Extract: Developing Exhibitions from the Collection

Laguna Art Museum’s permanant collection reflects both California’s historical interaction with its artists and the Museum’s own idiosyncratic history. Founded ninety-three years ago as an “artists’ space” to showcase recent art, the Laguna Beach Art Association matured in the 1940s into a collecting institution that, since 1972, has developed into a museum of American art with a focus on the art of California.

Over the years, Laguna Art Museum has been fortunate to take into its collection significant holdings by underrepresented individual artists who, though they have had little art historical attention thus far, have made significant contributions to regional and national art. These holdings have inspired a curatorial interest in the artists’ work, enough of an interest to explore the possibility of future exhibitions.

Extract will consist of several small, one-person shows from the Collection by Florence Arnold, Elanor Colburn, Laddie John Dill, Jules Engel, Oscar Fischinger, Tom Holland, Peter Krasnow, Ruth Peabody, David Simpson, Vic Joachim Smith, Jean St. Pierre, and Chris Wilder. The exhibition will include brief curatorial statements on the importance of each artist’s work, and will aim to assess the potential for fully-formed monographic exhibitions.