Archives

December 2009/January, February 2010

Sunday, December 13, 2009, 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.  Christmas Party at the home of Mark and Jan Hilbert in Newport Coast.  The Hilberts own an outstanding collection of California Scene watercolors.  Limited to 60 members.  $65/person.  No guests. 

Some of the upcoming events:

• February 28, 2010.  Visit to the Millard Sheets exhibit at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, lunch, and viewing of an unnamed private collection.
• April – Patron party at the home of Jean and Linda Stern.
• May – a trip to Denver to visit a number of private collections.
• Fall, 2010 a trip to artists houses in Laguna Beach.
• Fall, 2010 – a trip to Sacramento for the opening of the Crocker Art Museum.

THE FIELDSTONE COLLECTION / PETER AND GAIL OCHS COLLECTION

 In the 1980s, when historic Southern California art was first commercially promoted, two famous collections were formed: The Fieldstone Collection, in Orange County, and the Fleischer Collection in Arizona.  Fieldstone, headquartered in Irvine, California, and owned by Peter and Gail Ochs, was and still is a builder of fine homes – 30,000 at present. 

When Peter Ochs was growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he could hardly have foreseen such a future.  Yes, art appreciation and expertise ran in the family.  His mother painted.  Great aunt Nancy Isabella Ochs (1896-1970) was a successful graphic artist; great aunt Esther Ochs painted still lifes as a hobby and was a china painter; and great uncle Bob was an architect.  Although Peter visited them, no one tried to influence him in that direction, so he graduated with a BS in economics from Princeton and a Master’s in business from Stanford.  Gail first became interested in art in high school and vividly recalls driving with friends into Philadelphia to visit the Art Museum.  Her favorite painter was Kandinsky but, by the time she attended John’s Hopkins for nursing, she had discovered Matisse.

As with any young couple, Gail and Peter’s first years were spent getting career and family started.  In New York, Peter’s company assigned him to mergers and acquisitions, and when it acquired William Lyon Company, a California homebuilder headquartered in Newport Beach, Peter became corporate’s man on the spot.  The couple settled in Huntington Beach (1968-1972) before moving to their present home in Corona Del Mar.  The Lyon experience – Peter actually ran the company between 1975 and 1979 when Lyon was on the East Coast serving in a political post -- grounded Peter in the home building industry.  Here Peter made his first foray into corporate art when he commissioned a photographer to document aspects of home construction and had the works framed and hung in the company’s office.  Privately Gail and Peter bought art to decorate their home.  There was no particular focus, although one of their favorite artists was a contemporary painter of primitives named Bill Dodge.

In 1981 the Ochses were facing a new future.  That year, Peter founded Fieldstone.  Ever since Lyon returned to take over his company, Peter had yearned for the challenge and opportunity of running his own business.  It was finally worked out that, in trade for his part ownership of Lyon Company, Peter would accept one of Lyon’s divisions.  Renamed Fieldstone it headquartered in Newport Beach and built in San Diego and Orange County. 

Peter and Gail wanted a corporate art collection but don’t recall the exact moment they decided Fieldstone should collect California Impressionism.  They wanted to collect American art and liked Impressionism but didn’t feel the East Coast artists’ subject matter was relevant to Fieldstone.  Were there California Impressionists?  Yes!  Being a builder of homes, which necessitated reconfiguring the natural landscape, Peter liked the idea that both California’s Impressionists and the state’s 1930s watercolorists permanently captured California’s original terrain.  Southern California views were preferred, and if an artist depicted an identifiable site, even better.  That the California Impressionists and 1930s watercolorists constituted significant movements satisfied the couples’ interest in California history.  The collection was never meant to be decoration!!

Between approximately 1984 and 1990 Gail and Peter, later joined by Mary Hendrickson (now Mary Hamilton), who was Peter’s Executive Assistant, visited galleries throughout California and bought at auction.  Once they got a focus – California Impressionism and California Style watercolors -- they aggressively acquired.   Their first purchases were made during a visit to WIM Fine Arts in Oakland where owners Jim and Walter spent almost an entire day pulling paintings out of closets and sharing stories.  Works by Paul Lauritz, William Wendt, and Joseph Kleitsch were acquired.  By August of 1985 when Fieldstone was opening its exclusive Harbor Point subdivision in Newport Beach it had amassed 25 significant works by 16 artists, some of which it displayed in the model homes.  Among these artists were William Wendt, Hanson Puthuff, Guy Rose, Phil Dike, Marion Wachtel, Emil Kosa Jr., Alfred Mitchell, and George Brandriff.  At its peak, the collection contained almost 250 pictures.

