Westmont Museum Opens Exciting Season
The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art will offer several dynamic and diverse exhibitions in the 2015-16 season, including shows featuring Santa Barbara artists such as Dane Goodman, Keith Puccinelli, 19th-century French artists including Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Berthe Morisot, Henri Matisse; and contemporary artists Alison Saar, Richard Serra and James Surls. A family day on March 5, 2016, celebrates French culture.
The museum opens the season with “tug: Dane Goodman and Keith Puccinelli” Sept. 2-Oct. 17, holding an opening reception Wednesday, Sept. 2, from 4:30-7 p.m. The show will include a collection of 110 trace monotypes and a three-dimensional, full-scale boat made by Goodman and Puccinelli, well-known Central Coast artists. The prints, drawings, sculptures and installation pieces in this exhibition address racial and gender stereotypes, war and violence, the environment, the consequences of poverty and other issues from our times. The works are charged with the artistic duo’s signature stinging punches. A catalogue accompanies the exhibition.
The museum shows off some of the amazing art it has acquired in the past five years in “Saar, Serra, Surls, and More: Thirty New Acquisitions in Contemporary Art.” All works were created from 1980 to the present and feature artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, Urs Fischer, Carl Andre, Jessica Stockholder, Claes Oldenburg, Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith, Chakaia Booker, Nancy Graves and Lynn Aldrich.
The museum will display “Barbizon, Realism and Impressionism in France” from Jan. 14 to March 19 with an opening reception on Thursday, Jan. 14, from 4-6 p.m. The exhibit will feature works of Corot, Matisse, Frederick Childe Hassam, Alfred Sisley and Mary Cassatt along with many other artists. All works are lent from the private collection of Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree. A fully illustrated catalogue with interdisciplinary essays will be published. The museum is planning a series of lectures by 19th-century French scholars to coincide with the exhibition.
“Bonjour de France!” a family day celebrating French culture, will include French dance groups, a flea market, crafts, games, prizes and French food trucks (crepes, pastries, coffee).The museum, which holds these of festivals every other year, has hosted Japanese Family Day (2010), Días de Mexico (2012), and American Family Folk Festival (2014), attracting more than 2,000 people to campus for each event.
A show featuring the works of Westmont’s graduating art majors is April 7- May 7.
“Joie de Vivre: Tri-County Juried Exhibition,” Westmont’s annual exhibition featuring local artists, is May 19-June 18. Artists will create works that celebrate the joy of living. Jennifer Frias, associate curator of Sweeney Art Gallery at University of California Riverside ARTSblock, will serve as the exhibition juror.
The museum is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. It is closed Sundays and college holidays. For more information, please visit www.westmontmuseum.org or contact the museum at (805) 565-6162.