outstanding works on semi-permanent view in California: The Golden Years.)

Thirty six tiles made by Batchelder-Wilson in Los Angeles in the early part of the twentieth century for the Ryland Pool in San Jose in the late 1920s will be refurbished, along with the pool itself.  The tiles, which are covered with many layers of hard-to-remove paint, will be conserved by Carey & Co, an architectural firm of the Bay Area that specializes in historic restoration.  For more information see the article by Scott Herhold in the San Jose Mercury News, June 17, 2008 or www.tileheritage.org/THF-ENews07-08.html.

Seized by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department, Santa Rosa – one Milford Zornes full-sheet watercolor, marine scene, framed, no glass; one George Post.  Do you know who might own these possibly stolen paintings?  Please telephone Deputy Michael Moriarity 707-565-2071.

Congratulations  to James L. Coran and Walter A. Nelson-Rees, partners for 49 years, who have just tied the knot.  Former owners of WIM Fine Arts that produced monographs on the Society of Six, Albert DeRome, and other Northern California artists, the two are now retired and enjoy traveling and listening to opera.  A longer biography appears in PSCA no. 9, pp. 643-6.

A new video on marine painter Alexander Dzigurski can be found on the website www.BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com.

The American Art Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art often holds events to view California art.  On May 18, the group visited the Bel Air home of Robin and Elliot Broidy to view their collection of California impressionist and other plein air paintings by artists such as Guy Rose, Emil Carlsen, Granville Redmond, William Wendt and Elmer and Marion Wachtel.  The tour was led by curator Jeffrey Morseburg of Morseburg Fine Arts.  (Further details can be found in the Council’s Newsletter for June 30, 2008).

The Redfern Gallery has issued a 16-page brochure titled Summer Selections 2008 that reproduces 17 top quality paintings.  California artists include Granville Redmond, Alson Skinner Clark, Maurice Braun, Edgar Payne, William Wendt and Jessie Arms Botke.

 Dawson’s Book Shop, for many years one of the most important venues for books and works on paper dealing with California history, as well as Michael Dawson Gallery, which displays photography, will go to an appointment-only schedule beginning July 1, 2008.  Michael Dawson will remain active making appraisals, dealing in rare books, and putting on shows of vintage and contemporary photography.  He can be reached daily both by phone 323-469-2186 or by email at orders@dawsonbooks.com or you can view the website dawsonbooks.com/news.php.

Mentor Huebner, artist for the motion picture studios and independent easel painter active in the mid twentieth century, has had his website updated with extensive new information and many reproductions of his work.  See www.mentorhuebnerart.com.

The Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery website is updated monthly.  Check it out at BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com to see information on the gallery’s upcoming special exhibits, a biography of painter Gordon Coutts who died in Palm Springs in 1937, and reprints of 19th century Northern California newspaper articles on art.

Sunday, September 21, 2008, the Museum of California Design will hold its 2008 Award Benefit and Auction honoring ceramists Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman who, for over 40 years produced tapestries, ceramics, metalwares and mosaics in their Los Angeles firm.  Their work was represented in several of the California Design Exhibitions held at the Pasadena Museum of Art in the 1960s and 1970s.  The benefit will be hosted by David Bohnett and Tom Gregory at their soaring Mid-century Modern, Holmby Hills home that was designed in 1954 for Gary Cooper by Los Angeles architect A. Quincy Jones.  Bohnett founded the internet-based media and e-commerce company GeoCities and is Chair of the David Bohnett Foundation.  For more information, see www.mocad.org.

In mid-March 2008, SOHO (Save Our Heritage Organization) of San Diego, held its annual celebration on the theme of California tiles.   The seminar included two open-air tour-trolleys that viewed historic tiles in situ in both public and private sites.  (For further information, see www.tileheritage.org/THF-ENews04-08.htlm)  For more about SOHO visit www.sohosandiego.org.

The Annex Galleries of Santa Rosa, specialist in works on paper, has issued a checklist titled 100 Works: Artists A-Z, demonstrating the wide variety of artists (many from California) and media they carry and related prices.  Copies can be obtained by calling 707-546-7352 or by checking out the website at www.annexgalleries.com.

Many commercial galleries are now sending out email announcements of new acquisitions.  The color reproductions and information save clients from having to go to the gallery in person.  Recent emailings to your editor came from Karges Fine Art and Edenhurst Gallery.  Get on their mailing lists.  It’s highly worth while.

