Long Beach Museum of Art
Decade by Decade: Women Artists of California
January 25 – May 24, 2020
In 2020, the Long Beach Museum of Art celebrates 70 years of art programs in the community. Since its inception, the Museum—at first as the Municipal Art Center—collected and exhibited contemporary art in all media. Women artists were included in group and solo exhibitions and their artworks were added to the Museum’s collection through the years. Seventy years later, 20 percent of the Museum’s permanent collection is comprised of photography, painting, sculpture, prints, drawing, works on paper, artist books, fiber, ceramics, enamels, glass, and much more by women from Long Beach, the region, the State, and across the nation, resulting in a percentage that exceeds the average of most museums.
This exhibition, Decade by Decade, ranges beyond Long Beach and is a small selection of the art by California women in the collection. The artworks are presented chronologically by the dates they were created, rather than the dates that they were acquired by the Museum. Each artwork tells a story about the Museum’s history, the history of our time and place, and the artists’ personal visions.
This exhibition is generously supported by the Port of Long Beach and made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Sharon Ellis, Winter, 1994, Alkyd on canvas, 28 x 40 inches, Purchased with funds contributed by the National Endowment for the Arts and the 1995 Long Beach Museum of Art Collectors Circle 95.39
Long Beach Museum of Art
CA Designed 1955
January 25 – May 17, 2020
In 1955, the Long Beach Museum of Art (then Municipal Art Center) presented California Designed, an exhibition of 325 furnishings and accessories representative of the best typically California solution to problems in design and workmanship. Curated by Director Samuel Heavenrich and in partnership with the de Young Museum in San Francisco, products including furniture, floor coverings, fabrics, lamps, accessories, tablewares and home appliances were selected on the merit of originality, function and utility in favor of overworked “modern” design. CA Designed 1955 features a selection of collected works originally exhibited in 1955 including those of Charles and Ray Eames, Sam Maloof, and Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman.
It is with delight that the Museum presents this tribute to the California mid-century artists whose contributions marked a distinct architectural era and continue to influence design aesthetics today.
Charles Eames, La Chaise, designed 1948; produced by Vitra 1999, Fiberglass, 34 ¼ x 59 x 34 inches, Purchased with funds contributed by the 1999 Long Beach Museum of Art Collectors Circle 99.15
LBMA Downtown
California Designed 2020
February 9 – May 3, 2020
Presented in celebration of the Long Beach Museum of Art’s 70th anniversary, California Designed 2020 at LBMA Downtown, is a complementary exhibition to CA Designed 1955 currently on view at the Museum’s Ocean Boulevard campus. Co-curated by designer Eric Trine of Amigo Modern, California Designed 2020 features select contemporary home furnishings from 28 leading-edge Southern California studio designers. Pieces in the exhibition were selected based on categories presented in the original LBMA California Designed exhibition in 1955, including furniture, wall hangings, fabrics, tableware, floor coverings and accessories.
LAUN Los Angeles, Bobbin Bench, Aluminum, 15 x 84 x 33 ó inches, LAUN Los Angeles
Long Beach Museum of Art
My Long Beach
December 14, 2019 – March 15, 2020
Each year, the Education Department collaborates with Christine Whipp, the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) art curriculum leader to coordinate three exhibitions for the Toyota Children’s Gallery of elementary, middle and high school work in conjunction with the Museum’s exhibition cycle. This year’s middle school exhibition titled My Long Beach explores students’ interpretations of the Long Beach community. Whether through a portrayal of the city as a whole, specific neighborhoods or landmarks, or even individual homes, the works of art in this exhibition reflect on the connectedness we feel to the places we encounter in the world around us.
Charles Navarro, Arise, Stanford Middle School, Grade 8, Colored pencil on paper
Long Beach Museum of Art
Buddy Buddy: Patrick Dougherty
March 1, 2019 – Ongoing
Patrick Dougherty debuts a site-specific willow installation at the Long Beach Museum of Art. Working together with local volunteers, his son Sam, the Museum Staff and Docents, the artist intricately weaves and assembles hundreds of harvested willow saplings on-site to create monumental, earthly sculptures. The three-day harvesting of the willow consisted of cutting, baling, and transporting vast amounts of the material back to the Museum. Combined with the artist’s love of nature and his mastery of ancient building techniques, the complexity and metaphysical nature of these forms dwell not only in the natural material and the structure themselves, but also in its accessibility where audiences can engage with and bear witness to the work’s life cycle throughout its various stages. “Making sculpture comprehendible” as Dougherty says, has consistently been his vision since the inception of this body of work.
This special outdoor sculpture is supported in part by a generous grant from the Pasadena Art Alliance, a 64-year-old organization of over 175 women who foster appreciation for contemporary visual arts in Southern California by supporting artists, exhibitions, educational programs and art-oriented, non-profit institutions.
