RENAISSANCE DRAWINGS ON PREMIER U.S. TOUR

For the first time, drawings selected from more than 12,000 in the collection of Milan’s Biblioteca Ambrosiana are on view in the United States.

The exhibition, “Renaissance Drawings From the Biblioteca Ambrosiana,” will open Thursday at the County Museum of Art and remain on view to March 30. Its first stop was the National Gallery in Washington.

Founded by Cardinal Borromeo in 1601 to house his collection of books, manuscripts, drawings and paintings, the Biblioteca has considerably augmented its collection in the succeeding centuries. Eighty-seven works selected for this show span the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries and feature compositions that exemplify the Renaissance in Italy and northern Europe.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is represented by several drawings including “Male Grotesque in Profile, Bust Length,” which pictures an unidealized subject with receding forehead and short, upturned nose.

Leonardo also exerted a strong influence on artists of the Lombard-Milanese School, some of whom are included here as well. A brush drawing by Bartolomeo Suardi (c. 1480-1532) envisions “Two Seated Apostles” in a chiaroscuro style, using washes and white heightening set against a dark background. Bernardino Gatti (1495-1585) is represented by an interpretation of “The Virgin of the Annunciation,” which employs well defined contours and high contrasts of light and shade.

Among the more well-known Italian masters of the 16th Century in the exhibition are Giulio Romano 1499-1546), whose “The Three Attendants of Europe” is a study for the “The Rape of Europa” relief in the Palazzo del Te, Mantua.

Three of the best known Northern Renaissance artists are represented. Ten drawings by Durer (1471-1528) include his well-known, two-sided “Knight on Horseback.” A portrait by Hans Holbein the Elder (1465-1524) and a landscape with figures by Pieter Breugel (1525-69) are also on view.

A fully illustrated catalogue, with contributions by scholars and an introduction by Angelo Paredi, director of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, has been published for this exhibition. After leaving Los Angeles, the show travels to the Snite Museum of Art at Notre Dame, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Kimball Art Museum, Fort Worth.

Interest in the life and work of Diane Arbus is high once again. It looks as if Patricia Bosworth’s recent biography of the artist will become a Hollywood film, and the ever-popular 1972 monograph of her disturbing photographs has been supplemented by the recent book, “Diane Arbus: Magazine Work.”

The publication of this latest volume coincides with an exhibition of 79 prints representing her journalistic projects from 1960 to 1971, which opens on Jan. 29 at the University Art Museum, Cal State Long Beach and continues to Feb. 24.

The selections include the type of pictures for which she is best known: portraits of marginal folk such as Maxwell Lander, who dresses up as (and seems to believe he is) Uncle Sam, and “His Serene Highness, Prince Robert de Rohan Courtenay,” who masquerades as royalty. But it also includes photographs of the well known, such as Norman Mailer and Mae West, and the once known--for instance, a 1966 portrait of Brenda Diana Duff Frazier, 28 years after she appeared in Life magazine as the most famous debutante of the year. This exhibition, organized by Thomas Southall of the University of Kansas’s Spencer Museum of Art, inaugurates a new space for the Cal State Long Beach museum and celebrates its accreditation by the American Assn. of Museums.

The La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art has been awarded a $25,000 grant by the National Endowment for the Arts to launch a series of commissioned works that they have entitled “Exhibition Parameters.” The first of several projects will be a video gallery, designed by the San Diego-based architect Rob Wellington Quigley, which is set to open on Feb. 5.

Quigley--whose work was included in the 1982 exhibition “The California Condition” at the museum--has conceived of a room adjacent to gallery areas as a porch-like space for which he will employ scrim, lighting and architectural detailing. It will be furnished with Eero Saarinen “Womb” chairs, Alvar Aalto stools and a phone system for selecting videotapes.

Also set to open, on Feb. 9, is an installation and a series of drawings by the well-known Southern California artist Maria Nordman. Prospective participants include Jean-Michel Basquiat, Peter Lodato and George Trakas.

The series is being organized by director Hugh Davies in conjunction with curator Lynda Forsha.

The Long Beach Museum of Art and the Santa Monica Arts Commission have announced competitions to fund artist’s projects.

“Open Channels,” a pilot program to support video productions by California video artists and independent producers, will award five artists $1,000 and use of production and post-production equipment for the completion of a project on 3/4-inch videotape. Projects should be 10 to 20 minutes in length and may be experimental, documentary or narrative.

Submissions should include a one-page typewritten treatment, a resume and a sample of recent work. They must be received by April 1 at Open Channels, Long Beach Museum of Art, 2300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach 90803. A panel will select 15 finalists who will be asked to submit a budget, a production schedule and equipment needs.

Two commissioned projects are already planned in Santa Monica’s Percent for Art Program.

About $3,100 will be available for a sculptural bench to be installed in Palisades Park. Proposals--which should include a sketch, description, evidence of previous work and a budget--must be received by Feb. 1, 1985.

The Art Bank will purchase and exhibit work for municipal spaces--and $18,600 has been set aside for this purpose. Submissions for the bank must be received by April 1 and need to include four slides, a resume and a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

For additional information, call 458-8350 or write: Santa Monica Arts Commission, 1685 Main St., Santa Monica 90401.

“Hollywood Local,” an exhibition of 35 photographs at the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, 6120 S. Vermont Ave., chronicles the story of Hollywood’s unions and guilds in the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s. It opens today and continues to March 1.

A panel discussion with historians and Jeff Goodman, who helped compile the exhibit, will take place at 2 p.m. today. Information: 759-6063.