Denis O’Connor (1933-2007), British-born artist who created many of the murals that decorate the fronts of the Home Savings & Loan branches.  O’Connor moved to Claremont California in 1959 where he was hired by Millard Sheets firm as an assistant mosaicist.  He quickly went on to head the department.  In 1963 O’Connor started his own mosaic company but continued to collaborate with Sheets and later with Susan Hertel, interpreting their paintings into massive glass and stone mosaics.  His last masterwork, completed in 2001, was the 25 x 15 ft. mural for the St. John Vianney Church on Balboa Island.  Lillian Sizemore, who is working on a biographical documentary of mid-century mosaic artists, is creating an extended biography of O’Connor that will appear in The Tile Heritage Foundation’s publication, Tile Heritage: A Review of Tile History.  (from the Tile Heritage website)

Permanent displays of historic (pre-1945) California paintings can be found at the following 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.)

Upcoming: Milford Zornes N.A. 1908-2008, Bingham Gallery at the Maynard Dixon Property, 2200 South State Street, Mount Carmel, Utah.  For exact dates keep in touch with www.thunderbirdfoundation.com.

Through August 2008.  Catalinaware: Pottery and Tile from the Island of Romance, San Francisco International Airport, F-3 United Gallery.   Pottery and tile manufactured on Catalina Island from the late 1920s to the late 1930s.  Viewable by ticketed passengers only. 

Through October 5, 2008.  Merle Armitage: Collections at LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  Merle Armitage (1893-1975) Los Angeles impresario, writer, and collector of works on paper, was one of the early twentieth century’s shining cultural lights.  “The prints, drawings, and photographs that he generously donated to the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art beginning in 1935 date largely from the late 1920s through the 1930s.”  Most show modernist tendencies in subject matter, style, and medium (lithography and photography) and share a sense of simplification and drama.  California artists in the show include four on whom he penned books including Elise (Seeds), Henrietta Shore, Millard Sheets and photographer Edward Weston.  (from the website)

Through November 2, 2008.  Sticks and Stones: Vernacular Architecture in San Bernardino County, San Bernardino County Museum, Redlands.    For more information see sbcounty.gov/museum.

June 14 – July 19, 2008.   Mid Twentieth Century Abstraction: Elise Cavanna Seeds Armitage, Claire Falkenstein, June Harwood, Helen Lundeberg, Louis Stern Fine Arts, West Hollywood.

June 14 – September 15, 2008.  This Side of Paradise: Body and Landscape in L. A. Photographs, Huntington Library, San Marino.  Examines the relationship between Los Angeles and the art of photography from the mid-19th century to the present, focusing on the emergence of a distinct Los Angeles style of visual expression.  Composed of some 200 works from The Huntington’s collections as well as loans from other institutions, collectors, and artists, the exhibition features photographs by about 100 artists.  Included are 19th century photographers, such as Carleton Watkins and Edward Weston, mid 20th century photographers Edmund Teske and Max Yavno, as well as 20th century commercial practitioners such as Maynard Parker and the “Dick” Whittington Studios.  More recent photographers include Robert Flick and Catherine Opie.  A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.  (from a press release)

June 19 – August 2, 2008.  Carl Sammons (1883-1968) California Plein-Air Painter, North Point Gallery, San Francisco.  This artist was the subject of a recent show at the Hearst Art Gallery as well as a biography by Douglas McElwain (see “Books” below).  Sammons, based in Oakland, traveled widely in California capturing the state’s landscape beauty in pastel, oil, and watercolor.  The pastels and oils in this exhibit come from the collection of the artist’s leading patron, Professor Frank Adams of Berkeley, who was Sammon’s wife’s first cousin.  The show is accompanied by a 5-fold brochure with 16 color reproductions ranging from mountain scenes to marines to desertscapes, many of which celebrate the state’s wildflowers.

June 21 – September 28, 2008.  Figurative Art in California During the Modern Period, Spencer Jon Helfen Fine Arts, Beverly Hills.  Includes important works by Gertrude Partington Albright, Karoly Fulop, Peter Krasnow, Lucretia Van Horn and many more.  The show is accompanied by a 4-fold brochure with five color reproductions by artists Brents Carlton, Robert Gilbert, Bernice “Burr” Singer, Lucretia Van Horn and Rex Slinkard.  For details see www.HelfenFineArts.com.

