Musings | Spring/Summer 2022 Member Newsletter

Monterey Museum of Art

Musings...

MEMBER NEWSLETTER SPRING/SUMMER 2022

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS JUAN FELIPE HERRERA ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ CELAYA CORINNE WHITAKER SUMMER ART CAMPS THE TEMPLE SISTERS

Musings...

Musings is a quarterly publication for Members of the Monterey Museum of Art.

Our Mission

The Monterey Museum of Art cultivates curiosity in the visual arts and engages community with the diversity of California art—past, present, and future.

Our Vision

The Monterey Museum of Art is a collaborative center where art and community engage.

Board of Trustees Adriana Hayward, Psy.D. President

Lila Thorsen, Ph.D. President Emerita

John A. Greenwald Treasurer

Lisa Rheinheimer

Monika Campbell Tom Donnelly Laura Gamble Kristen Huston Caroline Scott Low DeBorah Silguero Matthew Simis

Secretary

Chief Editor / Project Manager Stephanie Shepherd Art Director / Senior Designer Maureen Halligan Photography Anthony Cody, Rosie Gutierrez, Moss Media Carmel

William G. Hyland Trustee Emeritus

Craig L. Johnson Trustee Emeritus

Photo: Moss Media Carmel

New Open Hours at MMA Pacific Street The Museum is happy to announce the addition of Sundays to our public operating hours at MMA Pacific Street. See you in the galleries!

Thursdays – Sundays (11:00 am – 5:00 pm) Visit montereyart.org for tickets and more information.

Cover Image Enrique Martínez Celaya, The Citadel (For R.J.), 2020, oil and wax on canvas, 78 x 61 in.

Courtesy of Frederic Snitzer Gallery and Private Collection, Miami + Aspen.

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Photo: Moss Media Carmel

From the Executive Director Dear MMA Members and Friends, Spring has sprung, and here at MMA we’re celebrating the longer days and milder weather, as well as being open again on Sundays. It’s a hopeful sign for our community, and we encourage members to take advantage of this increased access.

For the Spring/Summer season, we couldn’t be more excited about the featured artists that MMA is presenting.

Enrique Martínez Celaya. Juan Felipe Herrera. Corinne Whitaker. Holly and Ashlee Temple. All Californians, these dynamic and diverse artists are living and working in Carmel, Fresno, and Los Angeles, however their artworks inspire audiences around the world.

Enrique Martínez Celaya has an international career, but his installation, The Fire of Heaven: Enrique Martínez Celaya and Robinson Jeffers is deeply rooted in the Monterey Peninsula. For 20 years, Martínez Celaya has drawn inspiration from poet, Robinson Jeffers, and in 2021, he was artist-in-residence at Jeffers’ Tor House, a Carmel landmark. Visitors will find that Martínez Celaya’s canvases, installed with Jeffers’ writing, will movingly chronicle his personal journey and his profound relationship to the poet’s life and art.

While living in Fresno, U.S. Poet Laureate emeritus, Juan Felipe Herrera has shared his inspiring poems across the country. MMA is the first museum to exhibit the visual aspects of Herrera’s legendary poetic practice.

Herrera’s ink drawings, cardboard cartoneras, and poetic mandalas fall into the long tradition of concrete poetry and will inspire visitors to reconsider the disciplinary boundaries of art, while introducing them to one of California’s cultural treasures.

Carmel-based Corinne Whitaker breaches boundaries of her own as she manifests mind-bending works entirely created with digital tools. Over her long and productive career, whether making 3-D printed sculptures or hallucinogenic digital light boxes, this artist encourages viewers to let their imaginations take flight.

The Temple Sisters create serious fun with their politically-charged assemblages. These Carmel-based artists remake artifacts to create works that mordantly question assumptions about women and history. Their works can be purchased to benefit the artists and the Museum.

Joining these eminent California artists are the next generation of local photographers that we celebrate through our long-time partnership with the Weston Scholarship. This compelling array of exhibitions makes it a great time to visit the Museum, and we look forward to seeing you in the galleries!

