Eye-Openers May Pop Up Among Routine Rehashes

What makes a good exhibition? Let’s put it this way: Organizing compelling material in a fresh and keenly analytical way is the only way to get on the charts. I hate to burst the Clintonesque bubble of optimism for the new year, but--from this early vantage point, at least--the roster of 1993 art exhibits in Orange County doesn’t exactly constitute a critic’s hit parade.

The problem isn’t a lack of “blockbusters,” mind you. A novel approach to familiar art, a small grouping of objects related in unlikely ways, works chosen from a focused social or political perspective--all of these approaches might yield a memorable exhibit. But everything depends on the creativity and insight of the curator in charge.

A number of the larger-scale exhibits consist of prepackaged objects from a collection, or appear to be little more than routine rehashes of art history--stuff trucked in to fill a gallery rather than works chosen with a distinctive point of view. There are few venturesome shows curated in-house, few imports from major museums, few figures of recognized distinction or daring among the out-of-town curators.

An air of fiscal uncertainty (“ if we get the funding . . . “) makes the year hard even to visualize in its entirety. One of our largest institutions--Newport Harbor Art Museum--has not yet gone public with plans beyond June 27.

Even the Laguna Art Museum, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, doesn’t bring in the heavy artillery until spring 1995, when “The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism”--organized by adjunct curator Susan Landauer and underwritten by a $100,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation of New York--makes its debut.

Lest this sound like the Year of Living Cautiously, it would be absurd to give up on ’93 shows before they have a chance to prove themselves. After all, the most unpromising- sounding exhibits may yield extraordinary works or surprising insights. Sometimes curators who have disappointed in the past rally around a pet theme. Unknowns frequently prove a lot more interesting than the tried-and-true.

Several exhibits already sound stimulating, unusual, or at least seriously ambitious (see “Best Bet” and “Also of Special Interest”). And, partly--but not entirely--due to the 1992 reopening of the Bowers Museum, there are more exhibits dealing with the world beyond the borders of California (or the United States) than in any other year in recent memory. Who knows, maybe this will turn out to be the Year of the Eye-Opener after all.

BEST BET

“The Theater of Refusal: Black Art and Mainstream Criticism,” curated by artist Charles Gaines for UC Irvine (April 8-May 13). An investigation of the social and aesthetic impact of recent art criticism, curatorial choices and critical theory on the work of African-American artists. By implicitly assuming that “black art” is a unique aesthetic, are commentators and curators missing the boat? Artists include David Hammons, Adrian Piper, Martin Puryear, Lorna Simpson and Carrie Mae Weems. A symposium--details to be announced later--also is in the works.

ALSO OF SPECIAL INTEREST

“Watkins to Weston: 101 Years of California Photography, 1849-1950” at the Laguna Art Museum (Jan. 22-March 28). Billed as the first exhibit analyzing common threads and influences linking photographers working in California prior to 1950, with 160 works by more than 60 artists, including Eadweard Muybridge, Carleton E. Watkins, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston and Max Yavno. Divided into three parts: “Early California Landscapists”; “The Pictorialists” (who made soft-focus, “arty” prints), and “The Modernists,” who ushered in an era of crisply rendered natural imagery and social documentation. (Organized by the Santa Barbara Art Museum.)

“Video Screenings I: Reframing the Family” (Jan. 12-31) and “Video Screenings II: Girl to Woman: Stories for the New Feminism” (Feb. 16-March 7), both at the UC Irvine Fine Arts Gallery. The first program--organized by Artists Space, New York--offers videos by Martha Rosler, Beth B and Ida Applebroog, Paper Tiger TV and others who explode stereotypical views of the family New York. The second program--curated by Valerie Soe, a San Francisco video artist--features narratives and first-person accounts by young women exploring such disparate topics as puberty, Barbie dolls, romance, incest and beauty contests.

“The Body Female,” at the Saddleback College Art Gallery (Jan. 14-Feb. 19). Seven videos--documentaries and taped performance pieces--by artists who challenge notions of female identity and gender roles. The works range from a look at the way women are portrayed in rap music to an autobiographical work about repression in the lives of contemporary Muslim women. (Curated by Michelle Hirschhorn of the Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies, from the 1992 Los Angeles Freewaves series.)

“Realm of the Coin: Money in American Art, 1960-1990,” at the Fullerton Museum Center (April 10-May 23). Filthy lucre, a timely theme interpreted by such artists as Andy Warhol, Larry Rivers, Ed Kienholz, Chris Burden, Laurie Anderson, Sue Coe, Tom Otterness and David Wojnarowicz. (Organized by Barbara Coller for the Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y.)