June 30 – September 30, 2008.  Seeing the World in a Day: International Treasures of the Mission Inn, Mission Inn Museum, Riverside.  Frank Miller, owner of the Mission Inn, was a quintessential collector.  From bells and crosses to Russian art and Native American basketry, he filled every nook and cranny of his hostelry with art and artifacts from around the world.  These collections not only made the Mission Inn a unique destination but a museum, complete with a curator, Francis Borton.  The Inn, while under new ownership, still retains more than 10,000 of these objects, and selections are periodically taken out of storage for special theme exhibitions.  The definitive work on early Los Angeles collectors has yet to be written, but Miller would undoubtedly rank at the top.

July/August, 2008.  Historic Painters of the Carmel Art Association/ Painters of the Sea, Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery, Ca.  Catalogues are available for free at the gallery or can be mailed to you.  See also www.BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com.

July 3 – 13, 2008.  Historic Flags Exhibit, California State Capitol Museum, Sacramento.  Four rare military flags from the Capitol’s historic flag collection.  In honor of Independence Day.

July 3 – August 31, 2008.  Dan Lutz, Sullivan Goss, Santa Barbara.  In the 1930s, Lutz taught art at USC in Los Angeles and worked in a Regionalist style, but in his later years, spent in Santa Barbara, he produced emotionally expressive works with bold forms and bright colors.  His subjects ranged from still lifes to landscapes to figurative works.  Biographers have used the adjectives: raw, passionate, energetic, emotional and brazen to describe his counterpoint of primary colors with black.  In his very last years he “loaded great gobs of pure color onto palette knife and dry brush to create vibrant topographies on canvas.”  These works were culled from the archives of the Estate and are exhibited for the first time in decades.  (from the announcement)

July 11 – August 31, 2008.  California Landscapes from the Sonoma County Museum Collection, Sonoma County Museum.  Focuses on 19th century landscapes in oil and watercolor by artists such as Thomas Hill, William Keith, S. Tilden Daken and Lorenzo Latimer.  Also included are furniture, photographs, maps and other historical materials that explore land use in the Sonoma region in the late 19th century.  This is the first of a series of exhibitions organized by the museum to utilize its rich historical collections.  (from the website)

July 12 – September 7, 2008.  From the Byways to the Highways: Rondal Partridge Photographs of California 1936-1969, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.  Son of photographer Imogen Cunningham, apprentice to Ansel Adams, protégé of Dorothea Lange.  Fifty-three black and white photos of California landscape.

July 13 through September, 2008.  Bohemian Reverie: 18th Annual Exhibition – Artists of the Bohemian Club, Christopher Queen Galleries, Duncan’s Mills, Ca.  Some artists include Arthur Beckwith, G. Cadenasso, M. Dixon, J. Greenbaum, W. Keith, E. Neuhaus, J. Rix, E. Tojetti.  (For a full list see www.christopherQueenGalleries.com)  San Francisco’s Bohemian Club is devoted to artists, writers, painters, etc.

July 19 – October 19, 2008.  The Vibrant Edge: Paintings of Karl Benjamin from the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s, Oceanside Museum of Art.   Benjamin was working independently in the new movement of hard-edge abstraction by the early 1950s when his work was selected for showing in 1959 with that of Lorser Feitelson, John McLaughlin and Frederick Hammersley.  The works in this show focus on Benjamin’s interest in color (both vibrant and harmonious). 

July 26 – August 30, 2008.  Arthur W. Best (1859-1935), Matthew’s Galleries, 15800 Upper Boones Ferry Road, Lake Oswego, Oregon 97035.  To view the entire exhibit of more than 75 paintings of this turn of the twentieth century Northern California landscape painter on line see matthewsgalleries.com.

August 16, 2008 – January 4, 2009.  Living Beautifully: Greene and Greene in Pasadena. Pasadena Museum of History.  Curated by Bruce Smith in conjunction with The Gamble House.  “The architecture and decorative arts designed by Charles and his brother Henry Greene a century ago are now recognized internationally as among the finest of the American Arts & Crafts Movement…. In August and October 2008, two complementary exhibitions will open at the Pasadena Museum of History and The Huntington Library, respectively.  While the 130 objects on display at The Huntington will focus primarily on the architecture and decorative arts designed by the Greenes, at the Pasadena Museum of History, visitors will learn about the city that inspired this work and the personalities of these two brothers as business partners and individuals.”  (from the website)

August 25 – October 11, 2008.  Hans Burkhardt: The California State University Northridge Collection, California State University Northridge Art Galleries, Northridge.  A selection from almost 1000 works donated to the university by the artist who taught there throughout the 1970s and 1980s.  Burkhardt, a modernist who emerged in the 1930s, focused on humanistic subject matter varying from “the visual delights of everyday life” to the horrors of war, “from the truths of love and the lies of government.”   The show is accompanied by a catalogue (see “Books” below).

