SAN DIEGO MUSEUM of ART | Press Release

ADVANCE EXHIBITION SCHEDULE 2006-2007
(Exhibition dates and titles are subject to change.)

Exhibition schedule at a glance:

Tracking and Tracing: Contemporary Acquisitions 2000-2005, 12/17/05-7/9/06
In Stabiano: Exploring the Ancient Seaside Villas of the Roman Elite, 2/18/06-5/14/06
Contemporary Links 4-James Hyde, Luminous Platforms and Relaxed Seating, 2/18/06-4/30/06
Horrors of War, 2/25/06-5/14/06
American Ceramics 1884-1972, 2/25/06-9/3/06
Goya's Portraits, 4/8/06-6/18/06
Art Alive 25, 4/27/06-4/30/06
Winslow Homer: American Illustrator, 6/3/06-9/3/06
Andy Warhol's Dream America: Screenprints from the Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, 6/17/06-9/10/06
Transmission: The Art of Matta and Gordon Matta-Clark, 8/19/06-11/12/06
Personal Views: Regarding Private Collections in San Diego, 10/21/06-1/7/07
Mel Bochner: Drawing from Four Decades, 1/13/07–3/18/07
Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005, 2/10/07–4/22/07
Waking Dreams: The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites from the Delaware Art Museum, 5/19/07-7/29/07

Note to editors: High-res images are available for most exhibitions. Call (619) 696-1946 or email cszook@sdmart.org.

2006-2007 Exhibition Schedule:

Tracking and Tracing: Contemporary Acquisitions 2000-2005
December 17, 2005-July 9, 2006
This exhibition consists of approximately 80 works, plus a video program, that have come into the San Diego Museum of Art's collection through purchase or donation from 2000 to 2005. The goal of the exhibition is to track recent institutional history as represented in the acquisition strategies implemented in the last five years-during which time SDMA's contemporary collection has grown greatly-and to trace the links between and across these new additions to the collection. Demonstrating one of the Museum's collection priorities in contemporary art, the exhibition presents works by artists from California and Mexico, including examples by Uta Barth, Pae White, John MacCracken, Doris Bittar, and Tania Candiani. Also on display are works that document exhibitions organized by SDMA, including Regina Frank's complete installation, Whiteness in Decay, from Contemporary Links I (2003).

In Stabiano: Exploring the Ancient Seaside Villas of the Roman Elite
February 18-May 14, 2006
This rare traveling exhibition of Roman frescoes features approximately 70 artworks and archaeological artifacts, all from the Roman villas of ancient Stabiae, an exclusive retreat for Rome's elite classes located on a bluff overlooking the Bay of Naples (approximately 4.5 kilometers southeast of Pompeii). This important exhibition includes 24 remarkably well-preserved frescoes and 11 stucco fragments originating from the partially excavated villas of San Marco, Arianna, del Pastore, as well as two "rustic" (i.e. working farm) villas near the modern sites of Carmiano and Petraro. Some of the frescoes are among the very highest quality ever to come from the Roman past. The exhibition will also display a complete three-wall triclinium (dining room) fresco from Carmiano.

Contemporary Links 4-James Hyde, Luminous Platforms and Relaxed Seating
February 18-April 30, 2006
Known for his intelligent exploration of pictorial abstraction through the use of alternative materials, artist James Hyde is creating site-specific domestic interventions in the exhibition space of Tracking and Tracing: Contemporary Acquisitions 2000-2005, SDMA's current installation of its contemporary collection. The fourth installment of the Museum's acclaimed Contemporary Links series, Hyde's installation features three reading areas with furniture made of Plexiglas, lighting, galvanized steel, Styrofoam, vinyl, and other materials that are designed to reshape the visitor's previous experience of the exhibition space.

Horrors of War
February 25-May 14, 2006
The artistic tradition of representing the destruction, death, and misery of war goes back to ancient times, with images of triumphs and defeats found in sculpture and on utilitarian and honorific objects. During modern times-from the Renaissance to the present day-images of war are among artists' most powerful and moving works. They record and report events, send partisan or political messages, or express deeply personal feelings. Drawn largely from the Museum's extensive print collection, Horrors of War reaches across the boundaries of both place and time, presenting works by American and European artists from the 17th to the 20th centuries with important examples by Jacques Callot, Käthe Kollwitz, Pierre Daura, Arthur Segal, and George Bellows.

