Winter/Spring 2022 Exhibitions
(Opening Saturday, February 5, 2022)
February 5 to June 26, 2022
Andy Warhol (1928–1987) was one of the central figures of the Pop Art movement and one of the most recognizable artists of the second half of the 20th century. Warhol acquired fame through his work in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, filmmaking, and publishing, but printmaking was always a central part of his art and his way of viewing the world. Through prints, Warhol explored the aesthetics and mechanics of mass-produced images and popular culture.
This exhibition includes portfolios and individual prints by Warhol, starting with iconic works from the mid-1960s to the series of monoprints Vesuvius, created in 1985. These prints demonstrate many aspects of Warhol’s art, including his brilliance as a colorist, which can be seen in the early Flowers and Sunset series. In later series, Warhol experimented with the silkscreen printing process to create complex surface layers. Warhol was a master at identifying the defining cultural images of his time.
This exhibition is made possible through the
Art in our Communities® program.
The Bank of America Art in our Communities® Program was established in 2009 in order to share the company’s art collection with the widest possible audience. Comprising the art collections of the predecessor banks that are now part of Bank of America, the program offers museums and nonprofit galleries the opportunity to borrow complete or customized exhibitions at no cost. The public is able to enjoy new art installations at its local museums, while the museums themselves are able to generate vital revenue. Since 2009, more than 130 exhibitions have been loaned through this one-of-a-kind program.
February 5 to June 26, 2022
The year 2022 marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Ansel Adams, considered one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of the first publication of Adams’ photographs and writings in the Sierra Club Bulletin. A life-long environmentalist, Adams is best known for his black and white photographs of the American West, especially his iconic images of Yosemite National Park. His work has inspired successive generations of photographers and environmental advocates. The exhibition Ansel Adams: 120 Years celebrates the life and legacy of this great American artist through a selection of images from our permanent collection.
Curator: Sarah Vargas, FAM Curator
February 5 to June 26, 2022
In February 2022, the Fresno Art Museum will present a retrospective exhibition of the work of Northern California painter Chester Arnold entitled Reports to the Contrary: A Persistent Vision - Paintings 1971-2021 by Chester Arnold. The exhibited masterworks will span the years 1971 through 2021 and will come from the artist's personal collection, select private collectors, the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, and Bay Area museums.
Chester Arnold was born in Santa Monica, California in 1952. From the age of five, he lived and went to school in Munich, Germany where his father, a linguist and field agent, worked for a United States Intelligence Unit. From 1957 to 1969, Arnold lived in a post-war atmosphere that profoundly affected his ideas about humankind and the world-forging sense of social responsibility that has seldom escaped expression in his paintings. His education was replete with studies in the humanities, but it was exposure to the great museums of Munich and Vienna that shaped a belief in the power of painting to communicate beyond words--a power that he has pursued ever since.
Upon graduation from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1988, Arnold began a fruitful teaching career (paralleling his studio practice) in classes taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco State University, Sonoma State University, and for the first two decades of this century as a senior fine arts faculty member at the College of Marin in Kentfield, California.
Arnold has shown his work extensively from coast to coast, and his paintings can be found in many public collections, notably at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Jose Museum of Art, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa, California, the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, and the Seven Bridges Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Since 2003, Chester Arnold has been represented by the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco where his work is seen regularly in both solo and group shows.
Curator: Michele Ellis Pracy, FAM Executive Director and Chief Curator
July 31, 2021 to June 26, 2022
The children’s book Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You teaches empathy through the illustrations of Rafael López. They help to tell the story by United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor who bases the narrative on her own personal history of being different as a child, having been diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at age seven.
Rafael López’ vibrant illustrations celebrate the different abilities that each of us uniquely possesses and how people working together can accomplish amazing things through each one’s unique contributions. The child-friendly illustrations enhance the special qualities of people’s disabilities that are often-ignored topics. Sotomayor’s personal story and López’ delightful illustrations remind and encourage each of us to not make judgments about someone’s behavior or the way they look until we understand the whole story. They encourage us to “Just ask!”
The artwork displayed was created by combining traditional pencil drawing, watercolor, and acrylic with digital manipulation. While the Fresno Art Museum does not typically display giclée reproductions (with the exception of photographs), we are finding that many of today’s illustrators use a combination of traditional painting and drawing techniques and a computer to create their finished images. In order to share these works with the public, we had the artist supply us with digital prints to recreate the original image in the book. Along with those digital prints, the exhibition includes some of López’ original hand-painted and drawn elements that contributed to the final artworks.
Rafael López is an internationally recognized illustrator and artist whose work brings diverse characters to children’s books. He is driven to produce and promote books that reflect and honor the lives of all young people. Born and raised in Mexico City to architect parents, he was immersed in the rich visual heritage, music, and surrealism of his native culture which reflects in his illustrations. He is a two-time #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator for Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You written by Sonia Sotomayor and The Day You Begin written by Jacqueline Woodson. He has two Pura Belpre Medals as the award-winning illustrator of Drum Dream Girl and Book Fiesta!; and the three-time Pura Belpre Honor award-winning illustrator of Tito Puente: Mambo King; The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred; and My Name Is Celia: The Life of Celia Cruz.
In addition, López is a founder of the Urban Art Trail movement in San Diego’s East Village. His murals can be found in urban areas, at children’s hospitals, in public schools, under freeways and at farmer’s markets around the country. His community work with murals is the subject of the children’s book Maybe Something Beautiful, How Art Transformed a Neighborhood. Rafael has also been commissioned to create seven United States Postal Stamps.
These days, López lives and works in an industrial loft in downtown San Diego and at his home/studio in the colonial town of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
Exhibition Curator, Susan Yost Filgate, Fresno Art Museum Education Director
Winter/Spring 2022 Exhibition Season Sponsors
Electric Motor Shop
Daniel R. Martin Family Foundation
The Donald W. Gray Trust
A Friend of the Museum
The Eaton and Gibson Family Fund of the
Central Valley Community Foundation
Evany Zirul
Peter and Laura Herzog
Anita M. Shanahan
Ellen Hirth
James M. Cardella
John Scholefield and Kristene Petrucci Scholefield
David and MaryAnne Esajian
Andy Warhol Portfolios: A Life in Pop Exhibition Sponsors
Bank of America Art in Our Communities® Program
Bulldog Pride Fund at Fresno State
Cindy Wathen-Kennedy
Art of the Word: Celebrating Differences Exhibition Sponsors
The Bonner Family Foundation
The Foundation @FCOE
Lynda & Stewart Resnick/Wonderful Education
