As you enter the California Art Club’s 113th Annual Gold Medal exhibition, currently on view (through October 26) at the Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University, you can’t help but notice the majestic life-sized lion sculpture that lounges on a long pedestal, seeming to oversee all visitors who enter. The resin statue by sculpting team Christopher Slatoff, Elizabeth Frederickson and John Sumner is a symbol of strength and pride—qualities that may be applied to the California Art Club (CAC) itself.
Now well more than a century old, the CAC and its hundreds of members in California and elsewhere are focused on championing classical, traditional techniques in painting and sculpting. You won’t find any conceptual or abstract art here. The club is dedicated to realistic portrayals and to honoring the rich heritage of the technical skills and artistic expression intrinsic to traditional fine art.
“But the offerings by CAC members are in no way old- fashioned or trapped in amber,” says Hilbert Museum Director Mary Platt. “We celebrate the California Art Club for not only honoring the realistic, figurative traditions of the past, but also for looking ahead to the future with innovative techniques and subjects, ensuring the relevance and vibrancy of this genre in the contemporary art scene.”
“We’re particularly thrilled and honored we are returning to the newly expanded and re-imagined Hilbert Museum,” says Elaine Adams, Executive Director and CEO of the California Art Club. “We’re deeply grateful to Founders Mark and Janet Hilbert, Director Mary Platt and the entire museum team for making this remarkable exhibition possible.”
On display are works by more than 160 artist-members of the CAC, with subjects ranging from spectacular California landscapes to urban scenes, portraits, fantasy pieces, animal portrayals, both wild and domestic, still lifes and much more.
“What attracts visitors to this show is its broad range of subject matter,” says Hilbert Museum Founder Mark Hilbert. “There’s something for everyone here, whether you love beautiful beach or mountain scenes or a realistic portrait or a scene of everyday life in a busy city. And all of them have been created by some of California’s finest artists working today.”
Since the pieces are by working artists, every piece in the CAC exhibition is for sale to the public. “I know that bucks the norm at an art museum, where normally no works are for sale, since a museum is not a gallery,” says Platt. “But we make the exception for the California Art Club show.”
A price list for all the CAC artworks is available at the museum front desk, and interested buyers will be put directly in contact with the CAC to make the purchase.
A fine example of the art on view in this exhibition is the work featured on this issue’s inside front cover. “Yosemite Evening” by Phil Starke is a view of the park’s famed Sentinel Rock in the last golden glow of an autumn day. The viewer’s eye is led back expertly past the large dark pines on the right toward the backlit yellow trees center and left, with the peak standing proudly at top. Starke’s lively brushstrokes capture and animate the autumnal beauty of the scene.
In contrast, painter Yigang Mao’s entrancing portrait “The Beauty of Tibet” showcases a scene far from California, depicting a young girl in traditional Tibetan garb. In her artist’s notes, Mao explains: “Entering Tibet is like stepping into another world. Surrounded by the majesty of Meli Snow Mountain and the purity of the young girl’s spirit, you are overcome with a profound sense of connection to something greater than yourself.” The artist uses subdued shades of purples, lavenders, maroons and grays to set a thoughtful tone.
Pauline Roche takes you into yet another microcosm of the world with “A Grand Day at the Getty,” depicting visitors to the Getty Center perusing paintings in one of the galleries. Not only does the artist have to be great enough to render thumbnail versions of the masterpieces on view, but she also sets the tone of the work through a perfect depiction of the Getty’s red gallery walls, their ruddy color also suffusing the floor and even reflecting in the white marble sculpture.
And for something completely different, Mike Lee’s little winged angel, dressed as a contemporary girl in T-shirt, shorts and sneakers, tunes in to her headphones as she sits on a ledge of the Empire State Building, kicking off one shoe in “Above It All.” She is “readying her small but capable wings to begin her next adventure,” says Lee in his artist note about this engaging fantasy painting.
See these and more than 170 others in the CAC Gold Medal Exhibition—and maybe, if you fall in love with an artwork, you can purchase it and have it forever!
While you’re there, don’t miss all the other current exhibitions in the Hilbert Museum, which features two buildings, 26 galleries and more than 22,000 square feet of exhibition space. The North Wing will be closed September 10-20 to install new exhibitions, re-opening September 21 with new shows, including “Disney Classics of the ‘50s and ‘60s,” “California Orange Crate Labels,” “Novelty Radios from The Hilbert Collection” and a refreshed Permanent Collection gallery.
Hilbert Museum of California Art
167 North Atchison St, Orange CA 92866 / 714-516-5880 / Open Tues-Sat, 10am - 5pm / Free admission
