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- Los Angeles Times
UCI Museum of California Art explores kinship in the Golden State
A portrait of two sisters by artist Edouard Vysekal from 1928 titled 'Mexican Children' tells viewers a lot about the time period. The younger sibling sits in the lap of the older sibling, the curve of their faces pressed to each other. Their posture suggests a closeness and the busy Los Angeles street outside, visible through the window behind them, captures a growing urban area populated by a newly affordable automobiles and changing California.
'[Vysekal] is emphasizing the main boulevard of Silver Lake and the cars themselves as a relatively new invention is giving you this sense of possibility, of optimism,' said Michaëla Mohrmann, assistant curator at Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art. 'He is using all of this to include these children in this vision of prosperity.'
The Langson IMCA summer exhibition, 'California Kinship: Painting Home Life in the Golden State Before 1940' highlights over 30 paintings that examine notions of kinship in the early 20th century, while noting the sweeping social changes of the time that influenced relationships.
'This exhibition is really our first focus on portraiture and scenes of everyday life that communicate values of intimacy, care and kinship, which were really expanding during the progressive era and the Great Depression, when most of these works were created,' said Mohrmann.
On view now through Aug. 30 and curated by Mohrmann, the exhibition features works from Langson IMCA's collection and loans from private collections that explore the progressive period through connections between families, pets, plants, neighbors and immigrants. The time was marked by wealth disparity and political corruption as a result of oligarchy that accrued its wealth through industrial monopolies through the 19th and into the 20th century, according to Mohrmann.
'Californians became exasperated with this state of affairs and across social classes, people started demanding social reforms,' said Mohrmann.
Although the frustration was felt on a national level at the time, Mohrmann notes that California being a young state, shaped by the idea of utopian possibility since the Frontier era, was more respective to socialist ideas, which presents itself in the artwork of the period.
The exhibition begins with portraits, a medium that became a vehicle for communicating new, ideal values surrounding kinship and solidarity. A portrait of King C. Gillette, American businessman and inventor of the disposable safety razor, for example, by artist Jean Mannheim from 1912, is a paragon of masculinity who trademarked his own face to market the razors.
'He becomes this example of what new muscularity can be, a clean shaven man that is accessible now,' said Mohrmann. 'Before you had to go to the barber, it took a lot of time and it was expensive. All of a sudden, working class men can have the smooth, well groomed face of an upper class gentleman.'
In a section titled 'Intimate Interiors' painters create portraits of solo individuals in their homes, a new intimate path for the medium that depicts the sitters indoors, amid their personal belongings for a look at inner life of the subject. In 'The Painter-Model Partnership' portion of the show, the observation of live nude models gives the audience an understanding of idealized beauty of the time.
In the section called 'Caring for Others' portraits of the nuclear family are displayed among images that include everything from pets to grandmothers. Here is where we find 'Mexican Children' who most likely lived in Chavez Ravine, but there is also another work by Vysekal titled, 'The Sisters' from 1922 that shows siblings of a different class, who lived next door to his Los Angles studio.
'This one is striking because these two little girls are in a much more, idyllic, nondescript garden background, there is a parasol to demonstrate how sheltered they are. They are eating fruit, not the fruits of their own labor, they are almost like little dolls,' said Mohrmann.
The inclusion of the two works shows Vysekal's progressive ideals, putting both sets of sister in the same community with a strong sense of belonging and it is also indicative of Mohrmann as a curator, who makes an intentional effort to create context for the show by including works that give the viewer a wider scope of the time period.
The garden is among the best places to get a new viewpoint, particularly for the time period when they became places of relaxation and hobby. Before, gardens were an extravagance reserved for the wealthy who had servants to keep it, or a necessity meant to grow nourishment. At the turn of the 20th century, we begin to see gardens as a place for recreation for the first time. In 'My Rose Garden' by William Lees Judson and 'The Rustic Gate' by Colin Campbell Cooper, women enjoy lush green floral landscapes.
'Gardens become this really important space,' Mohrmann said. 'They are both a site for sociability where people can gather, but they are also a buffer zone that creates a sense of privacy and intimacy in the home that shelters it from the hubbub of this increasingly accelerated capitalist lifestyle.'
On July 26, Langson IMCA will present 'Rooted in Art: Planting and Painting in the California Garden' in partnership with Sherman Library & Gardens. Mohrmann will join Sherman Library & Gardens horticultural director, Kyle Cheesborough in conversation on artistic and cultural trends and how to create the gardens portrayed in the art.
'We are going to do a deep dive into five of these paintings and I am going to provide some art historical context and he is going to identify all the plant species and talk about the techniques and the horticultural care necessary to create some of these gardens,' said Mohrmann.
Overall, the exhibition is a look into California's values and the ideals that still take hold of the state today, as many of the same issues remain relevant.
'We can look at these works and see how California as a society that came together to push back to demand changes that would benefit greater good,' said Mohrmann.
'California Kinship: Painting Home Life in the Golden State Before 1940' is on view now through Aug. 30 at the Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art at 18881 Von Karman Avenue in Irvine.
