After six years devoted to introducing San...

After six years devoted to introducing San Diegans to the challenges and fulfillments of contemporary art, the Quint Gallery (664 9th Ave.) has taken a last-minute turn and dedicated its final show to a celebration of surfing.

“The Next Wave” (through Aug. 22), a selection of surfboards and surfing photography, has all of the attributes of a conventional gallery exhibition, despite its unconventional subject.

Labels for the 50-plus surfboards in the show and the black and white photographic reprints from Surfer magazine offer instructive and occasionally amusing guideposts through the show. A photograph hung high on one wall and embellished with palm fronds, for instance, is explained as a portrait of Duke Kahanamoku, the “premiere figure in the surfing history of Hawaii and single most important influence in the development of the popularity of surfing in California and Australia.”

To the uninitiated, only the most obvious differences in size and shape distinguish the surfboards in the show, except for a few with surface designs by contemporary artists such as Kim MacConnel and Peter Schuyff, which provide the show’s nod toward art. The “Invicta” board, decorated by Sandow Bork, injects satire into the gesture, with its loose rendition of the “Mona Lisa,” framed by black and yellow hazard stripes. Hugh Duckworth’s “No War” board even gives the show a small dose of social relevance.

Surfing memorabilia--an old Windansea Surf Club group picture and T-shirt, for example--are scattered throughout the gallery and enlivened by a continuous medley of surf music. The show continues next door at Java coffee house, an entirely incongruous setting for color photographs and spreads from recent surfing magazines.

Except for a few exhilarating moments afforded by these action shots, the Quint show offers little to visitors interested in art but a disturbing bad taste. As the gallery’s final statement, it can be seen as simply self-indulgent or downright snide, a “give ‘em what they want” stab at the community that failed to support the gallery’s more earnest efforts.

What a sad goodby from one of the city’s stalwarts of contemporary art.

Through Sept. 5, the Thomas Babeor Gallery (7470 Girard Ave.) is showing a melange of works by prominent 20th-Century artists and members of the gallery stable.

Works by Hans Hofmann, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Robert Motherwell, Joseph Cornell, Willem de Kooning and several others in the show are rarely exhibited in San Diego, and this is a welcome opportunity to experience their work.

Important artists do not always produce important work, however, and some minor pieces are included, such as Jasper Johns’ and Robert Motherwell’s uninspiring prints. But a high proportion of work with great character and integrity compensates for these few weak spots.

Among the strongest pieces are Beverly Pepper’s “Forged Ritual” (1987), a rusted steel maquette small in size but monumental in feeling, Tony Delap’s “Small Mysterious Painting” (1979), a solid black, shaped canvas that lives up to its title, and works by Cornell and Craig Kauffman.

Cornell’s “Untitled (Hotel With Three Doves)” (circa 1958) encapsulates mystery, atmosphere and emotion in a modest container. Through the glass front of this mixed media box construction, one can examine the interior’s peeling white walls punctuated by flying birds, and the printed word “hotel” collaged high onto a side wall. Cornell’s spare means make the nearly empty, worn wooden box exude an aura of loneliness, nostalgia and decay.

Kauffman’s “Interior ‘77” (1977) conveys a sense of atmosphere free of Cornell’s melancholy and instead imbued with a positive, ethereal glow. Upon a surface of creamy, luminous silk, Kauffman has applied strips of heavy watercolor paper to reiterate the rectangular shape of the canvas and suggest its concealed structural framework. Dabs of black and muted primary colors hug the edges of these strips and give them added dimension. The ultimate effect is that of a painting turned inside out, showing on the front what presumably exists on the back. The same premise, less gracefully realized, is explored in Kauffman’s “Paris ‘75” (1975), also exhibited here.

Other artists in the show, which will vary slightly throughout its run, include David Hockney, Peter Alexander, Billy Al Bengston, Robin Bright, Anthony Caro, Laddie John Dill, Sam Francis, Joan Miro, Christopher Lee, Joan Mitchell, Michael Steiner and Barbara Weldon.