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MADE IN CALIFORNIA: Contemporary Art from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation

Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery, Santa Monica College Curated by Billie Milam Weisman

August 27, 2019 – December 6, 2019

Since the 1960s California has emerged as a center for contemporary art that rivals New York in its accomplishments and innovation. Frederick R. Weisman was a pioneering collector whose rise as an important patron of the arts paralleled the emergence of the contemporary art scene in Los Angeles. He began collecting both international art and art from Los Angeles in the mid-1950s, and counted many of the city’s top artists as his close friends, building a collection that reflects these personal relationships.

Frederick Weisman was an early supporter of many of the artists that rose to prominence under the legendary Ferus Gallery, established by Walter Hopps, Ed Kienholz and later, Irving Blum. At the time Hopps was an innovative young curator who was tuned in to the idiosyncratic styles of Los Angeles artists, which had developed from isolation during the post-war period. As a result, LA artists were inspired by their daily lives and surroundings—the local terrain, vibrant sun, beautiful sunsets, blue skies, surfboards, and fast, flashy cars. Soon new art movements were created (such as Light and Space, and Finish Fetish), and the Cool School was born. But it would be decades later before the rest of the world recognized the importance of these artists and movements. The art on view represents a number of these diverse movements that have and
continue to play a decisive role in defining the visual arts in the Golden State.