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SAN DIEGO—Museum visitors this summer will be treated to a major exhibition of one of America's most popular artists when Maxfield Parrish, Master of Make-Believe opens July 16. Featuring many of his most recognizable works, including painted versions of his famous Daybreak and Interlude, the exhibition is accompanied by a display of 27 pieces of Wedgwood's Fairyland Lustreware from the Collection of Maurice Kawashima. Also in conjunction with the Parrish exhibition, the Museum is offering a free Thursday evening lecture series, gallery talks, a Culture & Cocktails event on July 21, and a free Family Festival on August 21.

Also opening this summer on August 27 is the unprecedented two-city, bi-national exhibition Farsites: Urban Crisis and Domestic Symptoms in Recent Contemporary Art, which SDMA is co-presenting with the Centro Cultural de Tijuana as part of inSite_05. The 50 artists in the exhibition address a variety of issues and conditions affecting urban living in cities throughout North and South America.

Jazz in the Park audiences will have much to get excited about this summer as well with appearances by San Diego- favorite Rob Thorsen and his trio (July 6) and Bill Cunliffe who brings his new nine-piece band for a night of hot Latin jazz (August 3).

For more information on the Museum's performances and lectures, call (619) 696-1966. To purchase tickets, please call Ticketmaster at (619) 220-8497. Museum members receive the discounted price for each of the events listed. Programs and artists are subject to change.

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

**NOTE NEW ADMISSION PRICES EFFECTIVE JULY 16, 2005**
Adult, $10; Senior (65+) and Military, $8; Students, $7; Youth (6-17), $4; 5 and under are free.
Prices through July 15, 2005: Adult, $9; Senior (65+), Young Adult (18-24), Military and Student with ID, $7; Youth (6-17), $4; 5 and under free.

Gallery tours: The Museum's docents offer free public tours of the galleries on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., and on Fridays and Sundays at 1:00 and 2:00 p.m.

SDMA offers free admission for school groups and youth organizations with advance reservations. Call the education department at (619) 231-1996 for more information.

Water's Café @ SDMA: Open Tuesday-Friday, 11:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 11:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Reservations are not required. For more information, call the café at (619) 237-0675.


EXHIBITIONS

Opening

Maxfield Parrish, Master of Make-Believe
July 16-September 11, 2005
More than 80 works of superlative design and beauty by Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) will be presented in this comprehensive survey of the master illustrator's career. The exhibition features many of Parrish's most recognizable art works, including his popular calendar and book illustrations, his signature classicized paintings, and the 18-foot long mural he painted for the Long Island studio of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Maxfield Parrish, Master of Make-Believe also explores Parrish's artistic development and his working methods, with the aid of documentary photographs, demonstrating why he is counted among the best-known and most beloved American artists of the 20th century.

Wedgwood's Fairyland Lustreware from the Collection of Maurice Kawashima
July 16-September 11, 2005
In conjunction with Maxfield Parrish, Master of Make-Believe, SDMA is presenting 27 pieces of Fairyland Lustreware, featuring fanciful patterns inhabited with fairies and sprites, goblins, and dragons. All the pieces were produced at the Wedgwood manufactory in Etruria, England, in the decade after World War I and reveal the genius of Fairyland designer Daisy Makeig-Jones. The dazzling jewel-like colors are enriched with the addition of metals-such as copper-to the glazes, yielding the fantastical sheen that is characteristic of lusterware.

Farsites: Urban Crisis and Domestic Symptoms in Recent Contemporary Art
August 27-November 13, 2005
In an unprecedented collaboration with the Centro Cultural de Tijuana (CECUT) and inSite, the San Diego Museum of Art is co-presenting the two-city, bi-national exhibition Farsites: Urban Crisis and Domestic Symptoms in Recent Contemporary Art. The exhibition is a featured component of inSite_05, which also includes public programs and digital and media projects that explore issues pertinent to the border region. Farsites features work in a range of media-painting, sculpture, photography, and video-by approximately 50 contemporary artists living primarily in the Americas, which address moments of crisis and fissure affecting everyday urban and domestic spaces. Divided between SDMA and CECUT, the works in the exhibition were created by both established and emerging artists, including Carlos Garaicoa, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Rita McBride, Doris Salcedo, Francis Alÿs, and Catherine Opie.


Continuing

Contemporary Links 3: Sandow Birk-Leading Causes of Death in America
June 4-August 14, 2005
The third installment of the San Diego Museum of Art's Contemporary Links series presents eleven commissioned lithographs by the famed West Coast artist, Sandow Birk. Collectively titled Leading Causes of Death in America, Birk's project is loosely based on prints by the 20th-century American artist George Wesley Bellows from SDMA's extensive collection. For more than ten years, Birk, who is currently based in Long Beach, California, has been referencing some of Western art history's most recognizable works to create poignant satires of contemporary American life. He is known for his astute, yet humorous social commentary on topics ranging from consumerism to popular culture.

Origins of Mughal Painting
March 26-August 28, 2005
Mughal painting is one of the most celebrated of all Indian painting styles. At its height between 1556 and 1658, artists of the Mughal court workshop created pictures that are unique in their combined attributes of naturalism, stylization, and internal vigor. The depth and breadth of the San Diego Museum of Art's renowned Binney Collection makes possible this new installation of approximately 16 images that examines one of the lingering mysteries in the history of Indian art: how such a distinctive and sophisticated style as that of the imperial Mughals arose so quickly.

