SAN DIEGO MUSEUM of ART | Press Release

SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART SHOWCASES REGION'S FINEST PRIVATE ART COLLECTIONS

Personal Views: Regarding Private Collections in San Diego
October 21, 2006–January 7, 2007

SAN DIEGO—This fall, the San Diego Museum of Art will highlight some of the region's best private art collections in a special exhibition titled Personal Views: Regarding Private Collections in San Diego. This diverse display features 25 of the finest private collections to be found in the San Diego area and includes works by Rembrandt van Rijn, Mary Cassatt, Claude Monet, Willem de Kooning, Frida Kahlo, and Nan Goldin—giving museum visitors an inside look into what otherwise might never be seen in a public setting. Culminating a year-long celebration of SDMA's 80th Anniversary, the exhibition is on view from October 21, 2006, to January 7, 2007.

Personal Views represents a wide range of artistic practices. It brings together high-quality examples of African, Oceanic, Pre-Columbian, South Asian, Ancient Mediterranean, Old Master, European Modernist, American, and Latin American art, as well as an international selection of contemporary art.

"San Diego is a sophisticated community, and the quality of art collections in our region has increased significantly since the last time that SDMA mounted an exhibition of this sort, almost 25 years ago," says Derrick Cartwright, SDMA's director and lead curator of the exhibition. "We are grateful to these generous individuals who so willingly agreed to open up their private homes for our visitors. This special exhibition represents a unique opportunity to discover some of the most remarkable art objects located right in our own backyard."

The collections of American art in Personal Views highlight historical artworks from the 19th and 20th centuries. Bill Foxley will contribute five paintings, including a watercolor by Winslow Homer. Sheila Potiker will lend five works, among them My Autumn by Georgia O'Keeffe and a Hans Hoffman painting from the 1930s. Bram and Sandy Dijkstra are lending five paintings, including Capital Reef, Zion National Park, Utah by Conrad Buff and Waiting by Gilbert Gaul. Five paintings from Dan Stephen include Magic City—San Diego by Colin Campbell Cooper and John Joseph Enneking's Blue Mountain. Among the works from the collection of Jeff Pressman are a blanket chest from the early 1800s and James Bard's Side-Wheeler Steam Boat.

Works from Europe range from Old Master prints to modern paintings. A display of five Rembrandt etchings depicting the final days of Christ come from collector Bob Hoehn and include the artist's famed Crucifixion and Christ Crucified between the Two Thieves (Three Crosses). The Thornton Foundation is lending four paintings from such celebrated artists as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and James Tissot. Ken Widder and Jackie Johnson are contributing five oil paintings, including Still Life with Fish by Emil Filla and Cubist Study by Antonín Procházka. John and Toni Bloomberg are lending four oil paintings, including Pierre Bonnard's Interierure avec Deux Personages and Landscape by Paul Sérusier. Frank and Demi Rogozienski are sharing six paintings by 17th-century Italian and Dutch artists, among them are Orazio Gentileschi's Virgin and Child and Giuseppe Nuvolone's Agrippina with the Ashes of Germanicus.

Featured in the contemporary collections are works by international artists in a variety of media. The five pieces lent by Matt and Iris Strauss include a work in mixed media by Willem de Kooning and an oil painting by Georg Baselitz titled Franziska. Irwin and Joan Jacobs are lending two paintings by California-based artist Ed Ruscha: Ours and Side of a Former Telephone Booth. Michael Krichman and Carmen Cuenca are sharing five pieces that focus on the connection between domestic objects and art, including Julian Opie's Nightlight #2 and Tara Donovan's Untitled (pins), made entirely of straight pins.

Chris and Eloisa Haudenschild's contributions represent people's adjustment to the development and modernization of cities in China and include one work of 56 photographs in lightboxes by Shi Yong and a floor installation of photographs by Song Tao. Works on view from Ron and Lucille Neeley depict how time and space frame each other. Their five submissions include a vinyl cut-out on a lightbox titled Relaciones Mexico—Japan by Pablo Vargas Lugo and Melanie Smith's painting Concrete Jungle VII. Ted and Joyce Strauss's art photography collection is represented with five prints, among them Katy Grannan's Carla, Arnold Aberetum, Jamaica Plains, MA (Sugar Camp Road) and Melanie Pullen's Self-Portrait.

Works from Asian art collections range from 1st-century C.E. Buddhist sculpture to late 20th-century modern Chinese painting. Four pieces from Japan courtesy of Maurice Kawashima include a 17th-century ceramic Kokutani dish and a Hashiguchi Goyo print entitled Woman after the Bath. From Dr. V.S. Ramachandran's collection of South Indian sculpture come six limestone bas reliefs from the 1st to 4th centuries. Professor Wai-lim Yip is lending six examples of modern Chinese painting produced in Taiwan from the 1960s to the 1980s, including an ink and acrylic work by Xiao Qin, one of the most important artists of modern painting in Taiwan.

Also included in Personal Views are examples of Latin American works, as well as African, Oceanic, and Haitian objects, types of art not normally displayed at the Museum. J. Todd Figi is contributing five Latin American works from renowned artists such as Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, and Wifredo Lam, as well as a rare Frida Kahlo lithograph—one of only two that she made. Sherri Jamieson is sharing works from her antiquities collection, including a 3rd-century B.C. Greek torso and a 1st-century B.C. Roman head of Apollo. The Kleinbub brothers, Christian and Eric, are presenting five Pre-Columbian ceramic figurines of mythical beings from the 1st-century B.C. Late Chavin period to the 1st-century A.D. Moche period.

From the collection of Richard and Susan Ulevitch come five African masks from the late 19th to early 20th centuries made from wood, raffia, and animal skin. Ned and Mina Smith are lending works from their collection of Oceanic art—one of the most important in California—including a large-scale Malanggan male figure from New Ireland and an early 19th-century wooden spirit mask from New Caladonia. Larry Kent is sharing four Haitian works, including a metal sculpture of the Voodoo water spirit La Sirene by Georges Liautaud and several works by Hector Hyppolite, including a painting formerly in the collection of André Breton.

Personal Views is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue that includes an introduction by executive director Derrick Cartwright, an essay 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.

Personal Views: Regarding Private Collections in San Diego is organized by the San Diego Museum of Art. The exhibition is made possible by the generous support of the DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, Northern Trust Bank, the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program, and members of the San Diego Museum of Art. Further support for the associated catalogue was made possible by a generous donation from the African Arts Council of the San Diego Museum of Art.

Major support for the 80th Anniversary at SDMA is provided by Tamara and Kevin Kinsella, Audrey S. Geisel, Wells Fargo Bank, Gordon Brodfuehrer, Mary H. Clark, the office of San Diego County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price and the Docent Council of the San Diego Museum of Art.