2012

The Veil: Visible and Invisible Spaces

February 12 –March 25

Thirty-six works of art, each of which considers The Veil, its many manifestations and interpretations and puts veils and veiling into context.  The Veil intends to engage received wisdom about the veil – particularly current clichés and stereotypes about Islamic practices – and to reflect on the great ubiquity, importance and profundity of the veil throughout human history and imagination. The exhibition is divided into three categories: The Sacred Veil, The Sensuous Veil, and The Sociopolitical Veil.  The exhibition accompanies curator Jennifer Heath’s edited volume, The Veil: Women Writers on Its History, Lore, and Politics (University of California Press, http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages 10772.html).                            

OPENING DAY PROGRAM: Ms. Heath will give a power point talk in the Soda Activity Center at 2 pm on Sunday, February 12; book-signing and reception following in Art Room 105, adjacent to the Museum entrance.  Several of the artists are expected to be present.     

Master Artist Tribute VIII: Richard McLean                                                                                                       

April 15 - June 17                                                                                                                                                

Begun in 1990, the Master Artist Tribute series is designed to showcase artists whose significance as teachers of art is nearly as profound as their estimable bodies of work. Past recipients have been Wayne Thiebaud, Nathan Oliveira, Manuel Neri, Ruth Bernhard, Frank Lobdell, Stephen de Staebler and Carlos Villa.  The exhibition will present several of McLean’s major equine oils and watercolors as well as landscapes and still lifes plus a series of never before exhibited watercolor portraits of friends and artists. It will be McLean’s first retrospective.

Richard McLean was born in 1934 in Hoquiam, Washington. After earning his B.F.A. specializing in painting at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California in 1958, the artist continued his education at Mills College and earned an M.F.A. in 1962. McLean rose to prominence after the 1972 Documenta, in Kassel, Germany. 

Richard McLean, Sheba, 1978, oil/canvas, 50 x 61 inches, Private Collection                                                                                                                                      

The Epperson Collection

July 8 - September 16                                                                                                                                           

Roger Epperson (d. 2008) was an East Bay Regional Parks Ranger, who had a passion for California’s environment and a deep love of art.  Epperson was a self taught collector of early California art, wood block prints and lithographs.  He scoured auction houses, antique stores, garage sales and the internet to accumulate an impressive collection of hundreds of works. The collection he amassed over the years is worthy of a museum exhibition as it includes works by Maurice Braun, Maynard Dixon, Albrecht Durer, Frances Gearhart, Percy Gray, Utagawa, Hiroshige, Karsushika, Hokusai, Lorenzo Palmer Latimer, Bertha Lum, Roi Partridge, William Rice, Carl Sammons, Hiroshi Yoshida and many other noted artists.

Cross/Purpose (text tba)

October 14 – December 16

2013

Carnival/ Carnaval!

February 2 – April 14

Toured by NEH on the Road, made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mid-America Arts Alliance.

150th Anniversary of Saint Mary's College: the Best of the Permanent Collection

May 12 - July 14

Afterglow: Rethinking California Light and Space Art                              

August 4 - September 29

Self-Portraits by Late 20th c. Masters: the Syracuse University Collection

October 19 - December 15