Exhibit features major 20th-century artists

Works by Bellows, Benton, Grosz and Kollwitz at CLU

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The show will include “Abandoned,” a 1933 oil on canvas that came to symbolize the Great Depression, by Millard Sheets.

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Sept. 25, 2012) An exhibit of art reflecting life in the early 20th century will run from Oct. 10 through Feb. 2 in The William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art at California Lutheran University.

An opening reception for “Resonating Images: 1900-1950” will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. The free exhibit is being held in conjunction with TRAC2012: The Representational Art Conference, which CLU is presenting Oct. 14 through 17 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Ventura.

The exhibit features works by such prominent American artists as George Bellows, a realist known for his bold paintings of urban life in New York City, and John French Sloan, a member of The Eight whose 1908 group show created a sensation and led to the realist artistic movement known as the Ashcan School.

Two of the great painters of the American Regionalism movement, Thomas Hart Benton and John Steuart Curry, are featured. Benton’s fluid, sculpted figures show people in everyday scenes from regions throughout the country, while Curry is noted for his paintings of life in his home state of Kansas.

Two prominent German artists are featured in the exhibit. George Grosz is known primarily for his caricatural drawings of Berlin life in the 1920s but also painted nudes and landscapes after he immigrated to the United States. Kathe Kollwitz expressed empathy for victims of poverty, hunger and war through her drawings, etchings and lithographs.

The show will include “Abandoned,” a 1933 oil on canvas that came to symbolize the Great Depression, by Millard Sheets, a leader in the California Style of watercolor painting. “The Fountain,” the 1923 oil on canvas by Lorser Feitelson, who spent his early years studying life drawing in Europe before becoming one of the founders of Southern California-based Hard-edge painting, is another highlight. Also displayed will be works by Edward Biberman, including a full-size giclée of his 1941 mural, “Kinney’s Dream,” which was commissioned by President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration for the Venice Post Office.

Other featured artists are Peggy Bacon, Aaron Bohrod, Hans Burkhardt, William Gropper, Emil Kosa Sr., Georges Rouault, Max Weber and Franciso Zuniga.

The works are on loan from E. Gene Crain, Alan D. Levy, Suzanne W. Zada of Gallery Z, the Palm Springs Art Museum, Jack Rutberg Fine Arts and George Stern Fine Arts.

The Rolland Gallery is located on the north side of Olsen Road between Campus Drive and Mountclef Boulevard on the Thousand Oaks campus. It is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and by appointment. For more information, contact curator Jeff Phillips at 805-493-3697.

 

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