Musings | Spring/Summer 2023 Member Newsletter

Musings...

INAUGURAL BLOCK PARTY

SUMMER EXHIBTIONS

CALIFORNIA REVEALED

SNEAK PEEK FALL 2023

COLLECTION HIGHLIGHT

UPCOMING EVENTS

Musings...

Musings is a seasonal 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

John A. Greenwald President

Adriana Hayward, Psy.D.

President Emerita

Tom Donnelly

Treasurer

Lisa Rheinheimer Secretary

Monika Campbell

Laura Gamble

Kristen Huston

Heidi Quinn

Caroline Scott Low

DeBorah Silguero, Ph.D.

Matthew Simis

Eric C. Smith

Lila Thorsen, Ph.D.

William G. Hyland Trustee Emeritus

Craig L. Johson Trustee Emeritus

Chief Editor / Writer / Project Manager

Candace Christiansen

Art Director / Senior Designer

Maureen Halligan

Photography

Maureen Halligan, Randy Tunnell Photography

©Monterey Museum of Art, Published June 2023

To report a misprint or error, please contact pr@montereyart.org

Museum Hours

Thursdays – Sundays (11:00 am – 5:00 pm)

Visit montereyart.org for tickets and more information.

Cover Image

Dorr Bothwell, Dreamer, 1929, oil on canvas board, 23 x 20 in. The Buck Collection at UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art, © Courtesy of The Dorr Bothwell Trust and The Mendocino Art Center.

Photo: Randy Tunnell Photography

From the Executive Director

If you build it, they will come…

This was the hope of MMA’s staff, board, and volunteers who collectively spent thousands of hours planning our first ever Block Party and Dance Party. But a year later, as we stood on the empty street outside the museum, awaiting the arrival of artists, vendors, and partner organizations as well as the public, we wondered, “Will anyone actually show up?” Thankfully, the resounding answer was YES.

On April 15 thousands of children, parents, students, seniors, and MMA members enjoyed drawing, dancing, writing, flower arranging, and visiting the museum. Later that evening, hundreds more came to dance together under the stars.

At the end of the night, our team left the museum exhausted but proud. We were so gratified to receive your congratulatory emails, social media posts, and hear the wonderful buzz around town. Thank you for coming— and please mark your calendars for April 6-7, 2024, the next edition of the Block Party and Dance Party as well as our Spring Fundraiser. We look forward to sharing another fun and fabulous weekend of art connecting community

In addition to the Block Party, did you know that MMA provides free admission to almost 10,000 people every year? Children and families benefit from MMA’s Free Family Fun Days, free school tours, high school mentorship programs, as well as our low-cost summer camps. Hundreds of young people and newcomers visit the museum for the first time through our free First Fridays, and all children 18 and under, students, active military and their families, and EBT card holders receive free entry all year round.

But free admission comes at a very real cost. We spend more than $100 per person/per hour to open our doors and provide the remarkable exhibits and programs you appreciate and our whole community deserves to see.

Your support is vital, so please give generously to MMA’s end of year Annual Appeal Campaign to help ensure that everyone in Monterey County can benefit from our work. Gifts of all sizes are truly appreciated and are fully tax deductible. Please visit us online to make your gift today. Thank you so much in advance for your inspiration, partnership, and support.

Please enjoy our marvelous Summer Season and this edition of Musings.

Looking forward,

Corey Madden Executive Director, Monterey Museum of Art

Photo: Randy Tunnell Photography

MMA’s Inaugural Block Party

An Arts Festival for Everyone

This April, the Museum turned itself inside out for the Inaugural Block Party, extending past our doors and spilling into the street to meet our community and invite them in—in many cases for the first time. The festival provided an unprecedented opportunity to show the Monterey community what we’re all about and the direction

we are heading. With the Block Party, we set out to create an extension of our Museum and its core values: cultivating belonging and connection through art. We asked our participating artists, artisans, vendors, performers, and community organizations to offer a hands-on participatory activity for visitors of all ages, experiences, abilities,

Photos: Randy Tunnel Photography

and interests to allow for deeper connections and expressions of creativity. At the end of the day, the Block Party welcomed more than 3500 visitors. We made new relationships with other organizations and visitors and got to know our neighbors better. The overwhelming success of the Block Party is also a reflection of the vibrant arts community that expands across Monterey County. We can’t wait to return next year, bigger and better than ever. Until then, we’ll be offering more ways to interact with art and each other through free First Fridays, Free Family Fun Days, and some exciting new public programming initiatives in the fall.

