Greek gods and temples, Roman ruins, and other images from classical antiquity are an endless source of inspiration for artists throughout the centuries. The special exhibition Picturing the Past: Piranesi to Pearlstein, a selection of over 50 prints, drawings and photographs from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art's (SBMA) permanent collection illustrates the lasting legacy of the Greeks and Romans in our culture.

As early as the Renaissance, the study of famous works of art of the Greek and Roman civilizations was an essential part of an artist's education. The city of Rome was an important destination for anyone who wished to study surviving examples of sculpture and the ruined remains of buildings. By the l8th century, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and other sites in Italy and Greece also attracted artists and provided them with a variety of subject matter. Over the centuries, artistic theory derived from the study of classical art and the interpretation of its principles took varied forms.

The persistent reference to classicism in western art, architecture, literature, and philosophy has left a lasting legacy of Greek and Roman ideas and images in our culture. Subjects and themes from classical mythology provided a new vocabulary of . Beginning in the Renaissance and lasting right through the 20th-century, artists as diverse as the Pre- Raphaelite Edward Burne-Jones (1833-98) and the great 20th-century master Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) used figures from Greek and Roman mythology in their work.

Painterly Photographs: The Raymond E. Kassar Collection
December 2, 2000 - February 11, 2001

Aiming to elevate the medium of photography to fine art, Alfred Stieglitz and his American and European contemporaries used their cameras as aesthetic tools rather than recording devices. The exhibition Painterly Photographs, on view at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art December 2, 2000 - February 11, 2001, presents 33 works including rare, large-format photographs, most of which were made for exhibition presentation during 1900-1910. Drawn from a private collection, these exquisite images represent some of the most important camera artists of the time: Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Heinrich Kuehn, George Seeley and Clarence White.

The PhotoSecessionists, led by Alfred Stieglitz and Clarence White in America, members of the Linked Ring in England and other international pictorial photographers expressly intended their work to emulate traditional art forms. The subjects chosen ranged from intimate, interior scenes to sylvan landscapes to children at idylls, expressing moody and romantic visions of a world filled with light and shadow, beauty and innocence.

From Azaceta to Zuniga: 20th-Century Latin American Art
November 5 - December 31, 2000

Showcasing the Museum's holdings of twentieth-century Latin American art, From Azaceta to Zúñiga draws together the finest examples of this distinguished permanent collection. More than one hundred paintings, sculptures, and works on paper document the institution's ongoing commitment to the important contributions of Latin American artists to international modernism and contemporary art. Launched in the 1950s and 1960s when the SBMA received a core group of objects from the pioneering scholar of Mexican modernism, Dr. MacKinley Helm, the Museum's collection of Latin American art was long defined by premier examples of modern Mexican art. Several major acquisitions made during the 1990s, however, reflect an institutional decision to expand the collection beyond the borders of Mexico. While Mexican artists figure prominently in this exhibition, the selection also indicates this shift in collection development by presenting works by Cuban-born Luis Cruz Azaceta, Uruguayan Joaquín Torres-Garcia and other Central American, South American and Caribbean artists. For the first time, From Azaceta to Zúñiga highlights the depth and the diversity of the Museum's ever-expanding collection of Latin American art.