Enjoy!

Corey Madden Executive Director

Juan Felipe Herrera U.S. Poet Laureate Emeritus (2015 – 2017)

BY J O H N R E X I N E

Photo: Anthony Cody

Pictured below from left to right, Noah Gonzalez, Corey Madden, Juan Felipe Herrera (2015-2017 U.S. Poet Laureate), John Rexine, and Roxanne O’Weger, gathered in Juan Felipe Herrera’s home in Fresno, California, to discuss a very special presentation of his unique process of literary composition, which crosses the boundaries of writing, drawing, and performance—to be shown in MMA’s galleries this

Califas Legacy Project, Victor Cervantez and Irene O'Connell

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summer. The exhibition will include examples of his Mandala, Infinite Poem, and Fractal States drawings, cartoneras (compositions on cardboard boxes), book illustrations, illustrated journals, broadsides, publications, and much more. On view from June 3 – July 31, 2022, the exhibition will be the first of its kind for Juan Felipe Herrera and the Museum. You won’t want to miss this celebration of visual poetry!

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Juan Felipe Herrera (b. 1948), SinNombres No. 7, 2021, black india ink with bamboo brush on 60lb sketch paper, 12 x 9 in. ©Juan Felipe Herrera.

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Enrique Martínez Celaya, Robinson Jeffers (2013). Torn works on paper, gesso and charcoal, 70.25 x 41.5 in. Collection of Bianca and Stuart Roden, London.

Enrique Martínez Celaya

Brings his Ode to Robinson Jeffers to MMA

BY C A N D A C E C H R I S T I A N S E N

After a blockbuster run of exhibitions across Los Angeles, artist Enrique Martínez Celaya debuts the full iteration of his 2022 exhibition The Fire of Heaven: Enrique Martínez Celaya and Robinson Jeffers at MMA. This selection of large-scale paintings and intimate works on paper is inspired by the life and work of twentieth-century poet Robinson Jeffers. Spanning over two

decades of the artist’s career, the series defies Martínez Celaya’s typical process of developing a body of work over a confined period, to demonstrate the importance and constancy of Jeffers’ writing in the evolution of his practice.

Enrique Martínez Celaya first discovered the work of Robinson Jeffers as a graduate student at UC Berkeley. However, it was in

the early 2000s that he began to consider the poet’s work more deeply. What attracted the artist to Jeffers was the connection between his life and his work. Martínez Celaya’s life is also inextricably linked to his art. Born in Cuba but raised in Spain and Puerto Rico, his exilic journey and rediscovery of a lost home relate to Jeffers who experienced his own form of

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exile in Carmel. Jeffers planted his home and centered his life in Carmel-by-the-Sea, and from this refuge he spent his life exploring provocations about life and belonging.

poet’s landmark home in Carmel-

In 2021, seeking the same stillness and contemplation Jeffers found, Martínez Celaya honed his study and admiration for Jeffers’ work into an inaugural Fellowship at Tor House and Hawk Tower, the

commonality between them.

by-the-Sea. Martínez Celaya spent several days in the poet’s stark and intimate sanctuary reflecting on life, Jeffers’ posthumous presence, and the threads of In response, the artist created a number of original works during his stay. The resulting compositions integrate Jeffers’ meditative imagery of the coast

with Martínez Celaya’s enigmatic symbolism and trademark conceptual discipline.

The Fire of Heaven is a carefully curated display of contemporary visions juxtaposed by rarely seen Robinson Jeffers archival materials, on loan from Occidental College.

With painted works ranging in size from 11 by 9.4 inches to 78 by 100 inches, the presence and impact of scale is balanced

Don’t miss The Fire of Heaven: Enrique Martínez Celaya and Robinson Jeffers, on view through October 9, 2022. Please visit montereyart.org for more information.

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Enrique Martínez Celaya, The Lesson (2019). Oil and wax on canvas, 86 x 92 in.