August 25, 2008 – January 24, 2009.  Zion National Park: A Century of Sanctuary, St. George City Art Museum, St. George, Utah.  Portrays 100 years of Zion’s beauty in 68 paintings juried by Peter Hassrick of the Denver Art Museum.  Accompanied by 76 rare historic paintings and photos enhancing the history of art in the park.  Works by Thomas Moran, Ansel Adams, Maynard Dixon, Gunnar Widforss, Jack Hillers, Frederick Dellenbaugh, Wallace Lee and others.

August 29, 2008 – January 25, 2009.  Milford Zornes: Remembering an American Artist, 1908 – 2008, California Heritage Museum, Santa Monica.  Curated by author and historian Gordon McClelland and staff curator Michael Trotter.  Zornes was a first generation member of the California Watercolor School painters of the 1930s who put California artists on the national map.  Throughout his long career he traveled extensively, taught at the Riverside Art Center and numerous workshops, and produced hundreds of watercolors.  The show is accompanied by McClelland’s full-color book: Milford Zornes: An American Artist.

September/October 2008.  The French Scene 1900-1960, Adamson-Duvannes Galleries, L. A.  Artists who painted the cities and countryside of France including California artists George Brandriff, Ben Carre, and Xavier Martinez, and other views by John E. Borein, J. Bond Francisco, Warren Newcombe, and Joseph Henry Sharp.

September 4 – November 2, 2008.  Orpha Klinker: Landmarks of California, Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery, Santa Barbara.  The Los Angeles artist Klinker showed her interest in California history by documenting historic buildings in paint and by painting portraits of historic figures, etc.   The c. 25 oils in this show are accompanied by contemporary photographs of the sites made by Bill Dewey.  An audio-video brochure can be viewed on line at www.sullivangoss.com/exhibits/SGTV_orphaklinker.asp.

September 5 – November 1, 2008.  On the Road: Farm Security Administration: Dorothea Lange, Robert Frank, Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago.  Depression era photos.

September 11 – November 20, 2008.  Labor & Leisure: Watercolor Paintings from the Collection of George & Marcia Giumarra, Bakersfield Museum of Art.  California Scene paintings by artists like Charles Keck, Burr Singer, Millard Sheets and Edward Reep.  The paintings take the viewer on a journey into the past: to California cities, industrial sites, and rural areas, to people in their environment.

September 13, 2008 – January 17, 2009.  All the Water that Will Ever Be, Is, Right Now, The Irvine Museum, Irvine, California.  California plein air landscapes showing water.  Since man is almost 70% water, he instinctively he knows he must be near water or die, hence he is attracted to landscapes showing lakes, streams, pools, fountains, etc.  Water has been a long time concern of Joan Irvine Smith.  Fresh water in California grows scarcer as the state’s population increases and the globe warms.  Channeling it from Northern to Southern California has always caused bad feelings.  Farmers accuse city residents of wasting it on landscaping; recreationalists oppose ecologists.  Desalinization finally may be coming into its own.

September 14, 2008 – January 4, 2009.  Damngorgeous: Millard Sheets and his Southern California Legacy, Oceanside Museum of Art.  A comprehensive look at Sheets’ paintings from the 1920s to the 1980s.  Over forty watercolors, oils, etchings, lithographs and drawings.  This show will be accompanied by a publication “Damngorgeous” a loving memoir by Carolyn Owen Sheets-Towle.

September 18 – December 31, 2008.  Thirtieth Anniversary Exhibition, Tobey C. Moss Gallery, L. A.  Works by artists exhibited by the gallery throughout its 30 year history including mid-twentieth century modernists Clinton Adams, Leonard Edmondson, Jules Engel, Helen Lundeberg, Stanton MacDonald Wright, John McLaughlin, Lee Mullican, Gordon Wagner, Emerson Woelffer and others.

September 20 – November 16, 2008.  Jack Zajac, Santa Cruz Museum of Art, Solari Gallery.   Zajac’s family moved to California in 1946, and he studied art at Scripps College in Claremont.  His bronzes utilize recognizable natural forms in semi-abstract situations.  A former teacher at U C, Santa Cruz, now retired, he continues to produce sculpture.

September 25, 2008 – January 18, 2009.  Life in California: 1930-1950: Scene Paintings from the Sally and David Martin Collection, Santa Barbara Historical Museum.  Watercolors.  Accompanied by a 47-page catalogue with color plates.