Mary Hamilton played a significant role.  Although she had no particular art background, it soon became evident she had an “eye”.   It became Mary’s job to talk to consultants about what to collect.  “She had great energy,” says Peter.  She loved interfacing with dealers and collectors and learning about the artists.  She was, in effect, Peter and Gail’s arms and legs as well as their ears and eyes!!.  Her gracious personality made her perfect to lead tours of the collection and to represent it at other public occasions.  Later Janet Blake (Dominik), now with the Laguna Art Museum, was helpful in writing and preparing catalogues. 

Soon significant relationships were established with Jean Stern at Petersen Galleries and George Stern at Stern Fine Arts in Encino.  But the team equitably visited most of the galleries dealing in historic California art including Gary Breitweiser (Studio 2) and Maureen Murphy in Santa Barbara, Ray Redfern in Encino, and David and Sons and Karges Fine Art in Laguna Beach.  De McCall at DeRu’s Fine Arts did much of their restoration.  When they found great works that didn’t fit the corporate collection – meaning figurative or still life subject matter – the Ochses purchased them personally.  Although Mary and Gail identified paintings they liked, Peter retained a seldom-used veto.

The Ochses have so many fond memories of this period it was difficult to choose what to mention.  Gail recalls a Butterfields auction in San Francisco were she was bidding on a very dirty Guy Rose.   In the early years of collecting there was little competition, especially for a dirty picture, and she laughs to think how she would have to fight for that work today and what price she would have to pay. 

One of Peter and Gail’s biggest thrills was when Janet caught sight of a large oil by Millard Sheets that the couple had purchased a few years before from Stary-Sheets Art Gallery.  It showed two horses and had wonderful undulating anthropomorphic rhythms.  Janet said, “Where did you get that painting?  It has been lost!  Nobody knew where it was!”  The work, California, always one of the couple’s favorites, is still in the collection.

Among Peter’s favorite paintings is William Wendt’s Sunny Slopes a large work from 1912 that he identifies as the company’s first major acquisition.  He also feels tenderly toward a Guy Rose painting of the Arroyo Seco, which is a California scene rendered with the soft colors Rose usually used in France.  Peter has also always been susceptible to Marion Wachtel watercolors.  Gail, without hesitation, names two Franz Bischoff paintings of roses, both of which were presents from Peter on different occasions.  Together, both absolutely adore Jean Mannheim’s Ironing Day that shows a woman at an ironing board.  

In the early 1990s, with the downturn in the economy, including real estate, Fieldstone decided to downsize its art collection.  All told it de-accessioned fifty to sixty works.  Some were sold at auction, and your editor counts as lucky the corporation for which she worked that was able to purchase Mitchell’s small El Capitan dam.  Other works were marketed through dealers including Redfern Galleries in Laguna Beach.  At one point, the couple said, Enough, and Peter and Gail stepped in to purchase the remaining Corporate Collection, partly because they loved the art and partly to keep the important collection intact.  It is now officially the Peter and Gail Ochs Collection.  In the last fifteen years, it has entered a new phase.  Peter and Gail are honing the collection for their personal needs, de-accessioning works not of prime quality or that do not appeal to them personally.  Strategic purchasing continues today.  The collection is currently displayed in both their home and the Fieldstone corporate offices, and Gail enjoys shuffling the works around once a year to create fresh perspectives.  Tours can still be scheduled for the Corporate offices, and recently Gail and Peter have granted small private tours of their home collection.

Since Peter and Gail have always been interested in giving back to the community, Fieldstone’s art has been generously shared with the public.  It has been reproduced in books, lent to museum exhibits, displayed in some of their model homes, and the corporate offices have been opened for art tours.   The company has published catalogues of its collection and reproduced its art on the front of note cards and posters.  Most recently, when Peter and Gail received a national award from United Way, they set up a small exhibit of paintings at the black-tie dinner and distributed a frameable print of their Alson Clark painting. 

Fieldstone has provided funding to publications, such as California Light, which documented historic California Impressionism, and videos, such as that produced by Bockhorst Productions.  It has also contributed to museums, including the Laguna Art Museum.  (Fieldstone’s Foundation, which was started a year before the company began collecting art, was always separate from any of its art activities.)