Photo: Melinda Manlin

by the confined and fragile nature of Jeffers’ writings and photographs. Although Martínez Celaya’s monumental works dominate the exhibition’s physical space, the poetic legacy and voice of Robinson Jeffers looms large. Through symbolism and representational form, Martínez Celaya delivers a compelling tribute to the pursuit of truth and the immortality of art.

Tor House and Robinson Jeffers Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) is a giant among American poets and a local legend on the Monterey Peninsula. Jeffers built his home and refuge, Tor House, in Carmel-by-the-Sea for his wife Una. From 1919, he lived, worked, and raised his family there. Jeffers wrote nearly all his major poetical works from Tor House including "Carmel Point" and "Boats in Fog", which seamlessly speak of the region’s unique identity and lure.

With its English Tudor style and prominent Hawk Tower, Tor House remains a fixture along the scenic Carmel coast. The Tor House Foundation, affiliated with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is a nonprofit organization that continues to preserve the site and literary legacy of Robinson Jeffers through sponsored events and published materials. The house is open to the public through organized tours. Please visit torhouse.org to learn more.

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Corinne Whitaker (b. 1934 ), Heart Throbs, 2021, unique digital painting in lighted box, 24 x 48 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Corinne Whitaker: Digital Mindscapes

BY C A N D A C E C H R I S T I A N S E N

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Corinne Whitaker: Digital Mindscapes is on view through August 21, 2022. Please visit montereyart.org for more information.

Corinne Whitaker began her exploration of digital art over 40 years ago during the dawn of the digital age. Ahead of her time, she recognized the potential of computer-generated imagery and sculpture, collaborating with innovators on the web to explore the limits of software and machine.

Her unique digital paintings are the result of her unbridled imagination and a career

experimenting with digital technology. She forges new imagery by way of digital manipulation, superimposing her visions onto mirrors and light boxes, each surface designed to offer a different experience.

Whitaker’s mirror paintings invite self-examination while those on illuminated boxes offer exploration of digital realms.

To sculpt her imagined forms, Whitaker uses algorithms— designing models in powerful

CAD programs before realizing them as physical objects. Her works are conceptualized digitally through Rapid Prototyping, computer to computer, with some resulting in 3D printed sculpture and others being hand carved in the final stage.

Whitaker fabricates her creations in a variety of materials including bronze, steel, marble, and polyurethane, attaching them to custom designed bases.

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Summer Art Camps

BY D A I S Y M E N D O Z A

MMA’s summer art camps will be back in full force this year! We have been excitedly preparing for seven creative camps to be held in June and July.

Led by our Museum Educators, summer art camps will explore environmental ecosystems, outer space, ancient art techniques, and cartooning. We are also partnering with Play-Well TEKnologies again, who will offer three LEGO engineering camps related to building Pokémon, superheroes, and fairytale worlds.

Art camps will invite children (ages five to thirteen) to explore painting, mixed-media sculpting, flipbook

Camps will be offered at MMA Pacific Street and MMA La Mirada. Please visit montereyart.org/learn/artcamp/ for the details and locations of specific camp sessions and to register.

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making, creating works inspired by the great outdoors, block printing, and much more. Campers will work with our knowledgeable and experienced instructors in a relaxed summer atmosphere while learning new art practices and developing their own artistic, creative, and collaborative skills.

We can’t wait to offer these camps to inspire children with a variety of interests, and we look forward to seeing you this summer!

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Recent Acquisition Valentin Popov's Empty Sky

BY J O H N R E X I N E

The work of Ukrainian-born San Francisco Bay Area artist Valentin Popov combines a high level of skill and craftsmanship with a strong sense of both history and humor. The Museum has been fortunate to recently acquire several works by the artist, including this piece from his In the Water series, originally shown at Modernism West Gallery in San Francisco in 2010, which was

Valentin Popov (b. 1956), Empty Sky, 2009, oil on canvas, 37 x 45 in. (93.98 x 114.3 cm). Gift of Amy Theresa Chung, 2021.044.

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a 2021 gift to the Museum from Amy Theresa Chung of Oakland.