Tastes in Asian Art
November 6, 2004-June, 2006 **NOTE EXTENSION
View some of the most significant works in SDMA's extensive Asian collection in this fresh thematic display in the Asian Court that highlights the diverse tastes of different social groups. Bringing back well-known works, while introducing new and rarely exhibited objects, the exhibition highlights the diverse tastes of different social groups-the imperial ruling class, scholars, warriors, and common people-and features a separate section dedicated to religious art. [NEW INFO:] A recent re-installation of approximately 45 new pieces has added a selection of arts from the Islamic world, a newly restored bodhisattva head from Pakistan dating to the 1st century, and 20th-century Japanese prints.

Line and Color in European Painting
October 23, 2004-September 4, 2005
The current installation of the Museum's collection of 19th through early 20th-century European art explores the two predominant approaches to pictorial representation that guided, and often divided, artists throughout the century: one that focused on color and another that relied upon line. The exhibition surveys the major European trends of the era including academic art, Romanticism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, and German Expressionism.


Closing

Human Presence: Works from the Museum's Collection
December 4, 2004-July 17, 2005
This two-part exhibition of the Museum's contemporary collection examines the role of the human body in art, both as subject matter and as an instrument of perception, to express shifting notions of the self. Part I: The Singular Body joins a selection of three-dimensional sculptures of the human body and animal forms in the galleries with works on view in SDMA's sculpture garden and court. A recent re-installation of works on paper in Part II: Through the Geometry of Color further explores how abstract artists have manipulated color, line, and form to induce an unconscious psychological reaction in the viewer.


July Events Calendar

July 6, Wednesday
5:30 p.m. CONCERT Jazz in the Park: Rob Thorsen Trio Gilbert Castellanos
One of San Diego's favorites, bassist Rob Thorsen celebrates the release of a new CD this month. Featuring the brilliant pianist (formerly from San Diego) Randy Porter and drummer Duncan Moore, the group will perform swinging jazz standards and originals from their new recording Moonray. Talented trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos joins the trio for this dynamic performance.
$14/$17 ($14 for students with ID), James S. Copley Auditorium

July 7, Thursday
6:00 p.m. GALLERY TALK "Sandow Birk: Leading Causes of Death in America"
Betti-Sue Hertz, curator of contemporary art, explores Sandow Birk's witty yet poignant response to prints in the collection by George Bellows and others. Part of the Insight Gallery Talk series.
Free with admission, meet in rotunda

7:00 p.m. CONCERT Westwind Brass: "American Fanfare"
Celebrate our nation's recent birthday with a concert of traditional Americana brass band music. Westwind Brass blends a virtuosic ensemble performance, engaging music, and unique stories into a two-hour, highly-caffeinated must-see event.
$12/$15 ($7.50 students with ID), James S. Copley Auditorium

July 10, Sunday
2:00 p.m. GALLERY TALK "Sandow Birk: Leading Causes of Death in America"
See description for July 7.
Free with admission, meet in rotunda

July 21, Thursday
6:00-8:00 p.m. Culture & Cocktails
The major summer exhibition Maxfield Parrish, Master of Make-Believe sets the stage for what promises to be the most enchanting installment SDMA's hot sundown series to date. Guests will enjoy otherworldly eats and intoxicating beverages in a lively DJ-spun atmosphere.
$7 in advance at www.ticketmaster.com (all fees waived), $10 at the door

July 28, Thursday
6:00 p.m. LECTURE "A Look at Maxfield Parrish"
D. Scott Atkinson, chief curator and curator of American art at SDMA, examines the life and career of one of America's most recognizable artists. Part of the Maxfield Parrish Lecture Series.
Free with admission, James S. Copley Auditorium


August Events Calendar

August 3, Wednesday
5:30 p.m. CONCERT Jazz in the Park: Bill Cunliffe's Imaginación with Coral Thuet
The Grammy-nominated pianist/arranger Bill Cunliffe brings his new nine-piece band to SDMA, which combines the essence of modern salsa and Latin jazz in innovative and exciting arrangements of jazz classics. The band features some of L.A.'s top horn players and Latin percussionists, and San Diego's finest Latin jazz vocalist, Coral Thuet, joins the band as a guest.
$14/$17 ($14 for students with ID), James S. Copley Auditorium

August 4, Thursday
6:00 p.m. LECTURE "The Art of American Illustration"
Maxine Gaiber, SDMA's director of education, places the work of Maxfield Parrish within the broader context of American illustrators of the 19th and 20th centuries. Part of the Maxfield Parrish Lecture Series.
Free with admission, James S. Copley Auditorium

August 11, Thursday
6:00 p.m. GALLERY TALK "Maxfield Parrish, Master of Make-Believe"
Ramon Hernandez, SDMA's Museum Art School manager, tours the current exhibition of works by one of America's most beloved illustrators. Part of the Insight Gallery Talk series.
Free with museum admission, meet in rotunda

August 14, Sunday
2:00 p.m. GALLERY TALK "Maxfield Parrish, Master of Make-Believe"
See description for August 11.
Free with museum admission, meet in rotunda

August 18, Thursday
6:00 p.m. LECTURE "Ceramics of Make-Believe: Wedgwood's Fairyland"
Steven Kern, SDMA's curator of European art, takes a closer look at a related display of fancifully decorated ceramic vessels produced in England around the same time that Parrish worked. Part of the Maxfield Parrish Lecture Series.
Free with admission, James S. Copley Auditorium

August 21, Sunday
12 noon-4:00 p.m. FAMILY FESTIVAL "Pirates and Princesses"
Maxfield Parrish's finely detailed paintings draw viewers into a fanciful world of giants, princesses, and pirates. Join us for a fun-filled afternoon of adventure with art activities, storytelling, stilt walkers, artist demonstrations, and free tours of Maxfield Parrish, Master of Make-Believe in English and Spanish.
FREE

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