The beat goes on, as they say, and expectedly Peter and Gail’s four daughters have also developed a love for historic California art.  Each has a small collection, some of which they have received as birthday presents from their parents.  Peter remains active as Chairman of the Board of Fieldstone, which is now building in Utah and Texas as well as California.  Sending their many artworks to exhibits is a never ending joy.  And, the couple increasingly enjoys sharing their collection with small groups.  Something is always happening.

Thank you, Peter and Gail, for your great contributions to historic California art.  We salute you. 

Santa Paula Art Museum opens!!!  Welcome to the newest museum to feature California art.  The museum will be the repository of the Santa Paula Art Collection, which contains over 300 pieces by artists of the area including Jessie and Cornelis Botke, Douglas Shively and Robert Clunie.  These are all award winners from the annual Santa Paula Art Show which began in 1937 or gifted memorials.    Please view the website www.santapaulaartmuseum.org .

The California Art Club celebrates its 100^th birthday.  The California Art Club was officially founded on December 10, 1909 and has been going strong ever since.  The Club celebrated the birthday with a cake at its headquarters, a year-long slate of special exhibits, and is publishing a book on the Club’s history.  (See “Books” below.)  Happy Birthday to you all!!!!

 Forty members of the Laguna Art Museum’s Historical Art Council had a full day’s outing on Saturday November 14 viewing museum-quality works by historic California Impressionists in two Beverly Hills private collections.  Members were taken by bus from Laguna to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Brickman.  After breakfast pastries and a tour of the collection, the Brickmans shared their very interesting personal collecting story.  After lunch at Il Piccolino, which features Tuscan fare, the party continued on to the intimate collection of former San Francisco residents Oscar and Trudy Lemer.  The Lemers live in a modest sized condo which allows only a few of their many paintings to be displayed but those were museum quality and elicited many Ooh’s and Aahs.   Cost was $115 for HAC members and $150 for non-members. 

 In January 2010 LAM’s Historical Art Council is planning a bus trip to Palm Springs where it will view, along with a private collection, the California landscape paintings belonging to Stephen B. Chase which are hanging at the Living Desert in Palm Desert.  On February 27, 2010 it plans to view the impressive and encyclopedia Boseker Collection in Orange County.

 California Ephemera Project.  The California Historical Society, the San Francisco Public Library and the Society of California Pioneers, all institutions with collections of great historic California art and photography, are three of four Bay Area institutions awarded monetary grants to catalogue their ephemera.  Scholars sometimes have difficulty accessing ephemera, which usually consists of publications of from one to thirty-six pages, including art catalogues, advertisements, wine labels, etc.  When finished, this will undoubtedly reveal material that will enrich our knowledge of California’s art history.  For details see 36pagesorless.wordpress.com.

 The American Art Council will spend Saturday, November 7, touring three outstanding collections in the downtown Los Angeles area: the historic California art owned by both the Jonathan Club and the California Club and the contemporary California art decorating the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.   At each place members will be given a private, escorted tour. 

Why should Californians care about the French artist Felix Lorioux (1872-1964).  According to an article on www.animationarchive.org, the artist was hired by Walt Disney to illustrate books based on Mickey Mouse and the Silly Symphonies for the French market.  Before 1934, when Disney revoked the contract and brought the work in house, Lorioux created an illustration of a goose in a sailor suit that may have been the inspiration for Donald Duck.  The artist went on to become famous as the illustrator of the children’s book Le Buffon des Enfants that depicts humanized animals and plants from his garden.

 The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., an umbrella linking many different kinds of museums and collections, has an incredible on-line search tool.  Art searches can be made with such key words as images, paintings, photographs, works of art, graphic arts, sculpture, periodicals, and artist names.  This is searches not just the Archives of American Art material, but items from ALL the Smithsonian entities.  See Collections.si.edu/search/.

Annex Galleries, dealers in fine prints with a special section on California, is about to launch a major update of its website: www.annexgalleries.com:3000/   It asks users to try out its various new options and tools to search inventory and to view its changing on-line exhibitions.  Beginning in January, its on-line exhibit will be “A Century of American Color Block Prints.” 

 A portrait photo and curriculum vitae on Martin Eugene Petersen, who has authored many articles and books on San Diego artists, can be found at www.aliceklauber.museumartistsfoundation.org. 

 The Bowers’ California Arts Council continues to make major contributions to the Bowers Museum.  Five Frank Coburn paintings and one Marion Kavanagh Wachtel are currently at the Balboa Art Conservation Center being restored to their original brilliance, thanks to funds from the Council.  Also, on October 31, the group was hosted to a special tour of the current show at the Irvine Museum by Jean Stern, Executive Director. 

