Photo of blimp hangar is latest addition to Festival of Arts’ collection

The Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach this week announced the latest addition to its permanent art collection.

“Lighter than Air,” a photograph by Jacques Garnier, depicts the blimp hangar located at the Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin. The photo is printed on archival paper mounted on aluminum.

“I feel that this image skillfully and creatively depicts one of the last heroic remnants of days gone by in Orange County,” Pat Sparkuhl, the collection’s curator, said in a news release. “The personalized composition, expressed with a black and white photograph, pays homage to the hangar’s strength and dignity of form.”

The purchase was made possible through the donation from Ron Weldon and Rita Moon, who asked that the acquisition come from a first-time exhibitor at the festival, the release said.

Garnier, a photographer, documentarian and lecturer, was one of 14 new artists juried into the 2017 exhibit.

Garnier has participated in more than 150 exhibitions, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Southeast Museum of Photography, the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, the New Orleans Annual Festival of Photography and the Smithsonian Institution.

Garnier’s photography documents the passage of time. With intuitive framing, his images convey a sense of history and space left to its own demise, the release said.

The festival’s collection includes 350 paintings, 30 to 40 sculptures, and 500 to 600 photographic works, which are housed in an undisclosed location that is closed to the public, according to Sharbie Higuchi, festival marketing and public relations director.

Some of the festival’s year-round galleries display artwork from the collection, Higuchi said, adding that the festival occasionally loans pieces to museums for special exhibits.

The earliest piece is a 1913 painting by Thomas Nash, the release said. The collection also houses the first painting sold at the inaugural festival in 1932 titled “Flower Stalls” by Virginia Wooley.

bryce.alderton@latimes.com

Twitter: @AldertonBryce