September 26, 2008 – January 11, 2009.  California Scene Painting, Long Beach Museum of Art.  Watercolor depictions of the Golden State from the 1930s to the 1960s.  Works by Emil Kosa, Jr., Phil Dike, Millard Sheets, Rex Brandt and others.

September 28, 2008 – January 4, 2009.  Romance of the Bells, Pasadena Museum of California Art.  Traveling exhibition organized by The Irvine Museum.  Paintings of California’s historic Spanish missions created between 1850 and 1950.  (See earlier Newsletters for details.)

September 28, 2008 – January 4, 2009.  Seeing Greene & Greene: Architecture in Photographs, Pasadena Museum of California Art.  Approximately 75 works by some of the twentieth century’s leading photographers, including Julius Shulman and Minor White.  The photographers’ different perspectives interpret the architects’ work.

October 9, 2008 - ? Maynard Dixon – Nvorczk: Maynard Dixon’s Modernist Paintings 1917-1934, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson and Santa Fe.  Over 50 original oils and gouaches.  View the Dixon collection on line at MedicineManGallery.com.

October 11, 12, 2008.  Third Annual Golden California Antiques Show, Glendale Civic Auditorium, 1401 North Verdugo Road, Glendale, Ca.  11,000 square feet of private exhibitors showing furniture and tiles in the Monterey, Catalina Island, Rancho, Southwestern, Mission, and Old Mexico styles.  Also, the best of California Fine Art.  For more information see www.goldencaliforniashow.com.

October 11, 2008 – January 10, 2009.  “Corita”: A Retrospective, 1951-1985, Judson Gallery of Contemporary and Traditional Art, L. A.  Mid-twentieth century nun/artist.

October 11, 2008 – February 15, 2009.  A Place of Refuge: Maynard Dixon’s Arizona, Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona.  60 paintings and 50 drawings of Arizona by Californian Dixon who first went there in 1900 and then, after 1939, made it his winter home.  Works borrowed from public and private collections throughout the U. S.  The show will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue distributed by the University of Oklahoma Press.

October 16, 2008 – March 21, 2009.  Cunningham, Weston & Adams: Modern Photography at the Museum, Monterey Museum of Art.  Works drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection.

October 18, 2008 – January 26, 2009.  A “New and Native” Beauty: The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene, Huntington Library, Boone Gallery.  This show discussing the architecture of the Greene brothers,  who were active in Pasadena, will travel to the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery in Washington D. C. (March 13 – June 7, 2009) and to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (July 14 – October 18, 2009).

October 25, 2008 – January 18, 2009.  Asian/American/Modern Art: Shifting Currents 1900-1970, de Young Museum, San Francisco.  Nearly 100 works by 60 artists of Asian ancestry who lived and worked in the U. S.  Organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in association with Stanford University.  Accompanied by a catalogue.  Co-curators are Daniell Cornell, former curator of American art at FAMSF and current deputy director of the Palm Springs Museum of Art, and Mark Johnson, a professor of art at San Francisco State University.  (from a press release)

November 5, 2008 – March 2, 2009.  When the Fur Flies: Kerfuffles, Scrapes, and Scuffles in Peanuts, Charles Schulz Museum, Santa Rosa.  Pounding and punching are the subjects of this light-hearted look at the fisticuffs in the long-running and popular Peanuts comic strip.  70 comic strips.

November 9, 2008 – February 8, 2009.  William Wendt Retrospective, Laguna Art Museum.  Guest curated by Dr. Will South.  164 page color catalogue with a 50-page essay by South.  Plein air landscapist of the early twentieth century.

November 14, 2008 – January 11, 2009.  Art of Warner Brothers Cartoons, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento.  Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote and their comrades come together in this comprehensive overview of Warner Brothers’ cartoons.  More than 160 drawings, paintings, animation cells and related art objects trace the development of the studio’s cartoon making from 1930; included is a step-by-step breakdown of the classic cel animation process.

November 16, 2008.  Nocturnes, Wildling Art Museum, Los Olivos.  Features paintings of the night by historic artists Charles Rollo Peters, DeWitt Parshall, and Lockwood de Forest, as well as mid twentieth century “modernist” Matthew Barnes and contemporary plein air artists.  Curated by Jane Dini; monograph essays by Dini, painter Thomas Van Stein, and gallery owner Gary Breitweiser.

December 6, 2008 – February 8, 2009.  Western Art, Bakersfield Museum of Art.