American Ceramics 1884-1972
February 25-September 3, 2006
Organized by the San Diego Museum of Art, this exhibition showcases ceramics from the Arts and Crafts and Studio Pottery movements and features works from SDMA's collection and loans from public and private collections in Southern California. During the 1930s, the Museum's founding director, Reginald Poland, began acquiring ceramics by Glen Lukens, Beatrice Wood, and Laura Andreson. In 1940 he met Getrud and Otto Natzler and invited them to exhibit their collaborative work at the Museum, their first solo exhibition. American Ceramics also presents works from the Rookwood, Grueby, Van Briggle, Newcomb, and Pewabic potteries as well as those by George E. Ohr. Ceramics by 20th-century studio potters, Marguerite Wildenhain, Harrison McIntosh, and Rolf Key-Oberg are also included, and special attention is given to San Diego firms such as the Valentien and Markham potteries.

Goya's Portraits
April 8-June 18, 2006
This spring, a special focused exhibition of portraits by the Spanish master, Francisco Goya, will be presented exclusively at the San Diego Museum of Art. Goya's Portraits marks the Museum's first major collaboration with the Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City, which has organized a large-scale exhibition of the artist's work. SDMA's exhibition will feature an intriguing selection of about a dozen important portraits from this larger Mexico City show, with works coming from public and private collections in San Francisco, Indianapolis, Worcester, Detroit, Ponce (Puerto Rico), São Paulo, and Mexico City. The display will highlight one of the Museum's most notable paintings, Goya's Marquis of Sofraga, providing context for Goya, his work, and the sitter of the SDMA painting.

Art Alive 25
April 27-30, 2006
The San Diego Museum of Art's annual springtime spectacular celebrates 25 years of enchanting visitors with elegant floral interpretations of artworks in the galleries. One of the longest running events of its kind, Art Alive attracts thousands of visitors each year from all over Southern California. Marking an important milestone, this year's installment is highlighted by a 25th Anniversary Gala Celebration and a live demonstration by the internationally renowned master floral designer, Christian Tortu.

Winslow Homer: American Illustrator
June 3-September 3, 2006
This exhibition of 55 wood engravings by Winslow Homer from the Museum's collection celebrates the master artist's ability to capture the essence of the American experience during the second half of the 19th century. Homer (1836-1910) began his career in 1857 drawing illustrations for the emerging popular magazines at the time, such as Harper's Weekly, which were transformed into wood engravings by other artists for reproduction. This representative survey of some of Homer's finest images in this medium explore many of the subjects that established Homer as one of the century's greatest American artists and watercolorists.

Andy Warhol's Dream America: Screenprints from the Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.
June 17-September 10, 2006
One of the most influential, provocative, and enduring American artists of the 20th century, Andy Warhol (1928-1987) was instrumental in bringing silkscreen printing out of the commercial world and into the studios of fine artists. This exhibition presents more than 125 memorable screen prints by the pioneering Pop artist from the extensive Andy Warhol collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. From the 1967 Marilyn Monroe print suite to the 1986 Cowboys and Indians portfolio, the exhibition offers a broad and thorough overview of Warhol's printmaking career, as well as a rare opportunity to see a large group of complete print portfolios by Warhol.

Transmission: The Art of Matta and Gordon Matta-Clark
August 19-November 12, 2006
Organized by the San Diego Museum of Art, this exhibition represents the very first comprehensive examination of the relationship between the work of renowned surrealist Roberto Matta and his son, conceptual artist, Gordon Matta-Clark. Transmission: The Art of Matta and Gordon Matta-Clark explores how Matta-Clark's exposure to artistic circles of his father's generation influenced the direction that his art would take, and how that played a role in the evolution of 1970s conceptual art. The five exhibition sections and the accompanying scholarly catalogue will draw parallels between the way each artist absorbed artistic and cultural trends to conceive new significant models for art. Transmission will include sculpture, paintings, and works on paper by Matta, and sculpture, photographs, and works on paper by Matta-Clark. Along with artwork, there will be a section of ephemera such as notebooks, letters, documentary photographs, manuscripts, magazines, and catalogues, as well as films.