As-yet untitled exhibit (video installations by Nam June Paik), at Newport Harbor Art Museum (May 18-June 27). Past and recent work by the celebrated wizard of multiscreen video art, whose work will be installed in the Anaheim Arena, the $103-million indoor sports and entertainment complex scheduled to open this summer.

“Art of the Himalayas: Treasures from Nepal and Tibet,” at the Bowers Museum (May 22-July 31). Curated from the American Federation of Arts, N.Y., by Pratapaditya Pal, the well-regarded senior curator of Indian and Southeast Asian art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This survey spanning the 7th to the 19th centuries is intended to demonstrate how artistic ideas and styles traveled from the Hindu and Buddhist cultures of Nepal to strictly Buddhist Tibet. Nearly every major period and style are reflected in the 115 objects, which include sculptures, paintings on paper and cotton ( thankas and paubhas ), textiles, and drawings from artists’ and priests’ sketchbooks.

“John McLaughlin: A Retrospective,” organized by the Laguna Art Museum (Nov. 26-Feb. 20, 1994). The first comprehensive look at this seminal abstract painter since his death in 1976, the exhibit will include about 60 of his works. McLaughlin--who lived in Laguna Beach and Dana Point--started as a landscape painter, but began working in a geometric style by the late ‘40s. His deceptively simple-looking work--based on rectangular forms in various size and color relationships--deals with Zen-related concepts of the void.

SHOWING OFF

To celebrate its 75th anniversary, the Laguna Art Museum will offer a couple of exhibits based on its collections. Opening Jan. 15, “75th Anniversary Gifts” (a yearlong series of changing exhibits) will display recent donations of art. Other portions of the collection will surface in “75 Works, 75 Years: Collecting the Art of California” (April 2-June 13).

ROAMING THE PLANET

“Music of the Maya,” at the Fullerton Museum Center (through Feb. 7). Instruments, artifacts, regional costumes, dance masks, photographs, dioramas, videos and paintings by Miguel Chavez, a Tzutuhil Maya, offer a tour of different localities--from Guatemala to Southern Mexico--where contemporary Maya pursue and adapt their musical traditions. (Organized by the San Diego Museum of Man, in cooperation with Casa K’ojom, a museum in Antigua, Guatemala.)

“The Integrative Art of Modern Thailand,” at the Bowers Museum (Jan. 16--March 15). The 53 works by 28 contemporary artists are said to be inspired both by traditional themes (such as Buddhist beliefs about nature) and “international culture.” (Organized by Herbert P. Phillips, professor of anthropology at UC Berkeley, and research associate Barbara Phillps.)

“Haiti: Symbols de Mystere,” at the Fullerton Museum Center (Feb. 19-March 31). A group of vividly decorated flags by contemporary Haitian artists (curated by Martha Henry of the New England Center for Contemporary Arts in Brooklyn, Conn.) Representing voodoo gods, the sequined and beaded flags incorporate West African religious tradition, Catholic symbolism and designs in French ironwork. Shown with drums, beads, rattles--and contemporary photographs of voodoo ceremonies--from the collection of Los Angeles resident Virgil Young.

“Living the Land: Contemporary Art of Aboriginal Australia,” at the Main Gallery, Cal State Fullerton (Feb. 21-March 21). Paintings, traditional wood carvings and woodcut prints reflecting aboriginal beliefs in the unity of landscape, animal life and land usage. Lectures and a film series are also in the works.

“Gardens of Paradise: Oriental Prayer Rugs,” at the Bowers Museum (April 3-May 16). Intricately designed Turkish and Caucasian rugs with floral motifs, mostly dating from the 19th Century, which were used for religious devotions. (Circulated by Smith Kramer, Fine Art Services.)

LOOKING BACKWARD

“Art in Los Angeles Prior to 1900,” organized by the Laguna Art Museum (Sept. 17-Nov. 7). Guest-curated by Nancy Moure, an expert on the period, the exhibit will include work by William Wendt, Guy Rose, Paul DeLongpre and other resident and touring artists in pre-20th-Century Southern California.

The Irvine Museum, Joan Irvine Smith’s tribute to historical California art--particularly the California Impressionists--opens on Jan. 15 with work from the collection. Artists include Rose, Wendt, Granville Redmond, Edgar Payne, Paul Sample and Millard Sheets.

