Bicoastal Impressions

In its current exhibit, “East Coast Ideals, West Coast Concepts: The Living Legacy of the Boston School and the California Impressionists,” the Carnegie Art Museum gives the two coasts separate-but-equal treatment. The East Coasters are upstairs and Californians downstairs, inviting one to discriminate between them.

The East Coast wins more points for intrigue and craftiness.

It could be a matter of familiarity breeding apathy. In this region, we’ve had easier access to West Coast impressionist paintings than to fastidious, every-hair-in-place, quasi-classical ones coming from the other coast.

But beyond any inherent compare-and-contrast agenda, the issue addressed by the show is the official return of realism--via the figure, landscape and the non-ironic narrative--after years of neglect.

There may, in fact, be benefits to the art world’s current state of transition. When no strong sense of direction asserts itself, options remain open and pluralism is the upshot. Suddenly, both neoclassicism and landscape musings, such as we see here, appear to be viable museum fare.

Awe for the landscape has been a regular feature of Californian artists stretching back into the 19th century, though the outlook has changed. Early settlers found a frontier; contemporary artists view nature with an awareness of the threats to it.

Downstairs, Peter Adams’ large painting, “Minerva Terrace,” looks more surreal than it is. The work depicts a scene of natural illusionism in Yellowstone National Park, where white limestone stalactites appear like icicles.

Santa Paula’s own Cornelius Botke, the late, respected artist, is represented by a landscape painting of tall, frumpy-looking Eucalyptus trees. It’s a drowsy appreciation of resident flora.

Theodore Lukits immigrated to California from Romania and reportedly became a portraitist to the Hollywood elite. His 1918 painting on view, “Oriental Harmony,” offers a portrait of a woman in an almost gaudy profusion of colors and glittery accessories, covered in a dreamy haze.

In contrast, John Asaro’s new painting of his unclad daughter at leisure, “The Spa,” exudes the sun-baked charm of the suburban California good life. With “Guitar Solo,” painter Dan Goozee depicts a young woman aswirl in a matrix of girlish artifacts.

Upstairs, in the Easterners’ corner, it’s another story entirely. The artists here, all painstaking realists with obvious reverence for fine art of centuries past, proudly belong to the American Society of Classical Realism. True to the organization’s name, this is the work of stickling preservationists whose mission borders on obsession. They are striving to re-instill ancient artistic values, with or without the art world’s stamp of approval.

As it turns out, when narrative art is enjoying renewed affection, this work looks surprisingly up-to-date.

Throughout these paintings, we also maintain an awareness of the tension between historical references in the art. Stephen Gjertson’s “Behold the Lamb of God” depicts Christ on the cross, with a bit more blood than religious painters of yore would have allowed. Allen Banks’ 1989 painting, “Woman in the Garden,” contains more than a hint of Pre-Raphaelite romanticism.

Richard Lack’s “Metamorphosis of the Gods” is the most enigmatic painting of the eastern contingent, with its layering of images in a spacey, cosmic whirl. Elsewhere, Lack shows a commanding painterly skill, even when the artistic goals are misty.

Nature in Soft Brush Strokes: The Carnegie’s gallery devoted to local art is presenting quietly compelling work by C.K. Cheng, who splits his time between Ventura County and Taiwan. His paintings in ink portray nature with a telling economy of means, in which each gesture and brush stroke counts for something larger.

In most of Cheng’s pieces, the subject is nature and natural forces, ambiguously expressed. Often, the background breathes and expands behind the imagery.

BE THERE

Carnegie Art Museum: “East Coast Ideals, West Coast Concepts: The Living Legacy of the Boston School and the California Impressionists,” through May 18, and “C.K. Cheng: Modern Chinese Impressionist Paintings in Ink,” through April 14. The museum is at 424 South C St., Oxnard. Gallery hours: Thur. and Sat., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Fri., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sun., 1-5 p.m. Call 385-8157.