California Calling at SBMA
Posted in BLATHER & DRIVEL on 07/20/2009 05:54 pm by admin
The new Curator of Contemporary Art at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Julie Joyce, has curated a new exhibition of Post-War and Contemporary art by California artists. (If I can be said to have a specialty in any area, that would be it.) California Calling is a two-room exhibition that has been on the walls for less than a week.
I saw the exhibition yesterday, but I will need to go back when I have more time.
Joyce pulled extensively from the deep storage of the museum’s collection. I suspect that many of those paintings haven’t seen an audience in many, many years. While not a complete picture of the period, the show managed to make a nice case for the quality and seriousness of the art of that time and place.
My favorite pieces were by Howard Warshaw (Witnesses, Triptych, 1953), Channing Peake (some quasi-surreal set design full of gothic arches in a mid century palette and style), Helen Lundeberg (Post-Surreal work), David Park (Figures by the Ocean), Karl Benjamin (Hard Edge), Frederick Hammersley (bio-morphic hard edge) and Vija Celmins (oceans and stars works on paper). There was also a gorgeous contemporary work called “Storm Chasers.”
Go see the show! (and, if you know Julie, say “thank you.”)