Presenting Summer 2023

All exhibitions officially open on May 25, 2023

The Summer 2023 Season is led by The Bruton Sisters: Modernism in the Making (May 25 –August 20, 2023), a traveling show organized by the University of California Irvine Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art. Curated by Wendy Van Wyck Good— local author, librarian, archivist, historian, and leading expert on Margaret, Esther, and Helen Bruton—The Bruton Sisters presents the work of three pioneering women who propelled the advancement of modern art in California, yet were largely overlooked during their lifetime. The exhibition, which also

includes related works by several of the Brutons’ contemporaries, reveals the sisters’ innovative use of materials, creative approach to design, and fruitful collaborative process. This is the first group exhibition of the Bruton sisters’ work in more than 50 years.

Also debuting this season is a genre defying showcase of artistic versatility from one of the Monterey region's most formidable portrait photographers—Martha Casanave.

Continued on page 10

The Bruton Sisters in Monterey

Margaret, Esther, and Helen Bruton grew up in Alameda, California, but they often visited the Monterey Peninsula as children. In the 1920s, when they were young adults, the sisters returned to Monterey to take advantage of its scenic beauty and vibrant modernist art scene. The Brutons loved the area so much, they built a second home here in 1924. Helen and Margaret settled in Monterey permanently in 1944 and lived here for the rest of their lives.

Imogen Cunningham, The Bruton Sisters, Artists, 1930, 1930, gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 in. © 2022 Imogen Cunningham Trust

Margaret Bruton, Barns on Cass Street, circa 1925, oil on canvas, 38 x 44

Collection Monterey Museum of Art, Gift

the artist 1973.022.

Continued from Page 8

Martha Casanave: EXPLORATIONS (May 4–August 20, 2023), presents a mysterious and compelling narrative of the Monterey landscape, both natural and man-made, through two series taken with a pinhole camera. An intrepid creative, Martha Casanave has largely spent her career practicing outside established traditions. Yet, traces of influence from West Coast landscape photography can be identified in works such as Untitled (Two Starfish), 2000, (below) which harkens back to Wynn Bullock's long exposures of moving water (Sea Palms, 1968) or Edward Weston's uncharacteristic shell in the desert (Shell, 1931). Weston was criticized for putting a shell where it didn't belong, and for altering the natural scene in

a photograph. In EXPLORATIONS, Casanave also ignores the boundaries of dated rules to employ her chosen props; move shells, pebbles, and seaweed; and even introduces a staged character to her compositions.

“ For me, photography is like magic. One of the reasons for my fascination with the nineteenth century is, in fact, the invention of photography. But the pinhole principle, the camera obscura, which far predates the ability to “fix” an image, is even more mysterious and magical. Its allure is its very simplicity: a box with a tiny hole creating an image—no lens, no viewfinder, no shutter. It is purely optical phenomenon, unadorned by modern technology.”

–Martha Casanave

Martha Casanave (b. 1945), Untitled, 2000, silver gelatin print, 24 x 20 in. Courtesy of the artist.

The presence of photography continues in the Museum's upstairs Marble Galleries with the 2023 Weston Scholarship (May 11 - July 30, 2023), a community exhibition of award-winning photography by high school and college students from Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties. The photographs, selected from winning portfolios, were created in local high school and college photography courses during the 2022-2023 academic year. Founded in 2004, the Weston Scholarship is part of the Weston Collective, a nonprofit organization in Monterey County where science, technology, and art meet through photography. The collective seeks to spread awareness of Edward Weston’s legacy while preserving the rich photographic history of Monterey Bay.

In a gallery adjacent to the 2023 Weston Scholarship exhibition is a small collection-based

exhibition, The Weston Legacy, featuring a selection of iconic photographs from past generations of the Weston family, including Edward (1886-1958), Brett (1911-1993), and Cole Weston (1919-2003).

