SAN DIEGO—This month, the San Diego Museum of Art will feature 25 of the finest private art collections in San Diego in a new exhibition titled Personal Views: Regarding Private Collections in San Diego. This diverse display of objects brings important artworks from private homes into the Museum and includes examples by such renowned artists as Claude Monet, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Georgia O'Keeffe. Personal Views opens on October 21, 2006, and runs through January 7, 2007.

In conjunction with SDMA's groundbreaking exhibition Transmission: The Art of Matta and Gordon Matta-Clark, the Museum is presenting a variety of programs, including a free symposium on Saturday, October 7, Insight Gallery Talks on Thursday, October 12, and Sunday, October 15, and a Docent Guest Lecture on Friday, October 27. Transmission will also be the featured exhibition for this fall's Culture & Cocktails, taking place on Thursday, October 26.

World music fans can look forward to an internationally-infused Jazz in the Park concert featuring Afro-British-Caribbean vocalist Tessa Souter on Wednesday, October 4. For more jazz tunes from around the world, audiences can return on Tuesday, October 10, for a lecture/demonstration by Union-Tribune music critic George Varga titled "How to Listen to Jazz: Global Perspectives."

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

Admission to the galleries: Adults, $10; seniors (65+) and active military, $8; students with ID, $7; youth (6–17), $4; 5 and under free.

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

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.

Water's Café @ SDMA: Open Tuesday–Friday, 11:00 a.m.–2:30 p.m., Saturday–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
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 is highlighting outstanding artworks from our region's private collections. This diverse display features roughly 25 of the most interesting private collections to be found in this area. A wide range of artistic practices are 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. It includes works by such renowned artists as Rembrandt van Rijn, Claude Monet, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Hans Hofmann.

Continuing
Transmission: The Art of Matta and Gordon Matta-Clark
August 19–November 12, 2006
Organized by SDMA, this exhibition represents the very first comprehensive examination of the relationship between the work of renowned Surrealist Roberto Matta and his son, urban conceptualist Gordon Matta-Clark. Transmission 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 exhibition includes sculpture, paintings and works on paper by Matta, and sculpture, photographs, and works on paper by Matta-Clark. Along with artwork, there is a section of ephemera, such as notebooks, letters, documentary photographs, manuscripts, magazines, catalogues, and films.

Paper Traces: Latin American Prints and Drawings from the Collection at SDMA
September 23–December 31, 2006
Organized in collaboration with the Visual Arts Department at UCSD, this special exhibition reveals the depth and breadth of the Museum's Latin American collection, which boasts examples by major artists from all over Latin America. With approximately 60 prints and drawings of varying media and sizes, Paper Traces features works from such artists as José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, Roberto Matta, José Luis Cuevas, and Antonio M. Frasconi. Also included are new acquisitions on view for the first time, such as Hugo Crosthwaite's Bartholomew and Leonora Carrington's High Priestess.

Backs
July 15, 2006–February 18, 2007
This unique display focuses on the backs of five paintings, where important information, such as age and ownership, is revealed. Labels, inscriptions, and markings divulge details of the painting's history of attribution, exhibition, ownership, and sale. Both sides of the works in the exhibition are visible while explanatory labels reveal each painting's hidden side. The works are drawn from SDMA's European collection and range in date from the 16th through early 20th century. Included are Giorgione's Portrait of a Man, whose back reveals a hidden drawing and inscription that attribute the work to the artist.

American Visionaries: The Collection at 80
May 10, 2006–February 11, 2007
In honor of its 80th Anniversary, the Museum has reinstalled its permanent collection gallery of American art to acknowledge the individuals who were most instrumental in shaping the Museum's collections. American Visionaries presents visitor favorites and rarely seen works that celebrate five important donors who are each linked through an interest in American artists of the 20th century and the emerging modernist styles of the era. The exhibition includes 15 bronze sculptures by Arthur Putnam, oil paintings by Mary Cassatt and Emil Carlsen, watercolors by John Marin, and works by Roy Lichtenstein, Milton Avery, and Georgia O'Keeffe.

Tastes in Asian Art
Ongoing
Bringing back well-known works, while introducing new and rarely exhibited objects, this display features works from SDMA's Asian collection in the Asian Court. It 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. The latest rotation includes Chinese textiles, such as a silk Qing Dynasty robe and silk shoes for bound feet, Japanese Tanto swords and daggers, and a brand new Persian art section centered around the Museum's newly restored Persian tile painting of an animated court scene.

The Eye of the Collector: Modern European Paintings at SDMA
December 17, 2005–April 15, 2007
In honor of the Museum's 80th Anniversary, this unique exhibition pays tribute to the generous individuals who shaped SDMA's collection of modern European painting. Works are grouped according to their donor, focusing attention on their interests, tastes, and connoisseurship. Pieces on display include visitor favorites such as William Bouguereau's Young Shepherdess, given by Mr. and Mrs. Edwin S. Larsen in 1968, and Joaquín Sorolla's María at La Granja, from Mr. and Mrs. Archer M. Huntington, the very first object to enter the collection in 1925.

Closing
Wit and Wisdom: The Making of the Edwin Binney 3rd Collection
April 15–October 29, 2006
This display of sixteen key examples from the Binney Collection turns the spotlight on Edwin Binney 3rd himself as a collector, who in 1986 bequeathed his encyclopedic collection of 1,453 South Asian paintings to SDMA. The majority of the paintings in the exhibition have never been shown in San Diego, and half have never been shown at all. Wall labels will include excerpts from Binney's personal notes, revealing his opinions and motivations for buying the pieces, which will be displayed in order of purchase. Beginning with the first and concluding with the last paintings that he bought, Wit and Wisdom explores Binney's development as a collector.

