OCMA revisits its roots

A $200,000 Getty grant to dredge up the history of the Orange County Museum of Art? Does that nice little museum in Newport Beach -- the one near Fashion Island -- have a history?

Well, yes, and quite a lively one. Those who haven’t been paying attention for the last 43 years may be surprised to learn that it’s a tale of uppity women who didn’t know they couldn’t start an art museum and first-rate artists who welcomed an opportunity to show their work in one. Founded in 1962 by a small group of local art patrons, the museum was born as the Pavilion Gallery on Balboa Island. Renamed the Newport Harbor Art Museum in 1968, it moved to its current space in 1977. The name was changed again, in 1996, as part of a failed alliance with the Laguna Art Museum.

In its early days -- before the arrival of L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art and the expansion of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art -- the Orange County showcase was a hot spot for contemporary art. Among its must-see exhibitions were “California Hard-Edge Painting” (1964), “Richard Diebenkorn” (1965), “Ed Ruscha and Joe Goode” (1968) and, in the mid-’70s, “The Last Time I Saw Ferus,” on the seminal Ferus Gallery. Eclipsed by other institutions in the 1980s and ‘90s, OCMA lost its luster as an ambitious expansion plan fizzled. But now, under the direction of Dennis Szakacs, it is engaged in a vigorous effort to recapture its youthful spirit with an up-to-date program that builds on past success.

Although much of chief curator Elizabeth Armstrong’s energy goes into presenting new art, she also organizes exhibitions of 20th century material, often drawing from the museum’s 2,500-piece permanent collection. And that’s where the $200,000 comes in. Part of the grant will fund “Collection Histories/Collective Memories,” a series of three long-running shows focusing on highlights of the museum’s exhibition and collecting history.

The first, “California Modern,” continues through Sept. 24, 2006. Next up: “Post War Experiments and Experience,” Feb. 4, 2007, to Sept. 30, 2008; and “The Projected Image,” Feb. 4, 2009, to Sept. 30, 2010. Getty money also will be used for research projects, such as a study of the museum’s cache of audio recordings and video footage of artists, and the production of new video interviews with artists, curators and art historians affiliated with the museum.