Modern Art West

Happy Birthday to Bruce Conner! Born Nov. 18, 1933 in McPherson, Kansas. Conner created politically and socially charged prints, paintings, collages, photographs, films and multi-media conceptual art. He was a consistent fixture on the San Francisco counter-culture scene until his passing in 2008. Image: Bombhead, 1989. Pigment on RC photo and Somerset paper, acrylic.

"Both the former vice president and the former California senator have relatively strong records of supporting the arts." - artnet

Celebrating William T. Wiley, born Oct. 21, 1937. He earned a BFA and MFA at the California School of Fine Arts. Wiley taught at UC Davis Art Department and was one of the founders of the West Coast Funk Art Movement, with Robert Arneson and Roy DeForest. His works are represented in the collections of MoMA The Museum of Modern Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Oakland Museum of California, SF MoMA, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Whitney Museum of American Art among others. Image: Painter Baffles and Excess in California, 1969.

Kamala Harris talks to Carrie Mae Weems, Catherine Opie, and Shepard Fairey about her advocacy for the arts. Bloomberg

This one of the reasons why we love Wayne Thiebaud!

Remembering Sonia Gechtoff, born September 25, 1926. Gechtoff was a pioneering figure in the Bay Area Ab-Ex movement. She taught at California School of Fine Arts alongside Hassel Smith and Elmer Bischoff. Gechtoff's work is in the collections of MoMA The Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery, SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and many other public and private collections. Image: Red Flag, 1961, from the collection of MAW.

Modern Art West is open in Sonoma! For information visit modernartwest.com Thank you, Sonoma Index-Tribune / Sonomanews.com, Lorna Sheridan & Robbi Pengelly https://www.sonomanews.com//new-fine-art-gallery-opens-in/

Happy Birthday to Viola Frey, born August 15, 1933 in Lodi, CA. Frey's career spans five decades as a sculptor, painter, and teacher. Her internationally respected work can be found in over 70 public collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Seattle Art Museum, and many other distinguished Museum collections. Image: Self Portrait, 1998. Photo courtesy of Modern Art West.

Happy Birthday, Claire Falkenstein, b. July 22, 1908. The American sculptor, painter, printmaker, jewelry designer, and teacher is best known for her abstract fusions of copper and glass. Falkenstein's art has been exhibited at the Louvre, Rodin Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museums in New York and Venice, the Tate Gallery, Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among other prestigious museums.

"Seven years after her death, Ruth Asawa is finally being recognized as an American master. What can we learn from this overdue reappraisal?"

Happy July! Image: July, Richard Diebenkorn, 1957. Oil on canvas.

"Clayton spent his life surrounded by love, with his lifelong sweetheart by his side, making art that was simultaneously poignant and goofy." - Janelle Hessig KQED

This article on Hopper from the New Yorker looks at the artist's work on the occasion of Edward Hopper: A Fresh Look at Landscape, a large show at the lately reopened Beyler Foundation in Switzerland. "The visual bard of American solitudenot loneliness, a maudlin projectionspeaks to our isolated states these days with fortuitous poignance." - Peter Schjeldahl The New Yorker

Happy birthday to pioneering woman artist and inspirational professor of art, Margaret Peterson, born June 3, 1902. Peterson was a professor of art at UC Berkeley from 1928 until 1950, when she refused to sign an oath of loyalty during the height of McCarthyism. She is considered one of the "Berkeley Modernists" with Worth Ryder, John Haley and Erle Loran. Among Peterson's students are Elmer Bischoff, Richard Diebenkorn and Jay DeFeo. Image: Three Women Painting, 1938. Collection of Oakland Museum of California Art.

MAW Exhibition coming in September: Bay Area Figurative on Paper. Featuring the work of Elmer Bischoff, Joan Brown, William Theophilus Brown, Richard Diebenkorn, Frank Lobdell, Bruce McGaw, David Park, James Weeks, and Paul Wonner. Image: Woman on Chair, 1964, Elmer Bischoff. Ink on paper. https://www.modernartwest.com/exhibitions

Wishing Happy Mother's Day to all moms, step moms, foster moms, grandmothers, aunts, and dads who pull double duty! Image: Carrie Mae Weems, Untitled (Woman and daughter with makeup) from the Kitchen Table Series, 1990.

MAW celebrates the art and creativity of printmaking on International Printmaking Day! Image: Hans Hofmann. Composition in Blue, 1952. Hofmann first visited the U.S. in 1930 to teach at U.C. Berkeley. His first solo exhibition in New York was at Peggy Guggenheim's The Art of this Century in 1944 followed by a retrospective at the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy at Andover in 1948. An additional retrospective took place in 1957 at the Whitney Museum of American Art. See: The Stamp of Impulse - Abstract Expressionist Prints by David Acton.