“The Shape of Things: Warren MacKenzie Ceramics”
Through February 23, 2014
Few artists have enjoyed as devoted a following as ceramist Warren MacKenzie. His philosophy of making and decades of teaching have made a lasting impact on the development of American studio pottery—an influence extending to generations of students and collectors. Throughout his sixty years of making he has explored the shape of things and the interplay of the intentional with the unexpected. His solidly built forms enhance daily rituals of serving, eating, and drinking, showcasing not only his mastery of material and artistic intuition, but the ceaseless work ethic behind his success. This exhibition pays tribute to this much-honored pioneer with objects from the collection assembled by Susanna and George Grossman, a recent gift to the Museum.
“Sam Francis: Five Decades of Abstract Expressionism from California Collections”
Through April 20, 2014
This exhibition celebrates internationally acclaimed California native Sam Francis, one of the state’s most historically significant artists. Featuring a colorful range of the artist’s paintings and unique works on paper, this survey highlights different periods of the artist’s oeuvre as represented in extraordinary public and private California collections, starting from the early works the artist made in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1940s leading up to the artist’s influential and expansive body of work created between the 1950s and the 1990s. Represented are works made in the artist’s California studios in Palo Alto, Point Reyes, Santa Monica, and Venice, as well as those made when Francis was living in New York, Switzerland, and Japan. The exhibition is organized by the Sam Francis Foundation in collaboration with the Pasadena Museum of California Art and the Crocker Art Museum.
OPENING EXHIBITION
“Jules Tavernier: Artist and Adventurer”
February 16 through May 11, 2014
This is the first museum exhibition to survey the work of early California artist Jules Tavernier (1844–1889). Born in Paris and trained in France, Tavernier adapted his native country’s Barbizon aesthetic to scenes of the American West. This exhibition surveys the artist’s entire career through 100 paintings and works on paper, from his early transcontinental illustrations for “Harper’s Weekly” and paintings of Native American subjects to scenes of the San Francisco Bay Area and Monterey Peninsula, where he founded the local art colony in 1875. Also featured are the artist’s signature paintings of erupting volcanoes, which he painted in Hawaii before his untimely death at age 45. The exhibition is accompanied by a full-color catalogue—the first
