Upcoming Exhibitions
 

 
Richard Anuszkiewicz, Centered Green, 1979. Acrylic on canvas. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell Kleinhandler. 

Image on homepage:
Dan Christensen, Rana (detail), 1968, October. Acrylic on canvas. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Betty Freeman.

Colorscope: Abstract Painting 1960-1979

March 20 - August 15, 2010

In the early 1960s the popularity of Abstract Expressionism waned in favor of new modes of abstraction that delivered through a succession of museum and gallery exhibitions and articles in the mainstream press that continued through the decade. Post-painterly Abstraction, Color Field, Op Art, Hard-Edge, Lyrical Abstraction—these are names of some but not all of the fractures that abstraction experienced from the 1960s through the 1970s. There are clear as well as arguable differences among these genres, but central to them all is one factor—an emphasis on color.

Colorscope features a selection of paintings, mostly from the Museum’s permanent collection, that reveal innovative ways in which color was made essential during this pivotal time. The exhibition features a range of artists—from influential figures to under-recognized talents—manipulating hues that ebb, flow, blend, undo, and inspire. Artists include Richard Anuszkiewicz, Alice Baber, Jerrold Burchman, Roy Colmer, Dan Christensen, Thomas Downing, John Ferren, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Larry Poons, Ernest Posey, Bridget Riley, and many others.

Katsushika HOKUSAI, Mount Fuji
Seen from Waterwheel at Onden
from the series “Thirty-six Views of
Mount Fuji,” 1823-1829. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Gift of the Frederick B. Kellam Collection.

Few Japanese artists have attained the level of notoriety achieved by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) in Japan and the West alike. Though best known for his masterful ukiyo-e prints, Hokusai worked in a variety of media, including paintings and drawings, and depicted a wide array subjects during his long and prolific career. This small exhibition, drawn exclusively from the Museum’s permanent collection of woodblock prints, features a selection of dynamic compositions from such celebrated series as Thirty-six Views and Mt. Fuji, Journey to the Waterfalls of All Provinces, and One-hundred Poems by One-hundred Poets as well as book illustrations.

Chaotic Harmony: Contemporary Korean Photography

July 3 - September 19, 2010

The first major exhibition in the United States of photographs made by contemporary Korean artists presently living in Korea, Chaotic Harmony: Contemporary Korean Photography opens a window into the rapidly expanding field of photographic practice in the Republic of Korea, known in the West as South Korea.  Bringing together work by 40 contemporary photographers, this exhibition surveys the range of contemporary issues through the themes of family, urbanization, globalization, identity, and nature.

Co-organized by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), this groundbreaking exhibition is not a presentation on “Koreanness,” although issues of cultural and personal identity are strong components.  Rather, it is an attempt to identify Korea as a source of complex and stimulating visual ideas expressed through the medium of photography. Chaotic Harmony offers an enticing glimpse into the new century as it is perceived by two different generations of Korean artists - those who began exhibiting their work in the 1980s and 1990s, and those who are now exhibiting images from their first or second series of photographs.

An American Century: 20th-Century Master Drawings

October 16, 2010- January 2, 2011

SBMA’s extensive collection of works on paper, assembled over nearly 70 years, reveals the exceptional and varied ways in which American artists of the last century have contributed to the development of a uniquely American style, the freedom and confidence of expression, and choice of subject matter that reflects dramatic changes in the country’s history during that time. 

Many of the more than 75 works represented in this exhibition are directly tied to the realities of life in American cities such as those by the early Ashcan realists and the radical modernists of New York City who strove to express the dynamic growth and vitality of cities.  They illustrate a broad range of the subject matter of 20^th century American artists including an atypical landscape sketch by Edward Hopper, watercolor masterpieces by Charles Sheeler, elegant still life studies of Charles Demuth, and major works by John Steuart Curry, Charles Burchfield, and William James Glackens.  American modernists are also well represented by Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Milton Avery, and Joseph Stella.  The many California artists included range from Arthur Matthew in drawings from early in the century, to Larry Bell more than 50 years later.