‘From One Generation to the Next’

Art exhibit features grandmother and grandson

By MARILYN MCMAHON NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

She was born in Washington, D.C., in 1907 to a military family of high standing. He was born in L.A. in 1968 to a Hollywood family of note.

East Coast, West Coast. Modern, contemporary. Grandmother, grandson. Betty Lane, an artist first and foremost, but a diarist, too. Christopher Noxon, a writer first, but then an illustrator and now a painter.

Both are featured in “From One Generation to the Next,” an exhibition that opens with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery, 11 E. Anapamu St., during the monthly 1st Thursday event in downtown Santa Barbara.

“From one generation to the next, the world changed a great deal, but the creative drive pulsing within the family genes and culture asserted itself again and again,” said Jeremy Tessmer, gallery director. “Showing together for the first time, Christopher and Betty share just a few stylistic preferences — the merging of graphic clarity with painterly passages, for example.

“Both grandmother and grandson seem determined to find patterns, whether natural or invented. The landscape is recurrent, though hers are often upstate New York, southern Canada and Cape Cod, while Christopher largely paints his new surroundings in Ojai. Otherwise, they are artists of a different stripe. For both, however, it seems to be enough to look and to paint. Thoughts and feelings have to sneak in. They focus on the visuals.”

Ms. Lane came of age during the maturation of modern art. She learned the fundamentals of traditional drawing at the Corcoran School in Washington, D.C. She developed those ideas further at the Massachusetts Normal School (now MassArt, the oldest public art school in the U.S.).

Finally, she made it to Paris to study the new French painting under André L’Hôte. Her first exhibition was in 1931 at the Phillips Gallery in her hometown. She didn’t show again for 10 years, but her second exhibition was with the storied Galerie St. Etienne, New York’s major outpost for German expressionism and American folk art.

“Her ‘hero years’ were the 1940s, but owing to shifting tastes and her own stubborn refusal to adequately selfpromote, the momentum subsided by the time she divorced in 1951. A long and lonely slog as a teacher at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Conn., followed,” said Mr. Tessmer. After that, Ms. Lane retired to Cape Cod, where she painted landscapes,

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portraits and images from her travels. Over the course of her career, she explored primitive (or unacademic) painting, many modes of French modernism, American expressionism and surrealism, sometimes combining approaches in a single painting.

Sullivan Goss has represented the artist’s estate since 2006. This is the artist’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery. Today, her works are found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Phillips Collection and the Cape Cod Museum of Art, in addition to certain prestigious private collections like the Women Who Dared Collection.

“Mr. Noxon was born into a family of gifted filmmakers and writers, which pretty much doomed him to a creative

Please see EXHIBIT on B4

“From One Generation to the Next,” an exhibition that opens with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery, 11 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara, will be on view through May 22. For more information, visit www.sullivangoss.com.

Calendar

Calendar

The calendar appears Mondays through Saturdays in the “Life & the Arts” section. Items are welcome. Please email them a full week before the event to Managing Editor Dave Mason at dmason@newspress.com.

TODAY

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “Entangled: Responding to Environmental Crisis,” runs through March 25 at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. The museum is open from 10 a.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. It’s closed on Sundays and college holidays. For more information, call 805-565-6162 or visit westmont.edu/ museum.

COURTESY PHOTO Boogie Knights, above, will perform 1970s hits during the New Year’s Eve Disco Boogie Ball at 9 p.m. Dec. 31 at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez. And the Spazmatics will play hits from the ’80s. Tickets cost $50.

The calendar appears Mondays through Saturdays in the “Life & the Arts” section. Items are welcome. Please email them a full week before the event to Managing Editor Dave Mason at dmason@newspress.com.

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. “Storytelling: Native People Through the Lens of Edward S. Curtis” is on display through April 30 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol, Santa Barbara. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Mondays. For more information, visit sbnature.org.

The Marjorie Luke Theatre at Santa Barbara Junior High School, 721 E. Cota St., Santa Barbara. The concert is presented by Viva el Arte de Santa Barbara.

10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. “SURREAL WOMEN: Surrealist Art by American Women” is on display through April 24 at Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery, 11 E. Anapamu St. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. For more information, www. sullivangoss.com.

By appointment on weekdays: “Holly Hungett: Natural Interpretations” is on view through May 20 at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara’s gallery, 229 E. Victoria St., Santa Barbara. The gallery is open 1 to 4 p.m. Saturdays and weekdays by appointment. For more information, call the foundation at 805-965-6307 or go to www.afsb.org.

Noon to 5 p.m. “Clarence Mattei: Portrait of a Community” is on view now through May at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, which is located in downtown Santa Barbara at 136 E. De la Guerra St. Admission is free. Hours are currently from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays and from noon to 7 p.m. Thursdays. For more information, visit www.sbhistorical.org.

MARCH 29

2 and 7 p.m.: Rubicon Theatre of Ventura will perform “Dark of the Moon: A New Musical” on Wednesdays at 2 and 7 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. at the theater, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. Prices are $30 to $69.50 with special discounts for students, seniors, military and Equity members. Lower-priced preview performances are March 29-31. To purchase tickets, go to rubicontheatre.org.

MARCH 30

5:30 p.m. A lecture will be given about the sculptures of Ed and Nancy Kienholz at at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1130 State St.

The talk will be presented by James Glisson, the museum’s curator of Contemporary Art. This will be in conjunction with the exhibition scenes from “Marriage: Ed and Nancy Kienholz.” To purchase, visit tickets.sbma.net.

7 p.m.: Rubicon Theatre of Ventura will perform “Dark of the Moon: A New Musical” on Wednesdays at 2 and 7 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. at the theater, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. Prices are $30 to $69.50 with special discounts for students, seniors, military and Equity members. Lower-priced preview performances are March 29-31. To purchase tickets, go to rubicontheatre.org.

MARCH 31

7 p.m.: Rubicon Theatre of Ventura will perform “Dark of the Moon: A New Musical” on Wednesdays at 2 and 7 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. at the theater, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. Prices are $30 to $69.50 with special discounts for students, seniors, military and Equity members. Lower-priced preview performances are March 29-31. To purchase tickets, go to rubicontheatre.org.

APRIL 1

2 and 7 p.m.: Rubicon Theatre of Ventura will perform “Dark of the Moon: A New Musical” on Wednesdays at 2 and 7 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. at the theater, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. Prices are $30 to $69.50 with special discounts for students, seniors, military and Equity members. To purchase tickets, go to rubicontheatre.org.

APRIL 2

2 p.m.: Rubicon Theatre of Ventura will perform “Dark of the Moon: A New Musical” on Wednesdays at 2 and 7 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. at the theater, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. Prices are $30 to $69.50 with special discounts for students, seniors, military and Equity members. To purchase tickets, go to rubicontheatre.org.

— Dave Mason