The museum--on the 12th floor of the McDonnell Douglas Building, 18881 Von Karman Ave. in Irvine--will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays. Admission will be free. A temporary exhibit, rather confusingly titled, “Selections From the Irvine Museum,” will be on view July 10-Sept. 11 after traveling to the Fleischer Museum in Scottsdale, Ariz.

SENDING IN THE COLLECTIONS

“American Abstraction at the Addison Gallery of American Art,” at Newport Harbor Art Museum (Feb. 27-May 2). Abstract paintings, photographs and sculpture by 68 modern and contemporary artists represented in a collection housed at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., including work by Hans Hofmann, Josef Albers, Stuart Davis, Georgia O’Keeffe, Elizabeth Murray, Barry Le Va, Lewis Baltz and Peter Halley.

“Select Works From the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection of African Art,” at the Bowers Museum (opening Feb. 27, end date indefinite). The objects, amassed by a Los Angeles real estate investor, come from many regions of Africa. The collection was once destined for a permanent display at Epcot Center in Florida. (Organized by the Bowers and the Disney Corp.) Tagging along, for Disney’s sake: “A Brush With Disney: The Art of Herbert Dickens Ryman,” at the Bowers Museum (opening Jan. 30-May 2). Paintings and sketches by the guy who did the conceptual sketches for Disneyland.

“Contemporary Drawings From Southern California,” at the Main Gallery, Cal State Fullerton (April 18-May 16). Assembled by gallery director Mike McGee from public and private collections.

“Irvine Collects: 10 Years After,” guest-curated for the Irvine Fine Arts Center by Sue Henger, longtime editor at Newport Harbor, now editor at the Bowers Museum (Sept 10-Nov. 7). A decade after the first arts-center show of Irvine collectors’ booty, have tastes changed? Have newcomers joined the scene? Come September, we’ll all find out. The New Juice series will feature Laguna Beach artist Victoria Vesna’s art video view of Orange County, “Another Day in Paradise.”

LOOKING AT OUR OWN BACK YARDS

“One Thousand One . . . One Thousand Two . . . Pinhole Cameras and Photographs by Peggy Ann Jones,” curated by Antoinette Guldun for the Art Institute of Southern California in Laguna Beach (Jan. 11-Feb. 5). Jones, who teaches photography at Orange Coast College, frequently manipulates her soft-edged images into sculptural formats.

“Visions and Ecologies: Photography in Laguna Beach 1918-1993,” at the Laguna Art Museum (Jan. 22-March 21). The first of a series of five 1993 exhibits spotlighting regional art produced during the history of the museum. Artists in this exhibit include William Mortenson, Paul Outerbridge, Lewis Baltz, Jerry Burchfield, Mark Chamberlain and Laurie Brown.

“Susan Silton: Suspensions,” at Saddleback College Art Gallery (March 4-April 15). A Los Angeles artist who uses texts, photography, found objects and sculptural elements to examine longings for such intangibles as justice and innocence.

“New California Art: Tomas Nakada,” at Newport Harbor Art Museum (March 6-May 2). Approximately 20 oil and wax-coated canvases with imagery derived from microscopic organisms, by the San Francisco artist.

“Beyond the Bay,” at Newport Harbor Art Museum (May 12-June 27). Work in the permanent collection by San Francisco Bay Area artists.

“The Cartoons and Sculptures of Paul Conrad,” at the Fullerton Museum Center (June 12-Aug. 15). Potshots aimed at U.S. education, environmental bungling and politics in general, from The Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist.

“All-Media Juried Exhibition,” at the Irvine Fine Arts Center (July 2-Aug. 17). The juror this year will be Noel Korten, program director (formerly curator) at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.

“Outside the Mainstream in Orange County,” curated by Dorrit Fitzgerald for the Irvine Fine Arts Center (Dec. 3-Feb. 6, 1994). Work by people on the fringe--geographically, emotionally and aesthetically. Fitzgerald is extending the usual notion of “outsider art” beyond unschooled folk artists and the mentally ill to local artists shown elsewhere who feel like outsiders vis-a-vis local art institutions.

NOT KIDDING AROUND

“Kids With Art Abilities,” curated by Dorrit Fitzgerald for the Irvine Fine Arts Center (March 5-May 2). Work by disabled and non-disabled Orange County children will be shown together, to challenge preconceptions about developmental disabilities. (In cooperation with the Orange County School District, Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa and Hope University, a school for savants in Anaheim.) The ongoing “New Juice” series will be showing work by two adult artists, disabled in different ways and at different times in their lives.

