Time Change

This is the last week to view the Orange County Museum of Art’s exhibition of paintings by Edward Hopper, George Bellows, John Sloan and other members of the Ashcan School.

“In the City: Urban Views 1900-1940,” featuring selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art, is considered one of the most impressive exhibitions of American artists ever shown in Orange County--66 works of art by 44 artists.

The show, representing American artists’ break from European traditions of beauty and aggrandizing wealth, power and status to scenes that are more true to American life in its burgeoning cities, ends Sunday.

But in an ambitious bit of programming, the museum is opening three new shows the day before Hopper and company depart.

“Winslow Homer in America,” representing post-Civil War 1867 to 1887, presents work from one of America’s favorite artists.

It’s a gentle shift back in time, museum spokesman Brian Langston says. “You move from the most revered painters of the 20th century to perhaps the most revered American painter of the 19th century.”

The show, which runs through April 16, will offer 50 of Homer’s engravings.

“A vehicle for Homer’s great popularity really was his engraving work that was published in magazines and portfolios and so on,” said Langston. But as popular as Homer has been, “it wasn’t until the 1950s that people started looking at his print work again.”

Langston said the engravings provide “an invaluable social history,” portraying themes such as rural work, city life, leisure-time fun activities and the adventures of childhood.”

“New California Art: Miles Coolidge,” running through April 16, showcases the Los Angeles artist’s exploration, in panoramic format, of the flat farmlands of California’s Central Valley.

Six photographs, measuring a foot high and 10 feet long, will be on display.

“They really are incredible,” said Langston. “These are lean, very spare vignettes showing the effects of human activity on the landscape.”

Langston said the show is part of a major, long-term initiative at the museum called the New California Art Program.

“It’s our commitment to present an ongoing series of somewhat small, but highly focused contemporary art exhibitions by cutting-edge California artists,” he said.

“Wicked Witch: A Video Installation by Diana Thater,” running through July 16, uses six video projectors arranged roughly in a circle in a room to project scenes of California poppy fields.

Because the projectors are arranged randomly, Langston said, some images are larger or smaller, rectangular or square.

He said the Los Angeles artist’s work is “firmly ensconced in the postmodern debate that focuses on definitions of traditional disciplines and the ‘rules’ of image making.”

“In the City: Urban Views 1900-1940” is on view through Sunday at the Orange County Museum of Art, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. $4-$5; children younger than 16, free. No charge on Tuesdays. (949) 759-1122.

“New California Art: Miles Coolidge,” “Wicked Witch: A Video Installation by Diana Thater” and “Winslow Homer in America” open Saturday.