Press Release: Richard Diebenkorn’s Work Returns to Art Center

Posted on July 15, 2014

Fall Exhibitions Highlight Artists of Bay Area Figurative Movement

(Richmond, CA) – The Richmond Art Center is pleased to announce its Fall Exhibitions program including, Closely Considered – Diebenkorn in Berkeley (September 14 – November 22, 2014), an important exhibition of works on paper by Richard Diebenkorn created during his Berkeley years (1953-1966). An opening reception will be held on Saturday, September 13, 2014, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. The exhibition and opening events are free and open to the public.

The exhibition Closely Considered – Diebenkorn in Berkeley (September 14 – November 22, 2014) is celebration of the historic role that the Richmond Art Center played in supporting the artists of the Bay Area Figurative Movement, including Richard Diebenkorn, during their formative years. Diebenkorn, who spent most of his life in California, exhibited at the Art Center in the 1950s and held his first major exhibition of drawings here in 1968. This exhibition, guest curated by Jan Wurm, will include more than 42 intimate works by Diebenkorn and key artists of the Bay Area Figurative Movement, including David Park, Elmer Bischoff, Frank Lobdell, Nathan Oliveira and James Weeks — some of the artists closest to Diebenkorn.

Closely Considered – Diebenkorn in Berkeley will be complemented by a public program series including talks and workshops to highlight the ways in which Diebenkorn’s work lives on in private collections and still resonates in the contemporary art world today. Panel discussions and presentations will feature those who knew him including Kathan Brown of Crowne Point Press, Renee Bolt of Renee Paulson Press, his daughter Gretchen Grant, former students, artist colleagues and friends. The Art Center will also present life-drawing workshops in our gallery and drawing studio, using a model set-up placed by a former student of Diebenkorn. See the full Public Program series here.

Also included in the Fall Exhibitions program at the Richmond Art Center:

Luminous Space: Paintings by Tom Holland (September 14 – November 22, 2014)

Featuring abstract metal work by Bay Area artist Tom Holland who merges sculpture and painting to create freestanding sculptural forms and wall hangings. His unique style utilizes simple materials like fiberglass and aluminum and a lustrous application of epoxy paint to achieve depth, light, reflection and shadow — the thin edges becoming a part of the space it occupies. Holland considers the color surfaces and the interaction and motion in his work as the most important aspects of his paintings. Holland’s long-standing relationship with the Richmond Art Center began in the 1960s when he taught studio classes and we mounted his first solo exhibition in 1966.

Frank Lobdell: the Tamarind Prints (September 14 – November 22, 2014)

Featuring a series of prints created by Bay Area artist Frank Lobdell during his fellowship at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles in 1966. Known as one of the premier painters in the history of San Francisco Bay Area Abstract Expressionism, Lobdell’s work also included lithographs, etchings and monoprints. While at Tamarind, Lobdell produced a total of 33 prints, 32 of which he editioned and released, and developed his composition for a large painting Summer 1967 (In Memory of James Budd Dixon) which was recently acquired by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Lobdell studied and later taught at the California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute) alongside Richard Diebenkorn and Elmer Bischoff. In 1965 he began a long association with Stanford University, where he succeeded Diebenkorn as Artist-in-Residence, with the assignment of organizing a graduate program in the art department. He taught in the art department at Stanford from 1966 until his retirement in 1991.

Social Discourses: In Print (September 14 – November 22, 2014)

Featuring the printmaking practices and collections of Bay Area artists Juan Fuentes, Art Hazelwood, Jos Sances and Jim Nikas to illustrate how printmaking engages people in social issues and the sharing of ideas. The exhibition will address links between the practices and how printmaking has been utilized to create accessible political messages, social change and political solidarity in an otherwise alienating world.

The Richmond Art Center is grateful to the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation, the Diebenkorn Family, Kathan Brown of Crown Point Press and Renee Bott of Paulson Bott Press in supporting the research, programming and loans to the “Closely Considered – Diebenkorn in Berkeley” exhibition. Funds for this exhibition were generously provided by Susan and Steve Chamberlin, Jacobs & Co., Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson Foundation, Mechanics Bank, Gruen Guren + Associates, William N. and Kathryn E. Keller and Ellengale Toki and Owen Oakley.