Netsuke: The Japanese Art of Miniature Carving
September 9 - November 19, 2000

Long before power suits and briefcases, Japanese men wore kimonos with narrow cloth sashes tied in back. Because Kimono had no pockets, men carried their personal belongings-tobacco pouches, small cases for medicine or seals, and moneybags-suspended from a braided silk cord from the sash. To prevent the cord from slipping, a small toggle was attached to the opposite end. This toggle was called a netsuke (ne: root; tsuke: to fasten) in Japanese. At first, netsuke were found objects-a polished nut, a piece of root, or a shark's tooth. Soon artists began to carve fantastically detailed and powerful masterpieces on a miniature scale. Most netsuke were carved from ivory or wood, but artists also used more exotic materials including stag's antler, coral, and amber. The exhibition, organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, will be on view at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art September 9 through November 19th. Featuring more than 300 extraordinary netsuke on loan from private collectors in Japan, Europe, and the United States-all of whom are members of the International Netsuke Society-this major exhibition explores the beginning of netsuke production, major artistic developments, contemporary netsuke carving, and major themes of important Japanese tradition. Most of the netsuke on display have never been publicly exhibited before. Netsuke first became fashionable accessories for samurai and wealthy commoners during Japan's early Edo period (1600-1868). The admiration these men had for culture was reflected in their netsuke portraying Buddhist deities, Taoist immortals and mythical beasts such as dragons and phoenixes. Artists conveyed the grandeur and potency of these exotic subjects by giving them fierce, even grotesque features. By the middle of the 18th century, popular culture was on the rise in Japan. Extended peace and a thriving economy fostered the growth of cities in the middle class of skilled artisans and merchants. For the first time in Japanese history, ordinary townsmen could enjoy some of the luxuries of life, including fine fashionable clothing and exquisite netsuke. Following the 1868 opening of Japan, netsuke quickly became one of the most popular forms of Japanese art among Westerners. Charmed by these miniature windows onto Japanese culture and art, tourists collected both old and new netsuke. Connoisseurs from Europe amassed great collections during this time, and the famous Russian goldsmith Peter Carl Fabergé emulated the Japanese love of compact design in his own jewelry and sculptures.

The centerpiece of the exhibition will be the sculpture, TV Clock, created in 1963 and now considered a classic example of Minimalism, one of the most important art movements of the 1960s. Recently acquired by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, TV Clock is one of Paik's early, signature multi-monitor installations. It consists of 24 color televisions mounted upright on pedestals that are arranged in a gentle arc and displayed in a darkened space. Paik created each video image by manipulating the television to compress its red, green, and blue colors into a single line against a black background. It is "fixed image television," as Paik says, and does not involve a videotape or a computer chip. If read in sequence, each static line tumbles into the next, forming a dynamic yet elegantly spare linear rhythm. When viewed in terms of the aesthetics of abstraction, TV Clock's highly reductive beauty offers a fascinating parallel to the Minimalist painting and sculpture by Ellsworth Kelly, Dan Flavin, Robert Mangold, and Agnes Martin made at the same time.

Alternatively, its linear structure suggests the hands of a clock, or the lines of a sundial, moving through two twelve-hour periods to make up nature's twenty-four hour cycle of night and day. If TV Clock calls forth both the abstract and the real, this dramatic room-sized installation at once summons the past and the present. Its overall shape and simplified, block-like forms evoke the prehistoric monument Stonehenge, while its electric light is emblematic of the modern media age.

TV Clock was first conceived and executed in 1963 as a video art sculpture-installation. It was subsequently recreated, deinstalled and reinstalled, as needed. After his retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1982, Paik--encouraged by the broad acknowledgement of this work as central to his oeuvre--decided to make three permanent TV Clock's: one for Asia, which is now in the collection of Tokyo's Metropolitan Museum of Art and is made up of twelve black-and-white and twelve color monitors; one for the United States, which is the version the Museum has acquired, which consists of twenty-four color monitors, created as a permanent piece on the occasion of Paik's retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1989; and one for Europe, which is presently in private hands.

Other works in the exhibition will provide a striking exercise in visual contrasts, paralleling the artist's early meditative Minimalist work, known for its elegant simplicity, with his later work, in all its brightly colored, kinetic cacophony. Given Paik's stature as one of the great innovators in twentieth-century art, whose pioneering efforts presaged the increasing impact of electronic media on art and culture, this exhibition fittingly marks the turn of the millenium. Paik's pioneering artistic work uses the fundamental tools of the "information age" to highlight the increasing impact of media on culture.

