Many people think of environmentalism as a modern issue but at the turn of the 20th century, many California artists were reckoning with how the state’s burgeoning industrialization was affecting the landscape around them. That’s the premise of a current exhibition at the Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art titled Indefinitely Wild: Preserving California’s Natural Resources.
Angel Espoy (1879-1963), Untitled (Poppies, Lupines and Cows), after 1914, oil on canvas, 30 x 40”. UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art. Gift of the Irvine Museum.
The exhibition was put together by guest curator Cassandra Coblentz, who is interested in how art engages with ecological and environmental issues. “It was a really interesting moment in California history,” she says. “A lot of the natural resources in the state were being used for building cities and developing infrastructure, and artists of the time were witnessing that around the as they were painting these idyllic landscapes.”
The show features 25 paintings and six works on paper out of Langson IMCA’s collection and is divided into five natural resources: mountains, trees, the coasts, water and land. “As I spent time with the museum’s collection, I really tried to represent the diversity of California ecosystems and show a balance of different geographic regions,” Coblentz says.
George Gardner Symons (1861-1930), Southern California Coast, before 1913, oil on canvas, 40 x 50”. UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art. Gift of the Irvine Museum.
The “trees” section will feature a painting by Detlef Sammann titled Del Monte Forest. “The way the artist depicts the undergrowth of the trees is incredibly intricate and dynamic,” Coblentz describes. “You can really feel the intensity of the sensory experience of being underneath the undergrowth of this cypress tree forest.” Yet at the same time, Sammann was creating this serene, powerful work, California’s forests were being devastated by logging operations.
Maurice Braun (1877-1941), Yosemite Falls from the Valley, 1918, oil on canvas, 36 x 46”. UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art. Gift of the Irvine Museum.
There is one work in the show that doesn’t depict California, but its subject matter had an indelible impact on the development of California’s coast. Alston Skinner Clark’s Pedro Miguel Locks depicts the construction of the Panama Canal in 1913. “The composition devotes a huge portion of the canvas to a swath of cement wall, and it cuts across the beautiful rolling hills. It’s a stark contrast,” Coblentz says. When the canal opened in 1914, it enabled California to industrialize faster than ever.
Clark’s piece is juxtaposed against Granville Redmond’s 1906 piece Los Angeles, Pedro Harbor, which captures a smaller, quieter version of the Port of Los Angeles before it became one of the busiest in the world.
Franz A. Bischoff (1864-1929), Monterey Farm, after 1906, oil on board, 13 x 18”. UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art. Gift of the Irvine Museum.
“As we look at these paintings a hundred years after they were created, we have a really different understanding of our ecological resources and we understand that we won’t last forever,” Coblentz says. “I hope that people walk away remembering even more how important it is to protect our natural resources and do our part to consider how we can conserve and preserve our wild spaces.”
Indefinitely Wild will be on view at Langson IMCA’s interim museum space through September 9. —
Indefinitely Wild: Preserving California’s Natural Resources
Through September 9, 2023
UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art
18881 Von Karman Avenue, Suite 100, Irvine, CA 92612
(949) 476-0003, imca.uci.edu
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