 On Saturday, November 7^th, from 5-8 p.m. Katherine Norris Fine Art in Newport Beach, held a special evening event where she displayed beautiful art, fabulous hand made jewelry, served good food, and promised lively conversation.  Available was information on Spencer Hospice Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of terminally ill patients and their families.  To find out more about the gallery, check out www.knorrisfineart.com.

 Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery Newsletter for October has sizeable articles on the opening of the new Walt Disney Museum in San Francisco and on the family of artist Joshua Meador.  The website also reprints an interesting early newspaper article “The Louvre of the West, the New Gallery of California Painters at Del Monte,” that appeared in the San Francisco Call on November 3, 1907 and details the art gallery that was opened in the Del Monte hotel in Monterey following the destruction of San Francisco’s art world in the fire of 1906.  See www.BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com. 

 Email announcements of new acquisitions have been received from the following galleries:

• American Eagle Fine Art has new works by Orrin White, Carl Sammons, Joseph Birren, Joane Cromwell, Frank Serratoni, Conway Griffith, Noel Quinn, and Muriel Evans Hudson.
• California View Fine Arts has a top California landscape by Paul Grimm
• Karges Fine Art has recently acquired pieces by Armin Hansen, Hanson Puthuff, Gustavo Montoya, Edith White and Marion K. Wachtel.
• Josh Hardy Galleries is holding an exhibit of recent acquisitions including work by Dana Bartlett, Charles Rollo Peters, Mary Black, Thomas McGlynn, Harry Vincent and others.
• Edenhurst Galleries, Palm Desert has new works by Armin Hansen, Jack Wilkinson Smith, Maurice Braun, Frank Cuprien, Granville Redmond, Carl Oscar Borg, and Maurice Logan.

 How far from Southern California were the state’s ceramic tiles utilized ?  At least as far as West Yellowstone, Montana, if one counts Eagle’s curio and outfitters store.  Its soda fountain, with its swiveling stools and delicious ice cream dishes, still retains the beautiful “pillow” tiles that surround the counter.  Although the actual maker of the tiles is currently unknown, such “puffy” tiles were manufactured by a number of Southern California tile companies from about 1923 to the mid 1930s.  Malibu Potteries (1926-1932) is probably the maker, according to experts at the Tile Heritage Foundation, but other possibilities are California Clay Products (1923-1932), Tudor Potteries (1927-1931) and Haldeman Tile Manufacturing (1928-1930).  To view photos, see www.tileheritage.org/THF-ENews08-09.html.  In addition, the Lake Yellowstone Hotel’s lobby has a fantastic fireplace mantel made by Batchelder-Wilson of Los Angeles in 1923, as well as a wall-mounted drinking fountain.

Vern Swansen (or Swanson), who grew up in Pasadena and obtained his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Southern California and went on to hold posts in Santa Barbara before taking the post of teaching architecture and watercolor at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, bequested his entire art collection to the University’s Daedalus Chapter of the Alpha Rho Chi, a co-ed social and professional fraternity for students of architecture and the allied arts.  The fraternity is very proud of its 4000 piece collection, which it is currently cataloging and organizing for future displays.  See sites.google.com/site/alpharhochidaedaluschapter/vern-swanson.

 Roofers at the 11-story Campbell Building, located in the Lafayette Complex of historic buildings in Long Beach, California, recently tore off layers and layers of old roofing only to find an 8 x 8 foot tile mural, probably put there when the building was constructed in 1928.  Experts at the Tile Heritage Foundation immediately recognized the tiles as by D&M, but the mural is distinguished by the “C. Torres” signature, D&M’s chief muralist Cerillo Torres.  Two experts stepped in to extract the mural that was about to be demolished and, after funding from a Long Beach Naval Grant allowed the tiles to be cleaned, the mural will be re-installed on the second floor exterior of the building at 130 Linden Street.  For the full story, see www.tileheritage.org/THF-ENews11-2009.html.  

Permanent displays of historic (pre-1945) California paintings can be found at many California institutions, which are listed on www:CaliforniaArt.com in the “Galleries” section (scroll down to Museums).  Several institutions have already put their permanent collections (including California works) on-line.

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

 Through mid-December.  American Western Art, Bank of America, 555 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, Concourse Level.  Includes works by California artists Maynard Dixon, Joseph Henry Sharp, Edgar Payne, Frank Tenney Johnson and others.