Mastering the Medium: Woodcuts
May 27 - August 20, 2000

This is the third in a series of exhibitions featuring the main printmaking media and based on selections from the Museum's collection. These broad surveys provide an overview of each medium while illustrating the scope and particular strengths of the print collection, now numbering approximately 9000 works. In the case of woodcuts we are able to trace the history of the medium to its very beginnings in the era of book publishing and illustration using woodcuts. The l5th century Augsburg artist Gunther Zainer, was probably the first to use woodcut images in printed pages to replace the hand drawn and painted religious images previously of manuscript illuminators. Two elaborate religious scenes in the High Renaissance style by Albrecht Durer represent masterpieces in the use of woodcut artistry which had evolved rapidly by the late l5th century, and an early l6th century woodcut by Italian artist Hugo da Carpi employs multiple woodcut blocks printed in differing colors introduces another stage in the evolution of the woodcut.

Representing the great revival of interest in the use of woodcut as a medium for original artistic expression, the exhibition includes a large group of l9th century works. Included are examples of French, English and American artists inspired by the techniques and compositions of Japanese color woodcuts which made their appearance in Europe beginning in the mid-l9th century. The l9th century selections also include the original, innovative use of woodcuts by artists such as Felix Valloton who in the l890s initiated the modern movement in the use of woodcut. This impetus was closely followed by the powerful work of the German Expressionists exemplified by two l9l4 works by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Another revival in the l950s led by such artists as Leonard Baskin and Antonio Frasconi, along with the use of the woodcut by a number of contemporary artists demonstrates the continuing vitality and relevance of the medium.

Camera Over Hollywood: Photographs by John Swope
June 10 - August 13, 2000

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art presented an exhibition of approximately 60 photographs by the American photographer John Swope (1908-1979). This was the first one-man show of Swope's work in the Museum since 1963.

This exhibition focused on an intimate and personal aspect of John Swope's work: his insider's view of Hollywood during its Golden Age.

Swope's photographs are noted for their inherent aesthetics, as well as their acute vision of the human condition. Swope captured a broad spectrum of subjects during his long career as an artist.

Swope's entry into the world of film and theater began in the early 1930s while he was a student at Harvard University, where he joined the "University Players", a theatrical group whose members included Henry Fonda, Josh Logan, and Jimmy Stewart. These men were not only close friends for life, but had a strong influence on Swope's career.

Taking up photography in 1936, Swope used his position as production assistant to Leland Hayward to capture images of behind-the-scenes Hollywood. His work led to the publication of his first book, Camera over Hollywood (Random House, 1939). Collaborating with John Steinbeck during World War II, he produced the book entitled Bombs Away (Viking Press, 1942) about the Navy's pilot-training program. In 1944, famed photographer Edward Steichen selected Swope as one of the elite members of his prestigious U.S. Navy photographic unit assigned to cover the war in the Pacific. During this time, Swope documented the Declaration of Surrender of Japan and the release of American and Allied POWs. He went on to make an extraordinary portrait of the people of a war-torn country.

In 1943, Swope and Dorothy McGuire were married. After the war, he joined LIFE magazine's stable of freelance photographers, concentrating on the film industry and travel assignments to foreign countries. A Hollywood insider, Swope made photographs that show not only the celebrated figures but also the less famous actors, as well as the crews and extras of behind-the-scenes Hollywood. As intrinsically interesting for their subjects as for their perceptive view and formal elegance, Swope's images are a uniquely private view of a highly public industry.

A catalog accompanied the exhibition, with an introduction by Dennis Hopper.

Fernand Lungren: Sketches of the West
May 20 - August 13, 2000

Fernand Lungren: Sketches of the West is comprised primarily of drawings and watercolors by one of America's greatest Western artists, Fernand Lungren (1857-1932). While Lungren lived and worked in New York and Europe, he chose to spend his remaining years in California, and is best known for his desert landscapes and Western scenes. This installation is organized in conjunction with Afterglow in the Desert: The Art of Fernand Lungren, a retrospective of Lungren's work organized by the University Art Museum, UCSB.

