The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) combine their collections for the first time in Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California, an unprecedented exhibition that illuminates local histories and social forces that changed the face of art in—and beyond—the Golden State.Weaving together the museums’ unsurpassed holdings of California art and ephemera, the exhibition tells the stories of four creative communities active in the northern part of the state between the 1930s and the present. In each case, the exhibition shines a spotlight on artists who had their finger on the pulse of their time, and the grassroots conditions that allowed their ideas to flourish. The exhibition runs through April 12, 2015 in OMCA’s Great Hall and features a vast array of artworks and historical documents, from monumental paintings to handwritten letters, relating to four key moments in the history of California art:• Patronage, Public Art, and Allegory of California (1930s)• Postwar at the California School of Fine Arts (1940s–50s)• A New Art Department at UC Davis (1960s–70s)• The Mission Scene (1990s–Today)Curated jointly by Drew Johnson, OMCA curator of photography and visual culture; René de Guzman, OMCA senior curator of art (whose focus is on The Mission Scene); and a team from SFMOMA including Janet Bishop, curator of painting and sculpture, Caitlin Haskell, assistant curator of painting and sculpture, and Peter Samis, SFMOMA associate curator of interpretation, Fertile Ground interweaves the histories and friendships of artists, collectors, curators, and other individual and institutional collaborators against a backdrop of transformative social change. Viewed together, the materials assembled present a rare opportunity to consider what catalyzed these four remarkable outpourings of creativity, social awareness, and arts patronage.The exhibition will include works by Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Mark Rothko, Edward Weston, Peter Stackpole, Maynard Dixon, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, David Park, Clyfford Still, Jay DeFeo, Joan Brown, Richard Diebenkorn, James Weeks, Robert Arneson, William T. Wiley, Roy De Forest, Wayne Thiebaud, Bruce Nauman, Manuel Neri, Deborah Butterfield, Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, Rigo 23, Johanna Jackson, Chris Johanson, Alicia McCarthy, Ruby Neri, and many others. The texture of time and place will be evoked through historical film footage, media stations containing interviews with artists, and “community lounges” where visitors can browse books, ephemera, and other resources. Artifacts, media, and interactive experiences will be placed in dialogue with artworks to situate these objects within larger historical and cultural moments and trends such as the Great Depression, World War II, and the 1960s counterculture. Relational drawings by artist Amanda Eicher will convey the interconnected relationships among artists, patrons, museums, teachers, curators, and other personalities during each era.
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