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MONTEREY, CA (JULY 24, 2025) – Monterey Museum of Art's Fall 2025 Exhibition Season, Mid-century Big Sur establishes for the first time how Big Sur's "power of place" proved to be an irresistible and creatively rich experience for post-war artists and writers. Four thematically linked exhibitions explore aspects of how the remote and ruggedly beautiful landscape created a vibrant and supportive community while providing inspiration, respite, and creative freedom. The distinct, yet interrelated, exhibitions reveal how creative development flourished in post-war Big Sur, and how this influence has continued through today. Featuring art and artifacts from Ansel Adams, Henry Miller, Edward Weston, Barbara Strong, James Suzuki, Emil White, and many others, the season collectively illustrates how artists experimented freely with a diverse array of techniques, materials, and artistic influences and drew both spiritual and creative energy from Big Sur itself.

Corey Madden, MMA Executive Director, notes, "The four exhibitions that make up MMA's Big Sur Season are a once-in-a-generation opportunity to see rare works from private collections. Visitors can marvel at Big Sur's stunning landscape and deeply consider the lasting influence of these mid-century artists who created and shaped Big Sur's visual and cultural legacy."

A Garden of Earthly Delights: Henry Miller's Big Sur | August 29 – November 16, 2025
Magnus Torén, Guest Curator and Executive Director of the Henry Miller Memorial Library, Big Sur
Living in Big Sur between 1944 and 1962, American artist and writer Henry Miller achieved a level of creative freedom shaped simultaneously by solitude and enduring friendships. A Garden of Earthly Delights: Henry Miller's Big Sur gives insight into the life and community Miller built for himself. Selected letters, photographs, journals, and artifacts, some on view for the first time, offer a rare glimpse of a life lived with intention. Miller's community included artist and mythographer Maud Oakes; conservationists Sam and Nancy Hopkins; diplomat and writer Nicholas Roosevelt; and Emil White, Miller's close friend and publisher, who eventually became the caretaker of his legacy. A Garden of Earthly Delights: Henry Miller's Big Sur explores how Miller's creativity thrived both in the isolation that Big Sur afforded and in context with others who were similarly drawn to Big Sur.

A World Apart: Big Sur in the Mid-century | September 11 – November 30, 2025
Wendy Van Wyck Good, Guest Curator and the nation's foremost expert on the Bruton sisters

A World Apart: Big Sur in the Mid-century showcases Big Sur artists active from the 1950s through the 1970s, many of whom are under-recognized today. The exhibition begins by exploring the importance of the opening of Highway 1, which provided vital access to Big Sur. The exhibition examines how Big Sur artists interpreted its natural beauty, while also tapping into the spirituality of the region. The artwork is complemented by rarely exhibited archival material, including books, postcards, and photography. A World Apart: Big Sur in the Mid-century offers greater insight into Big Sur's artistic and literary scene, the impact of tourism, and the importance of community.

The catalog for A World Apart: Big Sur in the Mid-Century includes a foreword by MMA Executive Director Corey Madden, and offers a deeper understanding of the reality of Big Sur as an 'artist colony' based on Wendy Good's own deep knowledge and investigative instincts. The full-color catalog will be available for purchase beginning in September and distributed to partner museums and schools across California as well as specifically in Big Sur.

A Sense of Wonder: Photographs of Big Sur  | September 11, 2025 – January 18, 2026?
John Rexine, Guest Curator and former MMA Director of Collections and Exhibitions

The opening of Highway 1 was essential in offering greater access and enabling photographers to capture their perceptions of the essences of Big Sur. The iconic images by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Wynn Bullock, and Henry Gilpin capture Big Sur's rugged and awe-inspiring geography. Big Sur photography creatively inspired generations of California artists and heavily influenced the popular perception of California as a dramatically beautiful, naturally untamed and highly spiritual location where land and sea meet.