The drenched and fully clothed figures depicted in the painting stand stoically still and practically expressionless up to their chests in what appears to be the cool reflective water of a swimming pool, beneath an empty blue sky, but which recedes into the distant horizon as if it were in fact the ocean. Dressed as if headed for a

day at the office, the seriousness of their expressions belie the absurdity of their situation.

Popov’s work is found in major collections across the country, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2016, he was the first American citizen to be awarded membership in the National Academy of Arts in Ukraine.

 Miki Hayakawa (1899-1953), Untitled (Young Man with Ukulele), ca. 1932-1940, oil on canvas, 20 x 26 in. (50.8 x 66.04 cm). Gift of Mateo Lettunich, 2004.062.

Collection Highlight Miki Hayakawa’s Untitled (Young Man with Ukulele)

BY J O H N R E X I N E

Miki Hayakawa was a Japaneseborn painter who with her family came to the San Francisco Bay area in 1908, during what is known as the “Exclusion Era” (1882-1965), when immigration was restricted, and people of Asian descent were prohibited from becoming naturalized American Citizens. Despite her family’s objections, she became an accomplished artist, studying at both the California College of Arts and Crafts and the California School of Fine Arts.

She was most likely living in Pacific Grove, CA, in the 1930s

when she painted Untitled (Young Man with Ukulele). In the painting, a handsome and relaxed dark-haired youth in a tussled white shirt seems to be lost in thought as he intently observes his fingers strum the instrument while casually reclining against the Cezanne-esque patterned background. Although we don’t know who the subject of the painting is, Hayakawa gave the work to the eventual donor, Mateo Luttenich of Carmel, before moving with her family to Santa Fe, New Mexico, around 1940— where they were subsequently incarcerated during WWII. She

became an important and active member of the arts community in Santa Fe nevertheless, and met her husband there, the painter Preston McCrossen.

Hayakawa died of cancer at the young age of 49. The Museum’s painting will be included in a traveling exhibition of three early twentieth-century Japanese Californian women artists, organized by ShiPu Wang for the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles beginning in late 2023, Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and 17 Miné Okubo.

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The Temple Sisters, I Thought You Said, 2021, mixed media on mat board, 31 x 26 inches. Image courtesy of the artists.

Q&A

BY C A N D A C E C H R I S T I A N S E N

The Temple Sisters, Holly and Ashlee Temple, are two artists working as one team to create mixed media assemblages. In the two series, She Wore a Blue Dress. She Wore a Red Dress. and Tomes, the duo explores the fragility and ambiguity of memory. In the interview below we go deeper into these series and the Temple Sisters’ collaborative process.

Q. How does your relationship as siblings inform your collaborative process?

A. Our relationship is an immense element since we share a common history and artistic influences.

We were encouraged to use our imagination by creating art or telling stories. We speak the same visual language, so when we go into the studio, we intuitively understand each other. We often find we have been thinking about eerily similar concepts and means of expression even before we work on something.

Q. You work in tandem with mixed media. Do you assign ownership over certain elements? Or do you consciously choose to share each step?

A. It really depends on the pieces or the series. Sometimes it comes down to who would rather sit quietly and cut out fifty tiny flowers or who wants to move around and drip paint. Sometimes it's as simple and practical as who has time to get to the studio that day.

Q. The two series are accompanied by literary text; do these writings serve as inspiration for your work or is it something that you identify further into the process?

A. Before we start a new series, there is a lot of conversation on what we want to express, but over time the piece or series starts to clarify itself and that clarification begins to resonate and remind one of us of a poem, quote, or passage. Or one of us will read something, and it will feel like a bit of a convergence.

Q. In the series She Wore a Red Dress. She Wore a Blue Dress. you demonstrate the subtlety and power of color relationships.

Juxtaposed to this precision is the method of applying “accidental” drips of paint. Is there intention behind that, perhaps a playfulness?

A. Although we choose the colors very deliberately as well as where to drop or drip the paint, we don’t really know how it will fall or move.

It always feels a bit dangerous and exciting.

Q. Tomes and She Wore a Red Dress. She Wore a Blue Dress. are visually very different series, yet you’ve chosen to present them together. How would you describe the relationship between the different bodies of work?