January 21-25, 2009.  FADA Los Angeles Art Show.  NEW LOCATION!!!  Los Angeles Convention Center, West Hall A, 1201 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, 90015.  Preview on Wednesday, January 21 at 6 p.m.  175 prominent galleries from around the globe.  Art varies from Rembrandt to Ruscha and beyond.  15,000 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, video, and sculpture.  For details see LAArtShow.com.

February – April 2009.  James Hueter: A Retrospective, Claremont Museum of Art.  Born in SF in 1925, graduate of Pomona College in 1948, and recipient of a M. F. A. from the Claremont Graduate School (1951), Hueter epitomizes that generation of artists who emerged from the art-rich environment established by Millard Sheets, Henry Lee McFee, and others in Claremont.  For over 60 years he has produced paintings, sculpture, drawings, and photographs.  Accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue which chronicles his life and art.

March 8 – May 24, 2009.  Roger Kuntz: The Shadow Between Representation and Abstraction, Laguna Art Museum.

May 3 – September 6, 2009.  Illumination: The Paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin, and Florence Pierce, Orange County Museum of Art.  The first exhibition to bring together the work of these four important American women modernists.  All drew on nature for their inspiration, particularly the arid and spare environment of the desert.  All responded with some form of abstraction.  Curated by Karen Moss and accompanied by a catalogue.  192 pps co-published with Merrell of London; 75 color illus; 25 black and white; essays.

2009.  Vaquero: Reality and Romance of the California Cowboy, Autry National Center, Los Angeles.

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 of museums 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. 

Betty Ann Brown, et al, Hans Burkhardt: the California State University Northridge Collection, Northridge, The University?, 2008.

Douglas S. McElwain has updated his biography of Carl Sammons (1883-1968) Early California Impressionist, calling it 2nd Edition.  For questions contact him at Dmac44@aol.com.

Carolyn Owen Sheets-Towle, Damngorgeous (Millard Sheets), Oceanside, Ca.: Oceanside Art Museum, 2008.  $27.

Life in California: 1930-1950: Scene Paintings from the Sally and David Martin Collection, Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Historical Museum, 2008.  47 pp.  Many color reproductions.

William C. Miesse and Robyn G. Peterson.  Sudden and Solitary: Mount Shasta and Its Artistic Legacy, 1841-2008.  Redding: Turtle Bay Exploration Park, 2008 (published in association with Heyday Books, Berkeley)  256 pp.  203 illus.

Photography:
Anne Whiston Spirn, Daring to Look: Dorothea Lange’s Photographs and Reports from the Field, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.  376 pp., 197 illus.   Depression-era photos.

Joanna Cohan Scherer, Edward Sheriff Curtis, London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2008.  128 pp.  62 illus.  Curtis photographed the American Indian from 1907 to 1930, including some tribes and sites in California.

Jennifer A. Watts, et al., This Side of Paradise: Body and Landscape in Los Angeles Photographs, San Marino: Huntington Library, 2008.  240 pp.

Stephen Bennett Phillips, Brett Weston: Out of the Shadow, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 2008 (with Phillips Collection, Washington, D. C.)  160 pp.  Photographer son of Edward Weston, active in Carmel/Monterey.

Post-1950:
Driven to Abstraction: Southern California and the Non-Objective World, 1950-1980, Riverside Art Museum, 2006.  108 pp.  52 col. Illus.

Juxtapoz Illustration, Corte Madera: Gingko Press, Inc., 2008.  (Published in association with Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine, San Francisco)  192 pp.  201 illus.   The Juxtapoz magazine carried many illustrations by Robert Williams and others in his vein.

Juxtapoz Tattoo, Corte Madera: Gingko Press, Inc., 2008.  208 pp.  340 illus.  Juxtapoz magazine and the art of tattoo.

Patrick Rosenkranz, Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution, 1963-1975, Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2008.  Second edition.  248 pp.  442 illus.

Glenn Phillips, ed., California Video: Artists and Histories, Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2008.  328 pp., 478 illus.

Mike Hoolboom, Practical Dreamers: Conversations with Movie Artists, Toronto: Coach House Books, 2008.  320 pp.  229 illus.

Sam Sarowitz, Translating Hollywood: From the Posteritati Gallery Collection, New York: Mark Batty Publisher, 2007.  184 pp.  233 illus.  Post 1945 graphic design and posters from Holllywood.