Spread across the Museum’s entry hall and Coburn gallery is a star powered and playful exhibition of funk art drawn exclusively from the permanent collection. You’ve Got to be Kidding: Humor and the Absurd in California Art (May 11 – July 30, 2023) includes works by Gilhooly (1943-2013), William T. Wiley (born 1937), Robert Arneson (1930-92) and Clayton Bailey (19392020). Read more on page 16.

Jose Queved, Cabrillo College, digital photographic print.. 

California Revealed

A Project of the California State Library

WRITTEN BY VOLUNTEER ARCHIVIST, ELEANOR UHLINGER

Thanks to two generous grants* from California Revealed, a project of the California State Library, the Museum recently digitized and made available fascinating oral history interviews conducted by Donald R. Anderson and Betty Hoag Lochrie McGlynn with important California photographers, artists, and their families. Anyone may access these interviews from the California Revealed website https:// repository.californiarevealed. org/partner/monterey-museumof-art

The Donald R. Anderson Collection features more than 18 hours of interviews Anderson conducted from 1999-2004 with California photographers, (each of whom are part of the Museum’s collections) about their lives, influences, works, and their philosophy of teaching.

Interview topics include: personal stories; equipment and techniques; the early years of photography on the Monterey Peninsula and in California; Ansel Adams; Yosemite Workshops; the Friends of Photography; the Foundation for Photographic Preservation; and photography programs run through Monterey Peninsula College, University of California Santa Cruz, and more.

Donald R. Anderson (1937-2014) was an accomplished fine-arts photographer. Moving to Monterey in 1998, Anderson taught photography and the history of photography classes at Monterey Peninsula College, California State University Monterey Bay, San Francisco State University, and University of California Santa Cruz Extension. Prior to arriving in Monterey Anderson taught the

same subjects at the University of Louisville (Kentucky). Anderson was an active Board Member of and consultant to the Santa Cruz, CA-based Foundation for Photographic Preservation.

The Betty Hoag McGlynn Collection features more than 67 hours of oral history interviews McGlynn conducted in the 1960’s with California artists, their families, and friends, who discussed their lives, influences, and works; personal stories; and the early history and development of the Carmel/ Monterey Peninsula art scene particularly as it grew following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Betty Lochrie Hoag McGlynn (19142002), namesake of the Museum’s Betty Hoag McGlynn Archives, was an art historian, research director, archivist, and author specializing in American and California art

(particularly artists of Northern California). McGlynn began her professional career as a field researcher for the Archives of American Art, interviewing more than 200 Southern California artists who worked on the Federal Arts Project (circa 1933-1946) of the Works Project Administration. (Many of those interviews and their transcripts are available online via the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution). Having developed an interest in art at a young age, McGlynn spent five

decades working for museums, historical societies, and art associations in Northern California and as a private consultant. The daughter of artist Elizabeth Lochrie and daughter-in-law of artist Thomas Arnold McGlynn, Ms. McGlynn was a recognized authority on early California art and artists. She authored the book, Carmel Art Association: A History c1987; edited Noticias del Puerto de Monterey: A Quarterly Bulletin of Historic Monterey issued by the Monterey History and Art Association; and was a

frequent lecturer and contributor to art magazines, newsletters, and newspapers.

McGlynn’s substantial archive of clippings, correspondence, images, and research notes are available to scholars and researchers by appointment. (See also: Betty Hoag/Betty McGlynn collections located at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution and the Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley).

* This project was supported by California Revealed and administered in California by the State Librarian. The program is made possible by funding from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act.

Photo: Maureen Halligan

Sneak Peek Fall 2023

Contemporary California Artist Tsherin Sherpa

Tsherin Sherpa, Untitled (detail), 2017, platinum leaf, gold leaf, acrylic and ink on canvas, diptych, 48 x 72 in. The KaoWilliams Family Collection

This fall, MMA will present one of its most significant exhibitions to date featuring the work of contemporary California artist Tsherin Sherpa. One of the most renowned artists of Himalayan descent Sherpa’s groundbreaking artwork continues to garner international acclaim. Sherpa was recently honored by the Asia Society for his significant contribution to contemporary art. Born in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1968, Tsherin Sherpa emigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1998. Sherpa currently works and lives between Kathmandu (Nepal) and Northern California (USA). Sherpa’s work is a blending of these two worlds. Grounded in his personal experiences within the Himalayan Diaspora and his training as a thangka painter, (traditional Buddhist art), the artist boldly reconfigures rich Buddhist iconography with pop culture references to explore contemporary concerns. The resulting works form a narrative interplay of opposites: sacred/

secular, traditional/contemporary, and settlement/movement.