 January 1 – December 31, 2009.  Classic California: Recently Conserved Paintings from the Permanent Collection, Bowers Museum, Santa Ana.  “Since 2005, the Bowers’ California Arts Council has collaborated with the museum’s Collections Department and the Balboa Art Conservation Center, San Diego, to preserve” many of the museum’s early California paintings.  Artists in this show include Frank Coburn, Paul Dougherty, Charles Fries, William S. Jewett, Carl Jonnevold, Joseph Kleitsch, Edgar Payne, Hanson Puthuff, William Ritschel, Guy Rose, Gardner Symons, Elmer and Marion Kavanagh Wachtel, and William Wendt.

 May 3, 2009 – January 31, 2010.  Richard Neutra, Architect: Sketches and Drawings, Los Angeles Public Library, Getty Gallery.  Lent by the Special Collections Department of UCLA’s research library, the pieces range from early pencil sketches from Neutra’s student wandering in 1913 to late pastel renderings of his Los Angeles houses from the 1950s.  Not all architects have artistic ability; Neutra’s sketches surpass those of most fine arts draughtsmen.  A free audio tour by Sandpail Productions is available at the site.

 August 27 – December 31, 2009.  Guiding Lights: Teachers at the Santa Barbara School of the Arts, 1920-1938, Santa Barbara Historical Society.  Works of art by instructors such as Colin Campbell Cooper, John Marshall Gamble, and John Edward Borein, among others.  In its day, the School of the Arts was the most important art center between San Francisco and Los Angeles.  Founded in 1920, it gave employment to local artists, educated thousands of students, and attracted many career artists to the area.  This show is one of several through which the Historical Society plans to document Santa Barbara’s rich artistic heritage.  (from the website)

 September 5, 2009 – February 28, 2010.  Ansel Adams: Early Works, San Jose Museum of Art.  Traveling exhibit of fifty vintage photographs.  This exhibit focuses on Adams’s small scale works.

 September 8 – December 12, 2009.  Corita – Breaking (All) the Rules, Gonzaga University, Jundt Galleries, Spokane, Washington.  The 1950s nun-turned-artist.

September 12 – November 22, 2009.  La Femme – Selected Works from the Permanent Collection by California Women Artists, Carnegie Museum of Oxnard.  Accompanies the show of the Ann H. Bittl Collection of American women artists.

 September 12 – December 12, 2009.  Lorser Feitelson: The Late Paintings, Louis Stern Fine Arts, West Hollywood.  Feitelson, a modernist, invented Post-Surrealism with his wife Helen Lundeberg, and was an influential art teacher.  Accompanied by a 48-page soft bound catalogue.

September 17 – December 13, 2009.  Art of the Movie Poster: Illustrated One-Sheets and Design Concepts from the Paul Crifo Archive, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Grand Lobby, Beverly Hills.  Explores the process of creating movie posters between the 1950s and 1980s.   During this time, posters were generally conceived and executed by art school-trained craftsmen working within studio advertising departments or at ad agencies.  Paul Crifo studied illustration at Pratt University beginning 1942, worked on more than 400 motion picture advertising campaigns, and personally designed 120 film posters, many for Hollywood studios, largely while working out of New York City.  Preliminary artwork for the posters includes reference stills, concept sketches, and hand-rendered and photographic “comps” (a design incorporating graphics and text).  Also featured are many of the approved original illustrations of “key art,”  as well as rejected final designs.  The website www.oscars.org contains a slide show of some of the posters featured in the exhibit.

 September 18 – October 17, 2009.  Meadows and Mountains: The Art of William F. Jackson (1850-1936), North Point Gallery, San Francisco.   “Jackson was early Sacramento’s leading landscape artist, painting Sierra scenes near Soda Springs and Donner Lake as well as springtime meadows covered with poppies and lupine.”  (from the announcement)  A clothbound book accompanies the exhibition.  (See “Books” below.)

 September 20, 2009 – April 30, 2010.  Corita: Serigraphs & Watercolors, 1951-1985, Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles.  Included will be two of three banners painted for the Vatican Pavilion at the 1964-65 Worlds Fair in New York.  This is the first public showing of two of these banners together since their original display.

 September 24, 2009 – February 5, 2011.  Think California, California Historical Society, San Francisco.  Exhibition themes include: Coming to California; Scenic Splendors; Bounty of the Golden State; Earthquakes, Floods and Volcanoes; Freeways, Traffic and Early Transportation; Tourist Sites; Theater, Music and Film. 