Architecture:
Gloria Koenig, Albert Frey, 1903-1998: A Living Architecture of the Desert, Cologne: Benedikt Taschen Verlag GimbH, 2008.  96 pp.  118 illus.

Dream Homes: Coastal California (Central Coast), Dallas: Panache Partners, 2008.  224 pp.  250 col. Illus.

Dream Homes: Los Angeles, Dallas: Panache Partners, 2008.  250 pp.  300 col. Illus.

In the Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly:

• Diane Kanner, “The Lemon Grove Boyhood of Wallace Neff,” HSSCQ, Winter 1998, v. 80, no. 4, pp. 435-460.  Architect.
• Jane Apostol, “Southern California Through the Lens of Charles Francis Saunders,” HSSCQ, Spring 1999, v. 81, no. 1, pp. 1-88.
• Errol Wayne Stevens, “Frederic Hammer Maude: A Photographer and his Collection,” HSSCQ, Spring 2000, v. 82, no. 1, pp. 43-60.
• Clark Davis, “An Era and Generation of Civic Engagement: The Friday Morning Club in Los Angeles 1891-1931,” HSSCQ, Summer 2002, v. 84, no. 2, pp. 135-168.  The Club supported early Los Angeles art through exhibits, the purchase of paintings and presenting lectures and programs.
• Catherine R. Ettinger, “Architecture as Order in the California Missions,” HSSCQ, Spring 2003, v. 85, no. 1, pp. 1-12.
• Jennifer A. Watts, “Wayfarer in Italy: The Photography of Marian Osgood Hooker,” HSSCQ, Spring 2003, v. 85, no. 1, pp. 83-100.  Hooker resided in Santa Barbara and was active at the turn of the twentieth century.
• Mary A. Van Balgooy, “Designer of the Dream: Cliff May and the California Ranch House, HSSCQ, Summer 2004, v. 86, no. 2, pp. 127-144.
• Jennifer A. Watts, “Photography in the Land of Sunshine: Charles Fletcher Lummis and the Regional Ideal,” HSSCQ, v. 87, no. 4, Winter 2005-6, pp. 339-376.  Lummis edited Out West magazine and hired photographers and artists who supported his ideal of California and the West.
• Book reviews in HSSCQ from 1998 to the present:
• Richard S. Street review of Witness to the Struggle: Imaging the 1930s California Labor Movement (Reno: University of Nevada Press) 1998.  256 pp.  Discusses photos of migrant labor by Paul S. Taylor and Dorothea Lange, among others.
• Robert E. Melbourne review of Hoover Dam: The Photographs of Ben Glaha (Tucson: University of Arizona Press) 1999.  169 pps.  Photographs taken c. 1931.
• Louise H. Ivers review of Kirtland Cutter: Architect in the Hand of Promise by Henry Mathews (Seattle: University of Washington Press) 1998.  448 pp.  (lived 1860-1939.  Architect in California and the Pacific Northwest.)
• Anthea M. Hartig review of Marc Appleton, George Washington Smith: An Architect’s Scrapbook (Los Angeles: Tailwater Press) 2001.  182 pp.  Smith built in the “Spanish” style.
• Michael Nevin Willard review of Kirse Granat May’s Golden State, Golden Youth: The California Image in Popular Culture 1955-1966 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press) 2002.  243 pp.
• B. J. Krikorian review of Mark Langill’s Dodger Stadium: Images of Sport and Los Angeles Dodgers: Images of Baseball (both Charleston, S. C.: Arcadia Publishing) 2004.  128 pp. each.

Erin Graffy de Garcia, “Clarence Mattei,” Noticias (publication of the Santa Barbara Historical Society), v. L, no. 3 (Autumn 2004).  Portrait painter, illustrator, of Santa Barbara.

Norman Neuerburg, “Henry Chapman Ford,” Occasional Paper of the Santa Barbara Historical Society (reprint of Noticias, v. XLIII, no. 2, Summer 1997), 2007.   Nineteenth century landscape painter of Santa Barbara.

John Hazeltine of tfaoi.org reminds us that his website has a section that lists videos on California art.

August 24, 2008, 10 a. m. - noon.  Walking tour of tiles and terra cotta in Oakland, presented by The Oakland Heritage Alliance.  The group met at the SE corner of 17th St & Webster and walked past buildings constructed between 1914 and 1931 whose facades were constructed of fired and glazed tile. 

