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Upcoming Exhibitions
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Richard Diebenkorn, Woman and Checkerboard, 1956. Oil on canvas. SBMA, Museum purchase, Second
Pacific Coast Biennial Fund.
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Pasadena to Santa Barbara: A Selected History of Art in Southern California, 1951-1969
February 11 – May 6, 2012
This exhibition focuses on the legacy of two of Southern California’s leading venues for contemporary art since the 1940s: the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the Pasadena Art Museum (known from 1941-1953 as the Pasadena Art Institute, and since 1975 as the Norton Simon Museum). These two institutions pioneered what is now perceptible as a common strategy—to exhibit the work of local artists living and active in Southern California, alongside the work of influential modern and contemporary artists from other parts of the United States and abroad.
This bold approach provided a solid foundation for the growth of contemporary art in the region and became an inspiration and model for a number of institutions that followed. This exhibition presents works by artists who were featured at one or both venues during these years, and who remain important to the current and continuing discourse in contemporary art in Southern California.
Featuring works by John Altoon, Karel Appel, Karl Benjamin, William Brice, Richard Diebenkorn, William Dole, Marcel Duchamp, Llyn Foulkes, Sam Francis, Philip Guston, Robert Irwin, Ynez Johnston, Ed Kienholz, Helen Lundeberg, John McLaughlin, Robert Motherwell, Lee Mullican, Larry Rivers, Richards Ruben, Mark Tobey, June Wayne, and Beatrice Wood
This exhibition is part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945 – 1980, a collaboration of more than 60 cultural institutions across Southern California—coming together for the first time to celebrate the birth of the LA art scene.
Click here for more information on this exhibition.
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Joseph Sterling, The Age of Adolescence 1959-1964, 2006. Gelatin silver print. SBMA, Museum purchase with funds provided by Jane and Michael G. Wilson.
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Vantage Point
California Photography Series
This year-long series of photography exhibitions examines the unique artistic vision and photographic techniques employed by Southern California photographers:
Behind the Wheel
May 5 – August 12, 2012
On December 12, 1925, the world's first motel opened just north of Santa Barbara. At that time, the Milestone Mo-Tel in San Luis Obispo sat along the nascent two-lane highway, the "101,” and charged $1.25 a night for a bungalow with attached garage. The era of automobiles as status symbols had begun; for it was only those with cruise-worthy cars that would stop at the Motel Inn on their way between LA and San Francisco. Today, Southern California is still a car culture. This exhibition will examine the enduring love affair between Southern Californians and their automobiles. Chosen from the collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, these photographs explore the psychological place of the car in Southern California life. Whether in celebration, investigation, or incrimination, all of the photographs depict those unique mental states that can only be produced behind the wheel.
Scene/Seen on the Street: Doug Busch
August 25 – December 2, 2012
Busch's large format black and white photographs, taken with a 20 x 24 camera that the artist designed and built himself, are images of great subtlety and irony. Through a combination of Busch’s photographic sensibility and his impeccable technique, the ordinary is raised to a monumental scale. The street scenes presented in this exhibition open our eyes to the beauty and subtlety of the everyday. Ranging in scale from 8x20” to 20x24”, the images are Busch’s attempt to “record reality more accurately than I can actually see it.”
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Dan Budnick, Portrait of Jasper Johns at Leo Castelli's Gallery, 1958. Silver dye bleach print. SBMA, Museum purchase with funds provided by PhotoFutures. |
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Portrayal/Betrayal
June 2 - September 23, 2012
The experiences of the photographer, sitter, and viewer often collude and sometimes collide in the creation of photographic meaning. At its start, the portrait involves a shifting negotiation from behind the camera to the front of the camera. Yet, despite both the mesage the photographer aims to portray and the image the sitter chooses to betray, the true control resides with the viewer, who ultimately interprets the photograph. This exhibition explores the endlessly interesting terrain of the portrait in over 100 photographs from the permanent collection that reveal an infinite range of human complexities and contradictory states of heart and mind.
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