 September 27, 2009 - January 10, 2010.  Myth and Manpower: Graphics and the California Dream, CAFAM (Craft and Folk Art Museum, 5814 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles).   Curated by Bill Stern of the Museum of California Design.  Juxtaposes labels created for promoting California citrus – and California itself – with posters, such as those by the United Farmworkers of America, which are critical of the state.  Shows the power of graphic design to communicate ideas.  (For an extended essay see www.mocad.org/exhibitions.html.)  Includes a downloadable study guide for teachers.

 October 3 – November 7, 2009.  Conrad Buff, George Stern Fine Arts, West Hollywood.  Swiss-born artist who became known for his dramatic and modernistic views of the desert.  A three-fold brochure with 20 color reproductions and a price list accompanies the show.

 October 3, 2009 – February 21, 2010.  The Greatest Earth on Show, Phippen Museum, Prescott, Arizona.  Desert paintings by Maynard Dixon and Jimmy Swinnerton.  The Phippen Museum is named after George Phippen, the first president of the Cowboy Artists of America, and the museum is dedicated to classic American Western art.  See www.PhippenArtMuseum.org.

October 6, 2009 – February 13, 2010.  Selections from The Irvine Museum, Irvine Museum.   This show, which will travel, is accompanied by a sizeable catalogue.   The show features many artworks acquired over the last seventeen years of the Museum’s existence and, when compared to the Museum’s first exhibit in January 1993 which had the same title, is meant to demonstrate the Museum’s growth.

October 9, 2009 – January 17, 2010.  Surviving Hard Times, Long Beach Museum of Art.  Examines the Works Progress Administration (WPA) art programs that paid for over 20,000 artworks nationwide between 1933 and 1943.  From the 35 works on long-term loan to the Long Beach Museum of Art from the Federal government, the museum has selected pieces by rarely seen artists such as George Henry Melcher, William Bowen, Theo Carpenter, Henry Ford, E. D. Horsky, Norman Yeckley and others.  For some images, see www.lbma.org. 

 October 14, 2009 – February 15, 2010.  Peanuts Cooks, Charles M. Schulz Museum, Santa Rosa.  Twenty original Peanuts strips, illustrated cookbooks and other ephemera show the Peanuts’ characters’ food preferences, including chocolate chip cookies and pizza, as well as their dislikes, namely soggy cereal and cocoanut.

 October 29, 2009 – January 3, 2010.  L.A. Printmakers, 1962-1973, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Park, L.  A.   Silkscreens, intaglio color etchings, and lithographs from the era in which print workshops rose in popularity.

 November-December 2009.  Hardie Gramatky (1907-1979), Adelaide Fine Art, 84 Main Street, New Canaan, Ct. 06840.  203-966-3300.  www.adelaidefineart.com.  45 paintings.  Important California Scene watercolorist.

 November 6, 2009 – May 9, 2010.  Meadows and Mountains: The Art of William F. Jackson, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento.  First retrospective of Jackson, who was Sacramento’s leading painter from the 1880s until his death in 1936.  His subject matter was the rugged backcountry near Donner Lake and Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada as well as California hillsides carpeted with springtime poppies and lupine.  Concurrently, he served as Director of the Crocker Art Museum for fifty years from its founding in 1885.  The show is accompanied by a significant catalogue authored by Alfred Harrison of North Point Gallery in San Francisco. 

November 8, 2009 – January 17, 2010.  Collecting California: Selections from Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Art Museum.   From the earliest to the most current California art, Collecting California outlines some of the most significant works of art created in California over the last 150 years.  Accompanied by a major catalogue.

 November 14, 2009 – January 2, 2010.  Beginning Collector, George Stern Fine Arts, West Hollywood.  The show is accompanied by a three-fold brochure that reproduces 22 works in color and includes a price list.

 November 14, 2009 – May 30, 2010.  Skateboard: Evolution and Art in California, California Heritage Museum, Santa Monica.  Traces the evolution of boards from pre-1950 to the present, showcasing the riders, designers, artists, and manufacturers.  First exhibition of the California skate movement to be shown in “Dog Town” the Santa Monica/Ocean Park area where modern skateboarding was born.

December 5, 2009 – April 19, 2010.  Sunday at the Funnies, 1910-2010, Charles M. Schulz Museum, Santa Rosa.  Over the years, comic strips not only helped newspapers attract new readers from other publications, but provided fantasy escape from troubled times.  Besides tear sheets from the past century, this exhibit will show how comics were colored and will have a children’s creative play area.

