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Bridging the Gap
George Stern Fine Arts is proud to present the exhibition “Bridging the Gap: Linking American Scene Painting to Post-War Modernism” as part of Pacific Standard Time. This unprecedented collaboration, initiated by the J. Paul Getty Museum, brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months beginning October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the L. A. art scene. “Bridging the Gap” showcases artists at the tail end of American Scene Painting to Post-War Modernism from the 1940s-1970s. While artistic movements changed and progressed in various manners in Southern California, one lasting theme linking American Scene Painters and Post-War Modernists was their interpretation and vision of Southern California’s enduring landscape.
California Impressionism dominated the art scene in Southern California until the 1930 - 1940s when artistic visions shifted with a young generation of artists who were inspired to paint their personal visions of the land creating both rural and urban views in opposition to abstraction and modernism popular in Europe. On a national level, this movement was known as American Scene Painting with two focuses, Social Realism and Regionalism. While the Great Depression affected the social-political and economic climate throughout the country, Southern California escaped its worst effects. Due to the favorable social-political and economic climate in Southern California, artists were attracted to Regionalism. What was unique about the Regionalist artists during this period was their desire to paint a positive vision of Southern California’s environment at its most raw form without extreme exaggeration. Primarily using the medium of watercolors, the California Regionalists painted en plein air often completing paintings in one session outdoors. Well-known artists of this period include: Millard Sheets, Phil Dike, Barse Miller, Emil Kosa Jr., and many others. Although the Regionalists were still producing paintings, at the end of World War II, artists, influenced by the increase in urban development, began to seek inspiration in the form of Modernism.
The Post-War era brought to California abstraction and avant-garde art through the influence of East Coast and European Modernism. While some artists painted in a nonrepresentational manner, the influences of American Scene painting could be seen in the artists that continued to depict Southern California images with a figurative modernist flair. Initially exploring abstract expressionism, many of the artists in the post-war era transitioned back into figural painting through the influences of artists and professors such as Henry McFee and Millard Sheets, who offered a solid ground of traditional academic technique seen in Regionalism. But, unlike Regionalism, the Modernist landscapes were now paired down to its simplest forms, often using color blocking techniques to create the raw urban land that could be seen as both idealistic and beautiful in its simplified state. Borderline abstraction yet still figural, artists such as Roger Kuntz, Conrad Buff, Robert Frame, and Helen Lundeberg were among the many that experimented with such concepts and forms capturing the essence of Southern California.
Post-War Modernism in Southern California can be seen as a reflection and modernization of the concepts of American Scene Painting. Both eras of art reflect a deep understanding of the ever changing landscape through their figural views of the environment. Showcasing the artistic progression through each generation’s interpretation of the Southern California landscape, Bridging the Gap brings together both the traditional and the modern with each artist’s deep love of the land.
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