Tsherin Sherpa has exhibited across the United States, Europe, and Asia—including representing Nepal in its inaugural participation at the Venice Biennale in 2022. He has also been part of Yokohama Triennale (2020); Yinchuan Biennale (2018); Kathmandu Triennale (2017); Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane (2015-16); and Dhaka Art Summit (2014).

Sherpa's work is included in private collections around the world, as well as in the collections of Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Rubin Museum of Art, New York; Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, Australia; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; World Museum, Liverpool; Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka and Uli Sigg Collection. In February 2022 the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts presented the artist's first museum mid-career retrospective, Spirits, which travelled on the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA, and will open at the Asia Society in Houston in September 2023.

Photo: Riccardo Tosetto, 2022. 

Tsherin Sherpa's first solo-exhibition in California, Tsherin Sherpa: Different Worlds opens at the Monterey Museum of Art on September 7, 2023

Acquisition Highlight

Annette Cocoran's California Teapot

A centerpiece of You’ve Got to Be

Kidding: Humor and the Absurd in California Art is a whimsical teapot by renowned Pacific Grove based potter, Annette Corcoran (b. 1930), called California Teapot (2000), a recent gift of the Winfield Family. Corcoran has been creating highly detailed and expertly crafted porcelain vessels in various combinations of birds, waterfowl, flowers, vegetables, and abstract geometric shapes, among other things, since

1970. Her work can be found in important museum collections across the country, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Oakland Museum of California. California Teapot is made in the shape of a geological section of the Golden State itself, and across its top are highlights of California’s most familiar icons and agricultural products in miniature sculptural form while identifying its geographical

neighbor states on each of its sides. One would be hard pressed to find the teapot’s spout and lid, which are humorously located at the tail end of the applied sperm whale, and in the form of a pot of gold at the end of the proverbial rainbow (which doubles as the vessel’s handle), respectively. The piece is a delightful example of the many ways that California artists have utilized humor and the absurd as a driving strategy in their creative process.

Annette Corcoran (b. 1930), California Teapot, 2000, porcelain, 6.83 x 13 x 4.5 inches. Gift of the Winfield Family.

The Fire of Heaven Catalogue

Enrique Martínez Celaya and Robinson Jeffers

Our long-awaited catalogue for the 2022 exhibition The Fire of Heaven: Enrique Martínez Celaya and Robinson Jeffers is now available. Co-published with German publisher Hatje Cantz, this beautiful book documents Martínez Celaya's residence at Robinson Jeffers' Tor House and the 2022 exhibition which included work inspired by and set in conversation with the 20th century poet's writing. Catalogue contributors include Shana Nys Dambrot, author, critic, and Arts Editor for LA Weekly; Elliot RuchowitzRoberts, President of the Tor House Foundation; and Corey Madden, Executive Director of the Monterey Museum of Art.

Now available for purchase at MMA Pacific Street.

Thursday through Sunday, 11 am – 5 pm.

Acknowledgements

January 1 – May 1, 2023

Thank you to all who have generously supported the Museum this season. The exhibitions and programs we create and present are only possible because of the generosity of people like you.

Grant Supporters

California Natural Resources Agency

Monterey Peninsula Foundation

Louise M. Davies Foundation

Maud Porter Fund

Sumitomo Foundation

Greater San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce

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.

Photo: Randy Tunnell Photography

Block Party Sponsorship & Annual Spring Fundraiser

The Museum extends its deep appreciation to our event and fundraiser Co-Chairs Adriana Hayward and Caroline Scott Low, the Block Party Fundraiser Committee, and all of the Sponsors.

Event Co-Chair

Adriana Hayward, Psy.D.