January 13 – March 21, 2010.  America’s Wilderness in Art: A Growing Collection, Wildling Museum, Los Olivos.  Celebrates the museum’s growing permanent collection with a show of important works: “Cascade on the Firehole”, a 1912 painting by Pacific Northwest/California turn-of-the-century landscapist John Fery (purchased by the Museum in 2000); “From the Lowest to the Highest Point in the United States”, a 1918 painting by Henry J. Breuer (a gift of the Schaeffer Foundation); a series of linoleum block prints by Everett Ruess who disappeared in Escalante Canyon in 1934 at the age of 20 (gifted by Warren and Marlene Miller and Arlington Gallery); and prints by Carl Oscar Bog as well as small landscapes by Douglas Parshall, Lockwood DeForest and Ray Strong.

 February 20 – May 23, 2010.  Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner, Palm Springs Art Museum.  First comprehensive exhibit of the mid-century modernist architect.  Includes 115 original drawings and sketches, ten original models, six large-scale architectural models, and a documentary film.  (from the website)

 February 14 – May 30, 2010.  Millard Sheets: The Early Years, Pasadena Museum of California Art.  The little-known work in oils and watercolor that Sheets executed while at Chouinard Art Institute both as student and teacher in the 1920s.

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. 

Alfred C. Harrison, Jr., Meadows and Mountains: The Art of William F. Jackson, San Francisco: The Gallery?  Cloth, $40.  Available from North Point Gallery.

California Art Club,  NY: Rizzoli, 2009?  The Club’s Centennial book.

Selections from the Irvine Museum, Irvine: The Museum, 2009.  Updated edition of the Museum’s first traveling show in January 1993.  Highlights the works of 75 important California painters and is the catalogue for a new touring exhibit.

Collecting California: Selections from Laguna Art Museum, Laguna: The Art Museum, 2009.  Catalogue for the exhibit of the same name.  Features 80 works.  144 pp.  soft cover. 

 Edna E. Kimbro, et al., The California Missions: History, Art and Preservation, Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2009.  (Conservation and Cultural Heritage no. 8).  276 pp., 271 illus. 

 Richard Candida Smith, The Modern Moves West: California Artists and Democratic Culture in the Twentieth Century, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.  262 pp., 35 illus.   Candida Smith is a prolific and commercial author who facilely synthesizes material for a popular audience.

Alfons Hug, et al. The Tropics: Views from the Middle of the Globe, Bielefeld: Kerber Verlag, 2008.  Several Northern California artists of the late nineteenth century painted views of Central and South America, but it is not known if any were included in this book.

 California Watercolor Art from the Early 20^th Century Through Today, published by CaliforniaWatercolor.com can be purchased on its website.   40 pps., softcover, 94 color illus.  $18.00.

 Photography

Harry M. Callahan, et al., Ansel Adams in Color, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2009.  New edition of 1993 book.  160 pp.  72 color illus.

 Linda Gordon, Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.  600 pp.  136 illus.  The Depression-era photographer.

 Dorothea Lange: The Crucial Years, 1930-1946, Madrid: La Fabrica Editorial, 2009.  184 pp., 139 illus. 

Lynne Pauls Baron and Cynthia Roznoy, “F. Luis Mora and the Expression of Beauty,” American Art Review, v. XXI, no. 6, November-December 2009, pp. 90-97.  Mora, who was active for most of his career on the East Coast, moved to Pebble Beach, California, in the early 1930s to live with his artist brother Jo (Joseph Jacinto) Mora, and died there in 1940.

 Susan Futterman, “The Color Block Prints of Frances Gearhart,” American Art Review, v. XXI, no. 6, November-December 2009, pp. 98-101.

 Morgan P. Yates, “The Artistry of Printmaking: Paul Landacre,” Westways, Sept 2009, pp. 43-45.  Landacre is best known for his wood engravings made in the 1930s.

 Matthew W. Roth, “One of a Kind: Westways Cover Artist Merv Corning,” Westways, November/December 2009, pp. 34-35.  Watercolorist.

 Gary F. Kurutz, “Carl Eytel – Southern California Desert Artist,” California State Library Bulletin, no. 95, 2009, pp. 17-20.  Discusses the State Library’s most important Southern California painting – Eytel’s “Desert Near Palm Springs.”