Personal Views: Regarding Private Collections in San Diego
October 21, 2006-January 7, 2007
Culminating a year-long celebration of the Museum's 80th anniversary, SDMA's curatorial staff will highlight the outstanding object resources in the region's private collections. San Diego's collecting community is at once growing and impressive. Individual collectors have shown themselves to be discriminating, sophisticated, brave, and ambitious. This diverse display will feature roughly 25 of the most interesting private collections to be found in this area. A wide range of artistic practices will be represented, including high-quality examples of African, Oceanic, Pre-Columbian, South Asian, Ancient Mediterranean, Old Masters, European modernism, American, and Latin American art, as well as an international selection of contemporary photography and sculpture. An accompanying illustrated catalogue will include an overview of the history of art collecting in San Diego by the Museum's executive director, Derrick R. Cartwright, a short essay on "Things" by Bill Brown, Ph.D., The George M. Pullman Professor of English at the University of Chicago, and mini-essays on each of the collections in the show written by SDMA's curatorial staff.

Mel Bochner: Drawing from Four Decades
January 13–March 18, 2007
This special exhibition is the first to offer an overview of Mel Bochner’s drawing practice, which has been at the center of his art since the start of his career. Drawing has remained key to Bochner’s art over subsequent decades, during which he both expanded upon his early work and extended his conceptual, visual, and emotional reach. The exhibition includes 29 works that suggest the density of Bochner’s approach and the role drawing has played both in the creation of unique works and as a methodology essential to installation, painting, and sculpture.

Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005
February 10–April 22, 2007
This internationally traveling exhibition features approximately 200 photographs from one of the most celebrated photographers of our time, Annie Leibovitz. The exhibition encompasses both the photographer’s personal and professional work, including family photographs and portraits of public figures such as Nelson Mandela, Demi Moore, Jack Nicholson, and George W. Bush. Leibovitz has been creating witty and powerful images of American pop culture since the early 1970s when she became Rolling Stone’s chief photographer. She later went on to work for Vanity Fair and Vogue and also created a number of influential advertising campaigns for American Express, Gap, and the Milk Board, among others.

Waking Dreams: The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites from the Delaware Art Museum
May 19-July 29, 2007
The Pre-Raphaelite movement began in 1848, when three young British art students-Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais-banded together with other like-minded artists to revolutionize British art. Rebelling against the artistic traditions of the Royal Academy, they preferred the simplicity and monastic principles of late medieval art preceding the Renaissance master, Raphael. The Pre-Raphaelite collection of the Delaware Art Museum is the most significant outside Great Britain. Included in this exhibition are a large group of oils and watercolors by Rossetti, as well as works by Edward Burne-Jones, Fredrick Sandys, Ford Madox Brown, Hunt, Millais, and others. Complementing this array of two-dimensional works are decorative arts that embody the genesis of the Arts and Crafts movement, including two chairs designed by William Morris and Rossetti, jewelry, ceramics, and metalwork.

Museum Information
San Diego Museum of Art
1450 El Prado, Balboa Park
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 122107
San Diego, CA 92112-2107

General Information: (619) 232-7931 / Facsimile: (619) 232-9367
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Web site: www.sdmart.org

Museum Hours: Tuesday-Wednesday, Friday-Sunday: 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.; Thursday: 10:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.

Admission Prices: Adult $10; Senior (65+) and Military with ID $8; Student $7; Youth (6-17) $4. Children 5 and under are free.
(Specially priced tickets may be required for certain exhibitions. Please contact the Museum for more information.)

The historic San Diego Museum of Art provides a rich and diverse cultural experience for more than 400,000 annual visitors. Located in the heart of beautiful Balboa Park, the Museum's nationally renowned collections include Spanish and Italian old masters, South Asian paintings, and 19th- and 20th-century American paintings and sculptures. In addition, the Museum regularly features major exhibitions of art from around the world, as well as an extensive year-round schedule of supporting cultural and educational programs.