New Acquisitions, 2000 to the Present
April 24–June 9, 2013
MMA La Mirada
Facing Forward, New Acquisitions, 2000 to the Present celebrates an exciting and diverse selection of twentieth century paintings, works on paper, and photography from the Museum’s permanent collection. During the past thirteen years, the museum has acquired extraordinary works by esteemed local artists: David Ligare, Kevin Miller, Susan Manchester, Tracey Adams, Andrea Johnson, Robynn Smith, Pam Carroll, Ryuijie, Robin Robinson, Barry Masteller, Paul Roehl, as well as from important Bay Area artists: Mark Adams, Beth Van Hoesen, Lucy Gaylord, Deanne Forbes, Inez Storer, Gail Chadell-Nanao, David Gilhooly, Ronald Davis among others. These remarkable gifts advance the contemporary art holdings of the collection and support the museum’s new mission which inspires appreciation of the evolving California artistic legacy and expands a passion for the visual arts.
Facing Forward is the exhibition that will be held in conjunction with Art in Bloom, the Museum’s first event and fundraiser program that highlights art and flowers as a unified expression. Local floral designers will interpret what they see in a selected painting, capturing mood, composition, texture, color and light. Their spectacular floral creations will be staged in the galleries and throughout the beautiful historic estate of La Mirada during April 24-28, 2013.
Image: Beth Van Hoesen, Checked Suit, Study I, 1968, etching on paper, courtesy of the E. Mark Adams and Beth Van Hoesen Adams Trust
February 1–May 19
MMA Pacific Street
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) was one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Best known for revolutionizing the use of color and line in painting, his extraordinary career also encompassed drawing, sculpture, and printmaking, which spanned over six decades culminating in a highly original series of works made of paper cut-outs and book illustrations. This exhibition features the pochoir (stencil) prints of JAZZ, Matisse’s first major cut paper book project published in 1947 that became one of the most important—and most beautiful—artists’ books ever produced.
Image: Henri Matisse, The Sword Swallower from the Jazz portfolio, 1943-44
© 2013 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
February 1–May 19
MMA Pacific Street
This exhibition will feature long-time Monterey area artist Johnny Apodaca’s vivid new series of small gouache paintings on paper, along with a selection of the dynamic semi-abstract oil paintings for which he is recognized.
Apodaca was inspired to paint the gouaches—light-filled studies of the Italian countryside—during his sojourns in the Umbria region over the past several years. These diminutive works have inspired an exciting new group of oil paintings, which will be featured in conjunction with the gouaches.
Image: Johnny Apodaca, Umbrian Landscape, 2012, oil on canvas, collection of the artist
February 1–May 19
MMA Pacific Street
San Francisco artist Beth Van Hoesen (1926–2010) spent a lifetime dedicated to drawing and printmaking to become one of the most prominent California printmakers of her time. Prolific and possessing a keen eye for detail, Van Hoesen’s humble renderings of animals, portraits, landscapes, and flowers seem reverently effortless. Courtesy of the E. Mark Adams and Beth Van Hoesen Adams Trust, this exhibition includes preparatory drawings, lithographs, etchings, drypoints, and aquatints.
Image: Beth Van Hoesen, Self-Portrait, 1980, graphite, gouache, and ink on paper, Courtesy of the E. Mark Adams and Beth Van Hoesen Adams Trust
February 1–December 29, 2013
MMA Pacific Street
California Landforms and At Home in Early California are two exhibitions from the Museum’s rich permanent collection that take part in a collaborative education initiative between the Monterey Museum of Art and the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History. This partnership, funded by the Hearst Foundation, provides students with the opportunity to explore and engage with the arts and sciences through interactive tours and hands-on activities at both institutions. As a beautiful and important record of California’s history, California Landforms highlights local landscapes depicted by artists who lived or visited Monterey to paint the distinctive surroundings, which helped define the legacy of California landscape painting. At Home in Early California features examples of various structures where early Californians lived and worked.
Image: Percy Gray, Sherman Rose Adobe, undated, oil on canvas, gift of Marvin Weiner
Through May 19
MMA Pacific Street
Urban Life: Photography in the City features a selection of black and white photographs from the Museum’s extensive permanent collection of photography. Focusing on the varied experience of life in urban surroundings, the American and European street and documentary photographers represented in this exhibition made a significant impact on photography from the 1950s through the 1980s. They recorded humanity at work and at play, along with the fashion, architecture, transportation, and memorable political and historic events. Urban Life: Photography in the City includes iconic photographs by Garry Winogrand, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Michael Kenna, as well as Pirkle Jones, Max Yavno and Ira Latour.
Image: William Heick, Hats, 1951, gelatin silver print, gift of the artist © William Heick
April 24 – June 30, 2013
MMA Pacific Street Youth Art Galleries
The Youth Arts Collective, (Y.A.C.), is a non-profit after school organization that provides mentorship and art studio space for young Monterey County artists between the ages of fourteen and twenty-two. The afternoon program stays open year round and offers to students the opportunity to work in a nurturing environment with a variety of materials for creative experimentation and practice. Since its inception in 2000, YAC has been operated by devoted artists, teachers, and founders Marcia Perry and Meg Biddle, as well as mentors Hanni Liliedahl Silacci, Andrew Jackson, and Jim Dultz.
The annual exhibition in the Youth Art Gallery at the Monterey Museum of Art—Pacific Street features artwork from each Y.A.C. member with a wide range of styles, concepts, and mediums such as painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography or mixed-media, that reflect the interests and talents of each artist.
Image: Julia Koker, Untitled, acrylic on canvas
April 27, 2011 - December 2013
MMA La Mirada
Gottardo Piazzoni (1872-1945) moved from Switzerland to his family’s ranch in Carmel Valley in 1887. Subsequent study in Paris and San Francisco exposed the young Piazzoni to the revolutionary artistic developments of modernism and the muted symbolic pallet of tonalism which infuses his paintings of the California landscape. Piazzoni’s most ambitious project was a series of fourteen monumental murals commissioned for the San Francisco public library—now the Asian Art Museum. The murals were removed and conserved when the building was renovated in 1999. Ten murals are on permanent display at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. The final four—entitled Dawn, The Forest, The Mountain and Night—were completed the year of the artist’s death in 1945. These magnificent murals have been generously lent from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco to the Monterey Museum of Art.
Behind the Scenes
Sponsored by Peppy Garner and Darnell Whitt, Carver + Schicketanz Architects, The S. D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation, Dr. and Mrs. Eric J. Del Piero, Mr. and Mrs. Mark Osterkamp, Mr. and Mrs. John Wilkinson, Janelle and Johnny Apodaca, Sherrie and Tom McCullough, Alyce Nunes, Tom and Margo Nunes and Dee Sala.
View the Behind the Scenes video
Image: Gottardo Piazzoni, The Forest from the Mural Suite, 1945, oil on canvas mounted to aluminum honeycomb panel, collection of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Transfer from the San Francisco Arts Commission and the Asian Art Museum through the joint Committee to Site the Piazzoni Murals
The Monterey Museum of Art is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.