 M. K. Komanecky, “Henry Sandham’s Illustrations for ‘Ramona: A Story’, Helen Hunt Jackson’s Famous Romance of California,” National Gallery of Canada Review, v. 6 (2008), pp. 62-101, 165-91.  Sandham visited California to obtain background for such illustrations and produced a few easel paintings.  (See Art in Los Angeles Before 1900, Laguna Art Museum, 1993.)

 S. H. McGarry, “The Conquest of California: A Mural Series,” Southwest Art, v. 17, December 1987, pp. 60-65. 

Brief articles on the exhibits at the Irvine Museum.

• “The Good Life: California Watercolors, 1930-1950,” American Artist, v. 73, April 2009, p. 66. 
• “Abundance of Color: California Flowers in Art,” American Artist, v. 72, June 2008, p. 71. 
• “Romance of the Bells: The California Missions in Art,” American Artist, v. 72, January 2008, p. 70.
• “Peaceful Awakening: Spring in California,” American Artist, v. 71, May 2007, p. 72.
• “Majestic California: Prominent Artists of the Early 1900s,” American Artist, v. 70, December 2006, p. 67.
• “Winds of Change: Progressive Artists, 1915-1935,” American Artist, v. 70, July/August 2006, p. 77.

J. Stern, “The Arrival of French Impressionism in America: California’s Golden Years,” American Artist, v. 73, November 2009, pp. 12-16, 18-20, 22-29.

B. Robertson, “Millard Sheets ‘Tenement Flats’,” American Art, v. 20, no. 2, Summer, 2006, pp. 7-9.  Tenement Flats probably depicts the area near Angels Flight in downtown Los Angeles.

 J. Dorfman, “Light, Space and Freedom,” Art & Antiques, v. 31, no. 5, May 2008, p. 30.  Interview with Tobey C. Moss who, for 30 years, has run an art gallery in LA for historic California artists with a modernist bent. 

Matthias Anderson, “Art at Stanford: Better than Ever,” Fine Art Connoisseur, November/December 2009.  This may be about the museum that was rebuilt after the earthquake, but the table of contents gives no clue other than the title.

 Sheryl Nonnenberg, “The Accidental Collection of Carmel, California,” Fine Art Connoisseur, September/October 2009.  Who knows what this is about, but it sounds promising. 

 September 12, 2009, 1:00 p.m.  Greene & Greene: The Art of Architecture, by Paul Bockhorst, will be screened at the Santa Monica Public Library, Martin Luther King Auditorium.  The library is located at 601 Santa Monica Blvd.  The film chronicles the lives of the architect brothers and their unique blend of Craftsman and Asian elements.  Free.  First come, first served.  Refreshments courtesy Society of Architectural Historians. 

October 24, 2009, 2-4 p.m.  Past: Pasadena and its Various Histories, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena.   Pasadena takes pride in its rich history and today retrospectively promotes its preservation.   This panel discussion examines the various histories of art and architecture in the region and how they are interwoven with the social history of Pasadena.  Moderator: Larry Wilson, public editor for the Pasadena Star News.  Panelists: Anthony Denzer, architecture historian; Ilene Susan Fort, Curator of American Art at LACMA; Michele Zack, historian and author.

 November 8, 2009, 1:00 p.m.  Curatorial walk through of Collecting California: Selections from Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Art Museum.  Curatorial members include Susan Anderson, Janet Blake, Jacqueline Bunge, Bolton Colburn, Doug Harvey, Grace Kook-Anderson, and Tyler Stallings.

 December 3, 2009, 6 p.m.  Alfred Harrison will lecture on the art of William F. Jackson, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento.

 December 13, 2009, 1:00 p.m.  Janet Blake will discuss early California art in relation to the exhibit Collecting California: Selections from Laguna Art Museum, at the Laguna Art Museum.

 December 23, 2009, 1:00 p.m.  Janet Blake will discuss the Laguna Art Museum’s current exhibit, Collecting California: Selections from Laguna Art Museum.  Meet in the Museum’s California Gallery. 

 January 9, 2010, 5:00 p.m.  Jean Stern will give a slide lecture titled “Looking at Paintings: Developing a Critical Eye to Appreciate the Best,” at the Laguna Art Museum, California Gallery.  Stern examines representational landscape painting by Southern California artists.  This event is limited to 30 members of LAM’s Historical Art Council.  Reservations at 949-494-8971, ext. 203. 

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.

 November 23, 2009.  California and American Paintings and Sculpture, Bonhams & Butterfields, SF and LA.

 February 16, 2010.  California and American Fine Art Sale, John Moran Antique and Fine Art Auctioneers, Pasadena. 

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