Lectures
Lectures at Few Memorial Hall of Records, 580 Pacific Street
When Monterey was Modern: The Peninsula’s Early Art Colony and its Place in California Art
Scott Shields, Associate Director and Chief Curator at Sacramento's Crocker Art Museum
Saturday, 1 October 2011
10:00am - 11:00am
Synopsis of Talk
By the late 19th century, the Monterey Peninsula began to epitomize California art. The towns of Monterey, Pacific Grove, and then Carmel, each interconnected yet distinct, boasted populations of artists who shared their lives, ideals, and respective arts in a free spirit of association and collegiality. Beginning with Jules Tavernier’s arrival in 1875, art produced on the peninsula broke from its East Coast antecedents to become increasingly subjective and meditative. By 1900, the majority of the artists in the region had arrived at a tonal style featuring moody atmospheric effects. Some went one step farther, producing canvases reductive in color and form; others practiced a more colorful Impressionism. Although most accounts and histories of the artists’ colony on the peninsula have cited the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire as the primary impetus for artists to gather there, Shields’s research makes clear that the colony began much earlier and in Monterey, not Carmel, as is often claimed.
Biography
Scott Shields is Associate Director and Chief Curator art the Crocker Art Museum. He holds an MA and PhD in art history from the University of Kansas. He published Artists at Continent’s End: The Monterey Peninsula Art Colony, 1875–1907 in 2006 through The University of California Press; that same year he co-authored Dark Metropolis: Paintings by Irving Norman. In 2007 and 2008, he wrote exhibition catalogues featuring early California painters Edwin Deakin and Benjamin Chambers Brown. Most recently, he co-authored and edited a 500-page catalogue featuring the Crocker’s permanent collection, contributed an essay to Franz A. Bischoff: The Life and Art of an American Master, and is the curator and lead author of the forthcoming exhibition and catalogue Edgar Payne: The Scenic Journey.
Up from the Ashes: The Birth of the Hotel Del Monte Art Gallery
John Sanders, Special Collections Manager
Saturday, 1 October 2011
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Synopsis of Talk
In April 1907, on the first anniversary of the San Francisco earthquake and fire that destroyed all of the city’s great art galleries and the life works of San Francisco’s renowned painters and photographers, the Hotel Del Monte held a gala banquet to celebrate the inaugural exhibition for the recently completed Del Monte Art Gallery. Artists Charles Rollo Peters, William Keith, Gottardo Piazzoni, Xavier Martinez, Eugen Neuhaus and Will Sparks guided the gallery’s development while photographer Arnold Genthe led the selection committee for the opening show.
The Del Monte Art Gallery was the first to exclusively exhibit the work of California artists and may have been the first hotel art gallery in the nation. The Del Monte Art Gallery became an instant success, winning acclaim throughout the art world for the quality of its shows and setting the stage for several transformations in the Monterey community and at Hotel Del Monte. Up from the Ashes captures the dramatic early history of this gallery and its remarkable influence in culture and society.
Biography
John Sanders is special collections manager for the Dudley Knox Library at the Naval Postgraduate School.
On the Monterey Trail of Jo Mora
Peter Hiller, Curator Jo Mora Trust
Sunday, 2 October 2011
10:00am - 11:00am
Synopsis of Talk
Jo Mora left a fascinating legacy of art work celebrating Monterey and its history. Mr. Hiller will discuss how Jo Mora's relationship with SFB Morse, J.C. Anthony and the Mora's family connection with the Monterey History and Art Association led to his lasting artistic contributions to the city of Monterey.
Biography
Peter Hiller is the art teacher at All Saints' Day School in Carmel Valley and the Curator for the Jo Mora Trust Collection. Mr. Hiller endeavors to bring the amazing artistic accomplishments of Joseph Jacinto "Jo" Mora (1876-1947) to the attention of the viewing and reading public.
Women’s Work in the Early Central Coast Art Scene: A Conversation with Lila Staples
Lila Staples
Sunday, 2 October 2011
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Synopsis of Talk
This slide discussion will focus on the women artists of Monterey's early years. Why were there so many women on the scene? What was the overall social environment? Who influenced whom? Where did they hang out? Where had they learned their skills? What lasting legacy did they inspire?
Biography
Lila Staples is the Chair of the Visual and Public Art department at California State University Monterey Bay. She coordinates the Museum Studies program and has served on several museum Boards in the area. Her academic focus and personal passion is the art history of the Central Coast of California.