“My Culture, Our Culture,” organized by the Laguna Art Museum and sponsored by Pacific Mutual Foundation (beginning fall, 1993). Ten works made by California artists who infuse their work with images or outlooks reflecting their own ethnic backgrounds will tour Orange County schools for three to five years, accompanied by educational materials and aided by a teacher training program.

“Major Art, Minor Artists,” at the Newport Harbor Art Museum (May 14-June 30). Work from the “Special Studio” program in the Santa Ana elementary schools.

All proceeds from the Twelfth Annual Art Auction at the Laguna Art Museum on Nov 20. will benefit children’s education programs at the museum.

AMUSING OURSELVES

The Tuvans, throat-singing nomads from central Asia, will set up their tent-like yurt, tell stories and perform at the Bowers Museum on Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m. Admission is $7.50 general, $4 for children 12 and under. (714) 567-3600.

“A Short Course in Art,” a pay-to-play miniature golf game at South Coast Plaza that benefits the Laguna Art Museum (Jan. 30-Feb. 28). Each hole in the game--which begins near the Carousel Court and moves into the museum’s South Coast Plaza annex--will be designed by a different Orange County artist, architect or designer. The Jan. 31 opening tournament (tickets: $25) will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. (714) 494-8971.

“Custom Culture: Von Dutch, Ed (Big Daddy) Roth, Robert Williams and Their Influence,” at Laguna Art Museum (June 18-Sept. 12). Custom cars and art works about Southern California car culture by three perennial-adolescent cult figures. Hey--it’s a guy thing.

A daylong Thai Arts Festival, at the Bowers Museum on March 6. Dancers, music, films and food. Admission is $7.50 general, $4 for children 12 and under.

“Teen-Agers and Their Bedrooms,” at the Fullerton Museum Center (Sept. 5-Oct. 24). New York artists Adrienne Salinger and Denise Marcotte photographed myriad teen-age inner sanctums, sympathetically observing mingled signs of childhood habits and adult aspirations. (Originally shown at the YWCA of the City of New York.)

AIRING OTHER VIEWPOINTS (A SAMPLER)

John Valadez, an artist showing in the ongoing exhibit, “El Corazon Sangrante/The Bleeding Heart,” will give a free noon lecture on Jan. 19 at Newport Harbor Art Museum.

Thomas Hoving, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, will lecture about his new book, “Making the Mummies Dance: Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” on Jan. 24 at 5 p.m. at Le Meridien Hotel in Newport Beach. The event is sponsored by Newport Harbor Art Museum. Tickets for the lecture and a reception are $25; if you want to attend the dinner, too, the price jumps to $150. (714) 759-1122.

Sally Stein speaks on “Peculiar Grace: Dorothea Lange and the Testimony of the Body,” at the Laguna Art Museum on Feb. 11 at 11 a.m. Stein, an assistant professor of art history at UC Irvine, is co-author of “Official Images: New Deal Photography” and “Montage and Modern Life.” (No charge with museum admission: $3 general, $1.50 for students and seniors.) (714) 494-8971.

Newport Harbor Art Museum will screen short films from Latin America--dramas, documentaries and animation--beginning Friday through Feb. 12 at 6:30 p.m. The galleries will be open until 7 p.m. on these evenings, and refreshments will be available. Tickets, which include gallery admission, are $5 ($3 for students and seniors), per program. Information: (714) 759-1122.

Shifra Goldman, research associate at the UCLA Latin American Center and a professor at Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana, will speak on “The Heart of Mexican Art: Myth and Ideology,” at Newport Harbor Art Museum on Jan. 31 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 and $3 (for students and seniors), and include museum admission.

Jonathan Green, director of the California Museum of Photography in Riverside, will give a free noon talk on the photography of Ralph Eugene Meatyard on Feb. 2 at Newport Harbor Art Museum, in conjunction with an ongoing exhibit of his work.

“Growing up: Dramas of Childhood in the Photography of Ralph Eugene Meatyard” is the topic of curator Barbara Tannenbaum’s lecture on Feb. 7 at 2:30 p.m. at Newport Harbor Art Museum.

Alejandro Morales, professor of Spanish and Portuguese at UC Irvine, speaks on “Mexican-Americans in Heterotopia: The Southern California Urban Novel,” on Feb. 14 at 2:30 p.m. at Newport Harbor Art Museum.