October Events Calendar

October 4, Wednesday
5:30 p.m. CONCERT Jazz in the Park: The Tessa Souter Quartet
On her way up in the jazz world, Afro-British-Caribbean vocalist Tessa Souter proves that a jazz singer isn't limited to the Great American Songbook. Opening the concert will be local favorite vocalists Leonard Patton and Lisa Hightower with guitarist Peter Sprague.
$16 members/$20 nonmembers/$10 students with ID, James S. Copley Auditorium

October 7, Saturday
9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. SYMPOSIUM "The Architecture of Other Spaces: A Symposium on Matta and Gordon Matta-Clark"
In conjunction with Transmission: The Art of Matta and Gordon Matta-Clark, SDMA and the Getty Research Institute will present a free all-day symposium. The morning session will focus on Matta and Gordon Matta-Clark and will include Spyros Papapetros, architectural historian and theorist from the School of Architecture at Princeton University, and Romy Galan, professor of contemporary European art and theory at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. The two-part afternoon session will focus on new research on Gordon Matta-Clark, as well as issues of display, ephemerality, and materiality/immateriality. Presentations will be given by Elizabeth Sussman, curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Betti-Sue Hertz, SDMA curator of contemporary art and curator of Transmission. Additional speakers TBA.
Free, James S. Copley Auditorium

October 10, Tuesday
7:00 p.m. LECTURE/DEMONSTRATION "How to Listen to Jazz: Global Perspectives"
San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga examines how and why jazz has been embraced around the world, often with far greater reverence than here in its homeland. Music by jazz artists from Africa, Brazil, Europe, Japan, and even Iceland will be played and discussed, followed by a Q&A session.
$16 members/$20 nonmembers/$10 students with ID, James S. Copley Auditorium

October 12, Thursday, 6:00 p.m.
October 15, Sunday, 3:00 p.m.
LECTURE Insight Gallery Talk: "Transmission: The Art of Matta and Gordon Matta-Clark"
Betti-Sue Hertz, curator of contemporary art, discusses this groundbreaking exhibition that examines the relationship between the work of the father and son artists.
Free with museum admission, meet in rotunda

October 19, Thursday
11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. LECTURE Meet the Masters: "A Personal Look at Pieter Bruegel"
Presented in collaboration with the Timken Museum of Art, actor and dramaturge Barry Kraft will present images of Bruegel's mastery and read from literature that surrounds this great artist. Poems and passages will be explored, creating a feast for the senses. Kraft has taught at the American Conservatory Theater and the Denver National Theater and has acted in all 38 of Shakespeare's plays.
$10 members/$12 nonmembers/$10 students. Optional catered lunch provided by The Prado is available for $20, James S. Copley Auditorium

October 26, Thursday
6:00–8:00 p.m. Culture & Cocktails
Following a sold-out event in July, the fall installment of Culture & Cocktails will feature the influential art of father and son artists Matta and Gordon Matta-Clark. Explore the groundbreaking exhibition Transmission and enjoy lively DJ'd music and refreshing cocktails in the rotunda. Get priority entry privileges by purchasing tickets in advance at www.ticketmaster.com (A limited number of tickets are available; all Ticketmaster surcharges are waived).
$10

October 27, Friday
10:00 a.m. LECTURE Docent Guest Lecture: "Matta/Matta-Clark"
Betti-Sue Hertz, curator of contemporary art at SDMA, examines the art and architecture of father and son artists, Surrealist Matta and urban conceptualist Gordon Matta-Clark, as presented in Transmission.
$10, James S. Copley Auditorium

October 27, Friday
10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. WORKSHOP "Rajasthani Painting at Bikaner and its Implications: The Problem of Origins"

October 28, Saturday
10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. WORKSHOP "Rajasthani Painting at Bikaner and its Implications: Patrons and Artists"
In these two intimate workshops, Harvard art historian, Professor Pramod Chandra, will discuss paintings made in India's northwestern principality of Bikaner during the 17th and 18th centuries. Original paintings from SDMA's Edwin Binney 3rd Collection will be available for close viewing while Chandra explores topics such as characteristics of Bikaner painting, religion and art, the relationship between patrons and artists in Bikaner, and the influence of Mughal painting on Bikaner artists. To make a reservation, please call (619) 696-1969 or email programs@sdmart.org by October 22. Lunch and a complimentary Domains of Wonder catalogue are included. Limit 25 people per day.
$100 per workshop (call about student price), SDMA Boardroom

October 29, Sunday
3:30 p.m. LECTURE Second Annual Distinguished Lecture in Indian Art: "Discovery, Continuity, and Innovation in the History of Indian Painting"
In a lavishly illustrated lecture, Professor Pramod Chandra will discuss how norms set in classical Indian paintings of the 5th century continue to be relevant in manuscript paintings of the Mughal and Rajput courts during the 16th through 18th centuries. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres in the sculpture garden will follow the lecture. To make a reservation, please call (619) 696-1969 or email programs@sdmart.org by October 22.
Free, James S. Copley Auditorium

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
Group Sales: (619) 696-1915
Web site: www.sdmart.org

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.

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