San Diego Museum of Art opens ‘Gauguin to Warhol’ exhibit

by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt
First posted in La Jolla Light

Ariel Plotek (Associate Curator of Modern Art) with Marika Sardar (Associate Curator of Asian and Islamic Art), and Michael Brown (Associate Curator of European Art) attend the San Diego Museum of Art's "Gauguin to Warhol" exhibit opening, Oct. 1, 2014. — Maurice Hewitt

On Oct. 1, 2014 in the Thornton Rotunda of the San Diego Museum of Art, 300 of the museum’s VIP donors gathered at a preview reception to celebrate the opening of “Gauguin to Warhol,” a selection of more than 70 masterworks of 20th century art from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York.

SDMA Executive Director Roxana Velasquez welcomed the guests to the preview. “We are creating the history for this museum,” she said. “We want to serve our community through art, and that’s what we’re doing with this magnificent show.”

She introduced Douglas Dreishpoon, chief curator emeritus at the Albright-Knox, who organized the exhibit. “I wanted to create a show that would highlight our museum’s collection,” he said. “And it’s interesting seeing the pieces here, in a new context, old friends having different conversations.”

There are paintings and sculptures by more than 40 artists, including van Gogh, Picasso, and Jackson Pollack. But there are also impressive pieces by less-familiar names, like Clyfford Still, whose huge abstract canvas dominates the back wall in the last room of the exhibit. The Albright-Knox owns the largest public collection of his works.

Among the admiring viewers were Budd and Joanne Rubin. “If you go all around the world to different museums, they might not add up to what we have here,” he said.

A must-see, beautifully mounted, “Gauguin to Warhol” will be at SDMA in Balboa Park through Jan. 27, 2015. Details at (619) 232-7931 and SDMArt.org

Angelika Villagrana, president of SD Artists Guild, and Mark-Elliott Lugo, with a painting by Max Beckmann, attend the San Diego Museum of Art's "Gauguin to Warhol" exhibit opening, Oct. 1, 2014. "I just missed the Beckmann show in Hamburg," she ... — Maurice Hewitt

Members of SDMA’s Contemporary Arts Committee: Diane Stocklin, ‘Coop’ Cooprider, CAC president Robin Lipman, Patti and Kami Cooprider, pose with Mark Rothko’s ‘Orange and Yellow' at the San Diego Museum of Art's "Gauguin to Warhol" exhibit opening, Oct. 1, 2014. ... — Maurice Hewitt

SDMA trustee Toni Bloomberg with executive director Roxana Velasquez and Sharon Pratt, and Andy Warhol’s famous soup cans. “This is one of the best shows I’ve seen in San Diego,” Bloomberg said during San Diego Museum of Art's "Gauguin to ... — Maurice Hewitt

Douglas Dreishpoon, Albright-Knox curator, attends the San Diego Museum of Art's "Gauguin to Warhol" exhibit opening, Oct. 1, 2014 — Maurice Hewitt

Ellen Phelan and Lisa Camargo admire Modigliani’s “Servant Girl" at the San Diego Museum of Art's "Gauguin to Warhol" exhibit opening, Oct. 1, 2014. — Maurice Hewitt

Doug Tribble and Hugh Davies at the Members’ Circle preview reception in SDMA’s Thornton Rotunda during the San Diego Museum of Art's "Gauguin to Warhol" exhibit opening, Oct. 1, 2014. — Maurice Hewitt

10-year-old Peter Vanderberg with Angela Baugh admire a painting by Fernand Leger during San Diego Museum of Art's "Gauguin to Warhol" exhibit opening, Oct. 1, 2014. — Maurice Hewitt

Harry and Valerie Cooper with Clyfford Still’s ‘1957-D No. 1' during the San Diego Museum of Art's "Gauguin to Warhol" exhibit opening Oct. 1, 2014. Valerie is on the boards of SDMA and MCASD. — Maurice Hewitt