August 27, 2008.  George Pal: Discovering the Fantastic, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  Pal was active in the animation world of Germany and Hungary before he was able to come to the U. S. in 1939.  It was in Berlin in 1932, trying to figure out how to make a film of cigarettes marching that Pal began to pin the cigarettes together, and Puppetoons were born.  Stop action animation is where models are moved and photographed a frame at a time.  In Hollywood in the 1940s Pal worked with other animators including Disney and Walter Lantz in making short animated films and in the 1950s moved into special effects for science fiction films, animating UFOs and pre-historic monsters.  The Centennial Celebration at AMPAS includes a showing of films in which Pal animation appears as well as a panel discussion with Pal collaborators Bob Baker, Jim Danforth, Barbara Eden, Ann Robinson, Russ Tamblyn, and Alan Young.  The evening will conclude with a screening of War of the Worlds (1953).

September 18-19, 2008.  California Imagined: The Arts of the Golden State, sponsored by the Center for California Studies, California State University, Sacramento but held at the Sacramento Convention Center.  (20th Annual Envisioning California Conference)  From de Montalvo’s Queen Califia to PIXAR Animation Studios, California has long inspired artistic creativity and, therefore, has been shaped by that creativity.  The conference is to look into how California, real and imagined, has affected the arts?  Is there such a thing as California art and, if so, does it reflect a characteristic California willingness to embrace the new?  What are the roots, influences, and traditions of California art?  What is the role of government in the arts?  Is art education the driver of creativity as well as educational achievement?  For complete conference details, visit the website: www.csus.edu/calst.  Email: calstudies@csus.edu.  Tel. 916-278-6906.

October 2, 2008, 7-9 p.m.  Carolyn Owen Sheets-Towle leads an informal walk-through and talk about the exhibition Damngorgeous (Millard Sheets) at the Oceanside Museum of Art.  For further information see www.oma-online.org.

October 7, 2008, 6:30 p.m.  Art, Architecture, and the History of The Shakespeare Club of Pasadena, sponsored by Pasadena Museum of History at a private home.  Created in 1888 and evolving from a book club to a philanthropic organization, the Shakespeare Club was a strong supporter of art at the turn of the twentieth century.  Speaker Diana Loomis is a member of the Shakespeare League and the California Art Club.  Caution – this is a “Members Only at Home Program”; to join, contact the Pasadena Museum of History.

October 11, 2008.  Exploring Frontiers: Maynard Dixon, American Art and the West, symposium, Tucson Museum of Art. Lectures by Donald J. Hagerty, author; by Thomas B. Smith, curator, and by B. Byron Price, Director of the Charles M. Russell Center at the University of Oklahoma.  Cost $20.  For additional information, see www.tucsonmuseumofart.org.

November 12, 2008.  John Svenson, sculptor, will speak on his career in art under the auspices of the Fine Arts Foundation, a volunteer organization associated with Scripps College, Claremont, Ca.  Svenson was active in the mid twentieth century.  For more information and membership information, contact Barbara Elderkin at 909-624-4734.

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  and www.ArtPrice.com. Auction Galleries that hold special sales of historic California art include Bonhams/Butterfields, which can be viewed at www.bonhams.com; Christies at www.christies.com, John Moran at www.johnmoran.com; and Clark’s Fine Art & Auctioneers in Sherman Oaks at www.estateauctionservice.com, Clars at www.clars.com, Matthew’s Galleries, Lake Oswego, Oregon at www.matthewsgalleries.com, and Abells in L.A. at www.abell.com.

September 21, 2008.  Estate Auction, Clark’s Fine Art & Auctioneers, Inc., Sherman Oaks.

October 19, 2008.  Important European and American Fine Art and Antique Auction, Abell Auction Company, Los Angeles.  See www.Abell.com.  This sale includes an important collection of American Western Art from the Estate of Peggy Fouke Wortz, daughter of Ransom E. Olds, founder of Old Motor Vehicle Co. and REO Motor Co.  Included are works by William Herbert Dunton, Eanger Irving Couse, Joseph Henry Sharp, and Bert Geer Phillips that have not been viewed outside the family for more than eighty years.  Some works by California artists will also be on the block.

October 21, 2008.  California and American Paintings Auction, John Moran, Pasadena. 

October 29, 2008.  California and Western, Christies, Beverly Hills.

November 24, 2008.  California and American Paintings, Bonhams & Butterfields, Los Angles and San Francisco.

Many of John Moran’s “Estates Auctions” and Bonhams/Butterfield’s “Estates Auctions” and Abell’s Thursday and special Sunday auctions, contain California paintings.  See also upcoming auctions for Clars and Matthews that contain California art.  See their respective websites.