Human | Nature: California Zen in Big Sur and the Bay Area | September 18, 2025 – January 25, 2026
David Keaton, Guest Curator and noted expert on post-war and abstract expressionist art in California

This exhibition examines the influence of California Zen Buddhism on the artists and thinkers involved in the California counterculture of the mid-century. California Zen grew from the ancient religion and adopted a dialogue with the American Human Potential Movement through human experience in the California geography of mountains and sea. Considering artmaking as a form of meditation, California artists embraced Zen in considering the primacy of natural forms and pursued direct creative expression and experimentation. Big Sur, with its untamed natural beauty, provided a fertile and supportive space for this creative exploration.

MMA is grateful to the Emile Norman Charitable Trust, Bill and Jeanne Landreth, Post Ranch Inn, and Bob and Kathleen Seibel for supporting the Big Sur 2025 Season.

Guest Curators
David D. Keaton is a published author, curator, and consultant with a specialized focus on post-war art. He has previously curated and consulted on exhibitions on the topics such as  the Berkeley School of Abstract Expressionism, the Pattern and Decoration movement, the Women of Abstract Expressionism (DAM), and the cultural circle around the Sausalito ferryboat Vallejo. David has served on exhibition and collection committees of the San Jose Museum of Art, the Monterey Museum of Art, and the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art. 

John Rexine served as Director of Collections and Exhibitions at Monterey Museum of Art for 14 years. Before joining MMA, Rexine held previous roles as Registrar of the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Registrar of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, and Registrar of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY.  He received in MA from the University of Leicester and a BA from Colgate University.

Magnus Torén is the longtime Director of the Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur, California, where he has stewarded one of the region's most vital artistic and literary institutions since 1993. Born in Sweden, Torén spent his early adulthood at sea, ultimately circumnavigating the globe as a professional sailor. He arrived in Big Sur in 1984, met his future wife shortly thereafter, and has called it home ever since.

Wendy Van Wyck Good is a curator, author, librarian, and archivist with a special interest in women's history and the history of California's central coast. Originally from Upstate New York, she held positions at the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia and at the Women's Museum in Dallas before moving to the Monterey Peninsula in 2005. Wendy studied the region's history while working as a reference librarian in the Carmel Public Library and as an archivist at Monterey Peninsula College.  In 2021, she authored Sisters in Art—the first biography of Monterey artists Margaret, Esther, and Helen Bruton—and curated an exhibition of their work. A frequent visitor to Big Sur over the past twenty years, her latest project is the study of mid-century artists from the region. 

Land and People Acknowledgement
Monterey Museum of Art also extends its respect to the Esselen Tribe, who have been living in the Santa Lucia Mountains and Big Sur coast for over 6,000 years. Throughout that time, the Esselen have cared for and maintained the lands and waters of Monterey County and continue to do so today. The Big Sur Season, featuring the art and artists of and about the region, was built on the unceded lands of the Esselen people and is inherently tied to their ancestral homeland. The Museum honors the Esselen Tribe—past, present, and future—and recognizes their enduring connection and lasting impact on Big Sur today.

To learn more about the Indigenous lands, visit https://native-land.ca/.

Image Credits: Tropic of Cancer (Paris: Obelisk Press, 1934). Cover design by Maurice J. Kahan. Reproduction courtesy of The Manhattan Rare Book Company. Barbara Spring (1916–2011), Kids, before 1984, wood, 36.5 x 31 in. Courtesy of Hawthorne Gallery. Emil White (1901–1989), Bixby Bridge, n.d., watercolor, 22 x 29 in. Courtesy of the Henry Miller Memorial Library. Henry Gilpin (1922–2011), Highway One, 1965, gelatin silver print. Museum Acquisition Fund purchase in honor of Richard Garrod. ©? Estate of Henry Gilpin James Suzuki (1933–2022), Stone Age Japan, 1963, oil on canvas, 70 x 50 in. Courtesy of Private Collection.