A. Both series were developed around the same time, and we were working on them in the studio side-by-side. While they may seem to have a vastly different visual expression, the impulse behind the pieces are similar—the use of old neglected found materials to create something new. Both are playing with ideas of loss and regeneration from that loss. Both series are asking questions about personal and collective storytelling, memories, what we keep, what we discard, what we want to hold on to, and what slips away.

The Temple Sisters are featured in MMA’s galleries through May 29, 2022. Please visit montereyart.org for more information about the exhibition.

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Become a Museum Docent

BY R OX A N N E O ' W E G E R

Monterey Museum of Art is seeking friendly and flexible individuals to share their enthusiasm for art with Museum visitors. Previous experience is not required, but applicants must enjoy interacting with the public, be interested in the arts, and have a willingness to learn.

Volunteer opportunities include: •

Enriching the visitor experience

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Leading gallery tours

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Enhancing art education programs

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Assisting across the Museum

Weekly training for new Docents begins early September and takes place through November. To become a Docent, contact education@montereyart.org, or visit montereyart.org/learn/docent-and-internprogram/ to learn more about volunteering at MMA.

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Photo: Moss Media Carmel

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Acknowledgements January 1 – April 30, 2022 Thank you so much to the individuals, foundations, corporations, and organizations that have generously supported the Museum over the past several months. We are honored by your trust in us and your belief in our mission, and we are grateful to you all for making our work possible!

Sponsorship and Grant Supporters Anonymous Carmel Rotary Club Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County Mary Cary and Gary Coughlan Fund for Homeless Women of the Community Foundation for Monterey County John H. Marble Endowment Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County Valera Lyles Frank and Judith Marshall Foundation Maud Porter Work Rose Garden Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County The Monterey County Gives! Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County Monterey Museum of Art Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County Nancy Eccles and Homer M. Hayward Family Foundation Pam and John Wilkinson

To learn about how you can support MMA or to make a gift, visit montereyart.org/support/donate/, email us at advancement@monterey.org, or call us at 831.372.5477 x104.

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Photo: Moss Media Carmel

Legacy Society The Legacy Society is our planned giving society for individuals who have added the Monterey Museum of Art as a beneficiary by will, trust, or endowment gifts. Their generosity and foresight ensure our sustainability well into the future. We can arrange a free, confidential consultation on the potential advantages of a planned gift to the Museum. If you would like to discuss your intentions, please contact the Museum’s Advancement Department at 831.372.5477 x104 or at advancement@montereyart.org.

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Exhibitions Calendar Please visit montereyart.org for tickets and important updates.

May – August 2022

Currents + FLUX: Temple Sisters Through May 29, 2022 Corinne Whitaker: Digital Mindscapes Through August 21, 2022 2022 Weston Scholarship Exhibition Through August 21, 2022 The Fire of Heaven: Enrique Martínez Celaya and Robinson Jeffers May 12 – October 9, 2022 Stretching the Poem: The New Art and Word Realizations of Juan Felipe Herrera June 3 – July 31, 2022

Upcoming

Currents + FLUX: Nancy Sevier August 3 – October 3, 2022 Chris Johnson—Photography September 8 – December 11, 2022 Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press September 17 – November 27, 2022 Currents + FLUX: Michelle Yi October 7 – December 19, 2022

Image above: Corinne Whitaker (b. 1934), Tempest in a Sea Pot, n.d., unique digital painting in lighted box, 24 x 48 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Victor Mario Zabala, Artist in Residence October 20 – November 6, 2022 2022 Miniatures November 17 – December 11, 2022

Stay Connected  Sign-up for enews at montereyart.org/enews  Visit us anytime online at montereyart.org  General inquiries 831.372.5477  facebook.com/montereyart.org  instagram.com/montereyart  twitter.com/montereyart 559 Pacific Street, Monterey, CA 93940

To report a misprint or error, please

Send mail to: PO Box 1551, Monterey, CA 93942

contact pr@montereyart.org

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SPRING/SUMMER 2022