William Dassonville: California Photographer
March 4 - May 14, 2000

In the first decade of the twentieth century, San Francisco photographer William Dassonville (1879-1957) rapidly gained national and international acclaim for his evocative studies of the California landscape and his insightful portraits. This exhibition of fifty photographs comprises exquisite landscapes of Yosemite Valley and the High Sierra, the dramatic coast of California and the rolling hills of the state's interior; as well as views of San Francisco's waterfront and bay, skyline, skyscrapers, and industrial towers; and striking portraits of Maynard Dixon, William Keith and others. The photographs of this exhibition highlight his famed Charcoal Black papers and the richly textured platinum and gum bichromate process he so excelled at. Although Dassonville has long been known by a handful of photographs, most of the pictures in this exhibition have not been seen in over fifty years; they were rediscovered in 1997, stored away in large trunks by his son Donald.

Of Battle and Beauty: Felice Beato's Photographs of China
February 27 through May 21, 2000

Of Battle and Beauty is an exhibition centering upon photographs made by Felice Beato (1820s-1907) as part of the Anglo-French campaign that finally ended the Second Opium War in China in 1860. Beato's photographs survive in the form of private albums, which were originally compiled by British officers as a record of their experiences. Now, as the principal visual record of this conflict and as the earliest known photographs of Peking (now Beijing), these albums constitute an important historical document; they also reveal how photography functioned as an integral component of British imperialism in preserving and transmitting information and in shaping perceptions about a distant country and culture. The exhibition is based upon an album of 85 photographs in the private collection of Michael G. Wilson and also draws from other private and institutional sources; it comprises approximately 100 photographs, maps, and publications. It is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.The exhibition is organized by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. It is co-curated by David Harris, an independent curator, and Karen Sinsheimer, Curator of Photography at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

This exhibition is made possible by the generosity of:

The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation

Santa Barbara Bank and Trust

The Dana and Albert Broccoli Foundation

Christie's

and

Eric Skipsey

Precious Cargo: Treasures of the China Trade
February 27 - May 21, 2000

This exhibition features approximately 110 works encompassing the extraordinary breadth of Chinese export art of the 18th and 19th centuries, with examples in painting, metalwork, lacquerware, ceramics, carving and textiles. Drawn mainly from the collection of the Kelton Foundation and supplemented by Museum's collection and loans, this exhibition explores the creative expression of mostly unknown Chinese artists. Most of these works are selected from the extensive collection of The Kelton Foundation and supplemented with the Museum's collection and other loans. Richard Kelton, who assembled the collection, remarks "Neither purely Chinese or European, these objects represent a new art form. They demonstrate the cultural exchange between Asia, Europe and America."

This exhibition has been made possible through the generosity of

THE KELTON FOUNDATION

and

Santa Barbara Bank & Trust

Modernism in the Americas: A Dialogue Among the International Avant-Gardes
February 12 - May 14, 2000

This exhibition draws exclusively upon two areas of strength in the Museum's 20th-Century collection: modern art of the United States and Latin America. Paintings, sculptures and works-on-paper from the teens to the fifties by leading artists in these geographic regions. They are gathered together to illustrate the aesthetic and cultural dialogues that took place among the vanguard within and across national borders.

Intended to provide a fresh perspective on the Museum's American modernist collection, this exhibition integrates works by the modernists of Mexico, Central and South America with their art of contemporaries in the United States. In this broadened context, Mexico City and New York rival Paris as vital and captivating modern cities supporting the expanding international avant-garde in their search for new forms of visual expression. The works on view demonstrate that artists were attracted to these alternative artistic centers because they offered exciting opportunities and refuge from the unfolding realities of World War II.

Highlighting the Museum's holdings in early 20th-century art, Modernism in the Americas demonstrates how successful modernists were in creating a dynamic international flow of artistic influences between the United States, Latin America and Western Europe. It shows how progressive artists of the United States and Latin America adapted their interpretations of European modernism, from Cubism to abstraction, to their own complex and varied histories, societies and cultures and, in the process, offered their individual visions for an "American" modern art.