Getty grant to aid annals of O.C. art

Elia Powers

It’s high time for introspection and retrospection at the Orange

County Museum of Art.

Buoyed by a $200,000 grant from the Getty Foundation, museum

curators have taken to beefing up the first of a three-part

exhibition series called “Collection Histories/Collective Memories”

that looks at art through an historical lens.

The museum’s archival collection includes more than 2,500 works,

most of which were produced by California artists and all of which

have appeared at the Orange County Museum of Art or at one of its

previous incarnations.

“Collection Histories/Collective Memories” is a project that aims

to examine the museum’s cultural relevance and highlight exhibitions

that made an imprint on Southern California’s contemporary art scene.

“The grant allows us to present our history in a comprehensive way

and show how that intersects with the history of California art,”

said Elizabeth Armstrong, deputy director for programs and chief

curator at the Orange County Museum of Art.

Curators have selected four shows from the 1960s and 1970s to

present in the first exhibition, “California Modern.” The exhibition,

which has been in place since early February and runs through next

September, features painting and sculpture from the past 40 years.

Subsequent exhibitions will focus on other mediums, according to

Karen Moss, curator of collections and director of education and

public programs.

The second exhibition, titled “Post-War Experiments and

Experience,” will be on display from February 2007 through September

2008. The third installment, “The Projected Image,” runs February

2009 through September 2010.

“California Modern” is still in its early stages, Moss said. But

the gallery is hardly vacant; it’s filled with old exhibition

catalogs, modern paintings and enlarged descriptions of appropriate

historical context.

The exhibition also includes the first piece of art ever collected

by the museum and one of its first major shows, “California Hard-Edge

Printing.”

Moss said the grant, which was awarded last month, will enable the

museum to bolster the visual element of the exhibition, including the

installation of video screens where artists will explain their

motivations for creating the works of art.

“A big part of the grant was to bring us into the 21st century,”

Moss said. “This will help us present the material in a visual way.”

The Getty Foundation grant also enables the museum to hire

research assistants and artistic consultants who will scour the

Orange County Museum of Art’s archives for presentable material.

That includes revisiting audio recordings and video footage shot

in past years. “The research support is exciting,” Armstrong said.

“We can thoroughly look at our archives and make them accessible.

It’s a matter of manpower.”

Moss said the museum is looking to conduct new interviews with

living artists. For example, they are interviewing the Fine Arts

Patrons of Newport Beach, who, in 1964, opened the doors of the

Balboa Pavilion Gallery that first housed contemporary art in Orange

County.

“We recognize that people are dying. If we don’t get interviews,

people’s stories are lost,” she said.

Armstrong said the museum is also looking to use much of the

information in the exhibitions for publication on the museum’s

website.

* ELIA POWERS is the enterprise and general assignment reporter.

He may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or by e-mail at

[email protected].