Oakland Museum of California has many wonderful oil paintings created by Californian artists in the middle of 20th century. The best example was Bruce McGaw's Figure (c. 1956-57), a portrait of a strangely lit bust, whose held up and inward facing hands were both awkward and eloquent, and it was quite a challenge to determine the spatial relationship between those arms and his eerie looking face. The pale tan face and right hand, interrupted by dark shadow of his featured, and framed by dark background, gave him a ghostly look, which was reinforced by the greenish tone on his left hand. A small patch of red on his left sleeve, and a thin stripe of red on his collar and shoulder over the navy blue uniform, added exciting notes to this muted monologue.
Figure, c. 1956-57, Oil on Canvas, Bruce McGaw
My second favorite was Spring Nude (1962) by Nathan Oliveira. This painting had layers upon layers of paints, and the effect of the interplay of visible paints from various layers were thrilling. In the middle of the canvas, superimposed amidst these layers of red, pink, purple, blue, yellow and green hues, was a dark silhouette of a figure, which could be either a man or a woman, either frontal or rear view, and this addition completely changed the outlook of this otherwise abstract work, and the patterns of the background became a fantastically colored beach, and the painting became an evocative figure study in an unusual, almost mythic setting.
Last Thursday, I visited Oakland Museum of California, which had just undergone a renovation. The special exhibit is Pixar - 25 Years Animation exhibit, which has traveled the world and now came back home to the East Bay. It was educational and fun exhibit. Pixar's talents were truly amazing. Unavoidably, this kind show will have some dull part but mostly amusing. I am inclined to seek out copies of Finding Nemo and An Insect's Life and that is a proof that I was quite taken in by the exhibit. The exhibit runs from July 31, 2010 through January 9, 2011.
I also took time to visit the permanent collections of Oakland Museum of California. The museum has three parts - History, Nature and Art. There are many interesting installations around the building, starting with Ruth Asawa's 1974 untitled piece, which greeted visitors at the entrance. There are also many interesting viewed from windows inside the museum:
Untitled, 1974, Ruth Asawa, Bronze wire and copper pipe
The collections in the art galleries are arranged thematically. It will be a nightmare for visitor to museums in much grander size but for this one, it worked just fine.
In order to keep my thoughts more organized, I decide to present artworks I enjoy in chronological order, rather than following their leads.
There are many paintings by "California" school, particularly by Richard Diebenkorn. But the collections went back to late 19th century and till current time. It also contain some graphic arts and photographies:
Still Life, 1891, Oil on Canvas, Emil Carlsen
Nocturnal Street Scene, Early 20th Century, Oil on Canvas, Charles Rollo Peters
Reflection, 1904, Oil on Canvas, Gottardo Piazzoni
Youth, c. 1917, Oil on Canvas, Arthur F. Matthews
Boat and Yellow Hill, c. 1920s, Oil on Canvas, Selden Connor Gile
Untitled, 1947, Oil on Canvas, Mark Rothko
Untitled, 1949, Oil on Canvas, Edward Corbett
The Illustrated History of the Universe, 1955, Oil on Masonite, Jay DeFeo
Figure, c. 1956-57, Oil on Canvas, Bruce McGaw
Figure in Landscape, c. 1957, Elmer Bischoff
Women in Landscape, 1958, Oil on Canvas, David Park
Spring Nude, 1962, Oil on Canvas, Nathan Oliveira
Berkeley No. 20, 1954, Oil on Canvas, Richard Diebenkorn
Figure on a Porch, 1959, Oil on Canvas, Richard Diebenkorn
Seated Nude - Arm on Knee, 1962,Oil on Canvas, Richard Diebenkorn
Ocean Park No. 107, 1978, Oil on Canvas, Richard Diebenkorn
Invented Landscape, 1966, Acrylic on Paper, Richard Diebenkorn
#4, 1978, Aquatint, Etching, and Drypoint, Richard Diebenkorn
Upper Sacramento Vally, 1985, Type-C Color Pint, Reagan Louie
Free State, 1994, Acrylic on Canvas, David Simpson
Away from two-dimensional works, I group them into Ceramics, Decorative Works and Sculptures, Installations and Videos.
Ceramics:
Plate, 1962, Glazed Clay, Peter Voulkos, Oakland Museum of California
Left wall: Point of Touch: Bathsheba, 1995, Linen, Ryon, Oil Paint, ad Dye, Lia Cook // Backwall: How to Charter a Coarse, 1971, Mixed Media, William T. Wiley
Installation at the front: How to Charter a Coarse, 1971, Mixed Media, William T. Wiley // Painting at the back: Stree, 1961, Oil on Canvas, Richard Diebenkorn
Aristotle's Cage, 1983-92, Mixed media installation, Michael C. McMillen
Untitled, 1967, Coated Glass, Plexiglass, and Metal Stripping, Larry Bell
Just a Matter of Time, 1990, Mixed Media, Paul Kos and Untitled, 1967, Coated Glass, Plexiglass, and Metal Stripping, Larry Bell
Just a Matter of Time, 1990, Mixed Media, Paul Kos, Oakland Museum of California
Just a Matter of Time, 1990, Mixed Media, Paul Kos and "Yard of Earth", a simple ecological system, Oakland Museum of California
Video:
Color Combination, 2000, Color DVD with Sound, Kota Ezawa
Decorative art and historical artifacts:
Franc Pierce Hammon Memorial Windows, 1925, Leaded Stained Glass, Arthur F. Matthews
Then, a little bit of history:
An Artist's Studio, Early 20th Century Style
Curatorial Departments, 19th century natural scientist bureau
Curatorial Departments, 1976 history department office
Curatorial Departments, present-day contemporary art
View of San Francisco, 1853, Unknown, Six whole plate daguerreotypes in vintage frame
Looking down to the history gallery - California's Gold Rush era
Looking down to the history gallery - California in the decades after World War II
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