Caroline Scott Low

Event Committee

Elizabeth Barlow

Monika Campell

Fran Chapman

Deborah Costigan

Karen Folgner

Amalia Gomez Micone

Kristen Huston

Claire Jackson

Jana Magginetti

Karen Patton

Roseanne Pierre

Heidi Quinn, Lisa Rheinheimer

DeBorah Silguero

Holly A. Temple

Sponsors

Nancy Eccles and Homer M. Hayward

Foundation

Frank and Judith Marshall

Elizabeth Barlow and Stephen McClellan

Caron and Alan Lacy

Caroline Scott Low and Graham Low

Sally Lucas

Mike and Cass Antle

Diane Coward

Claire and Joe Jackson

Christine and Craig Johnson

Julie Packard

Lila and Mike Thorsen

Craig and Fran Chapman

Susan and David Gill

Amalina Gomez Micone and Noam

Krantz

Steve and Maryan Ackley

Judy and Tom Archibald

Beall Family Foundation

Donald M. Davis

Tom Donnelly

Jeannette and Don Fowler

Laura Gamble

John and Carol Greenwald

Jacki Horton

Joe and Kristen Huston

Linda and Rick Kunnath

Corey Madden

Susan Manchester

Corinne and Larry Marcus

Jane Olin

Karen Patton

Matthew Simis and Michael Gray

Fred Vinton

Jeanne and Cyril Yansouni

Marietta and Pierre Bain

Mose and Diane Thomas

Corporate Sponsors

Arts Council for Monterey County

Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management

KAZU 90.3

Albatross Ridge

Hear & Now Monterey

Jana Magginette Interior Design

Karen Wilson Designs

Monika Campbell, Compass

DRE#01370848

Monterey County Weekly

Scheid Family Wines

Seaview Inn – Carmel-by-the-Sea

Stocker & Allaire

1st Capital Bank

Bambace Peterson Team, Compass

Chicago Title, Carmel

C.L.A. Wealth Management

Jacquie Adams Homes - Sotheby’s International Realty DRE#01702965

Noland, Hamerly, Etienne & Hoss

Studio Pierre

Hauk Fine Arts

H.M.C. Architects

Kasavan Architects

Monterey Peninsula Unified School District

Parker-Lusseau Pastries

The Nut Hut

Art Connecting Community

Annual Appeal 2023

The Monterey Museum of Art strives to offer fun and dynamic art experiences for all ages across Monterey County and beyond. The exhibitions and programs we create and present are only possible because of our local supporters. Your annual donations are truly essential for us to continue our work.

Please consider a gift through June 30 in support of:

• Maintaining our free admission programs serving nearly 10,000 visitors of all ages every year

• Creating access to free arts education throughout Monterey County with our new mobile programs

• Expanding K-12 school tours and covering the cost of buses for public school classrooms

• Deepening our high school mentorship program to cultivate next-gen artists and museum professionals

• Relaunching our Artist in Residence program— and helping support more public art installations

• Growing our Spring BLOCK PARTY and Dance Party event—expanding Monterey’s downtown cultural district through festive and accessible public art experiences

Give today at https://montereyart.org/annualappeal-2023

Photo: Randy Tunnell Photography

Upcoming Events at MMA Join Us

June 2

June

June 29

July 7

August 4

August 5

August 12

Annual

MMA Summer Camps

Select Weeks June – August 2023

The Museum is offering six different art camps this summer for ages 5 -17 at our Pacific Street and La Mirada locations—and there are only a few spots left! Camp themes and activities include Cartoon creation, eco artmaking, LEGO® building, and Halloween in July!

Sign up at montereyart.org/learn/artcamp

Summer 2023

Exhibitions Calendar

Please

Martha Casanave: EXPLORATIONS

May 4 – August 20, 2023

You've Got to be Kidding: Humor and the Absurd in California Art

May 11 – July 30, 2023

2023 Weston Scholarship

May 11 – August 20, 2023

The Bruton Sisters: Modernism in the Making

May 25 – August 20, 2023

Currents: Jane Ivory

June 2 – July 30, 2023

Upcoming

Currents: Todd Gilens

August 4 – October 1, 2023

Tsherin Sherpa: Different Worlds

September 7 – November 26, 2023

Mark Steven Greenfield

September 7 – December 17, 2023

Sacred Encounters

September 7 – December 17, 2023

Currents: Abira Ali

October 6 – December 17, 2023

Image above: Valentin Popov, St. Superman (detail) 2020, oil and gold leaf on 100-yearold carved woodblock, 20 x 16 in. Gift of Mr. Fred Webster, 2021.046