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THE IRVINE MUSEUM
California Impressionists in Orange County
When one
hears of Impressionist Art, thoughts immediately turn to the French
Masters
painting with their pointillism views of the Seine, whirling
pastel blurs of ballerinas and daubs of bright colored Polynesians, but
impressionists were painting in California as well, inspired by the bucolic
scenery of the Golden state’s misty mountain landscapes and roiling
sea coasts. The Irvine Museum, founded in 1992 by Joan Irvine Smith and
her mother, Athalie R. Clarke, is dedicated to preserving this uniquely
Californian brand of American Impressionism sometimes called Plein-Air
style, which flourished in California studios from 1890 to 1930.
I recently found myself standing on a street corner waiting for the
light to change, contemplating the passage of traffic, an individual
human being surrounded by a one ton cocoon of steel, glass, rubber and
plastic, taking the space between four wheels and bumpers, powered by
the bones of a previous species long since extinct, just to get from
point a to point b, a job, a trip to the store, a cup of coffee. Then
I imagined each individual multiplied by millions. Oh, what a footprint
we leave upon the Earth. How does she sustain us? Before the developments
of cities of concrete and glass and the ever-spreading suburbs and bedroom
communities which grasped and enveloped the land, artists were inspired
to record the splendor of nature of this varied beautiful land. With
a renaissance of the interest in the natural world disappearing under
ribbons of tarmac, a look at these painting transports the viewer to
a time when the land named for a mythical lost continent and its bountiful
beauty were almost limitless. Such can be found at the small but quite
special Irvine Museum.
The current exhibition at the Irvine Museum entitled “All Things Bright and Beautiful” runs through June 11, 2011. Represented by artists like Alfred Mitchell and his painting In Morning Light, displaying his sense of dramatic realism, Arthur Rider from Laguna Beach whose The Spanish Boat is representative of his emphasis on seascapes and fishing scenes. Colin Campbell Cooper’s rendering of the beautiful paintings of gardens of California.
The
Irvine Museum is located on the ground floor of the Waterfield office
building in the heart of the city of Irvine, itself a pure example of
the shift from open land to suburbia, and an example of a particular
beauty of another kind. On a previous occasion when it was first built,
I found
myself on a expedition to photograph the distinctive architecture of
the suburban landscape and this impressive building of white marble and
tall gleaming reflective mirrored glass seemed of particular note and
a fitting contrast to the old world art found within.
The Irvine Museum can be found at 18881 Von Karman Avenue, from the 405
freeway, take Jamboree Avenue to Campus Drive, then turn right on Von
Karman. The museum is open Tuesday to Saturday 11 am to 5 pm. Admission
is free and so is the parking, in the visitor spaces of the office lot
or unreserved spaces in the parking structure. New exhibitions change
three times a year and the bookstore offers a selection of books, catalogues
and note cards featuring the paintings in the collection. There is no
food at the museum, but there is a coffee house cafe Cappucino's in a
spaceship looking structure outdoors. © Bargain
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Irvine Museum
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