Fall 2013 Exhibitions
September 27, 2013 to January 5, 2014
A view of downtown Fresno through the eyes of California artist Ara F. Normart, Jr. (aka, "Corky" Normart), a Fresno native. Normart is known for his energized watercolors of the San Joaquin Valley, its foothills and landscapes, architectural studies and topographical views.
Mr. Normart is also a sculptor, window and furniture designer, and was commissioned to design and supervise the restoration of the Dome of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 1996.
See a short PBS video about Corky Normart's exhibition by clicking here.
September 27, 2013 to January 5, 2014
An interactive exhibition for the entire community! Artists from across the region were invited to submit works in any medium to FAM's first-ever crowd-sourced exhibition, #DowntownVisions. Anyone who considers herself or himself an artist was encouraged to submit a work that documents and/or re-imagines downtown Fresno. The resulting installation become a collective conversation about our city’s geographic core, home to the historic Fulton Mall and a highly discussed site of urban redesign and development. #DowntownVisions provided a creative platform for people from all sectors of the community to come together for an important dialogue, while providing a great opportunity for artists to display their work at the Museum. In addition to the call for artworks, the public was invited to add content digitally throughout the run of the show.
September 27, 2013 to January 5, 2014
Ann Page was the Fresno Art Museum's Council of 100 Distinguished Woman Artist for 2013.
At the core of Ann Page's work has always been an interest in blurring boundaries between media and technologies of 'making', and the variety that can arise from the permutation of simple elements and the difference that can be found in sameness.
Ann Page is on the Fine Arts faculty at USC's Roski School of Fine Art in Los Angeles. She earned a BFA from the Herron School of Art and Design at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. Her work has been exhibited nationally in private and university galleries and in several group shows in museums since 1968. Many articles on her work can be found in art journals and catalogs for both one-person and group exhibitions. She has received a Rosekranz Family Fellowship, a Djerassi Artist's Residency, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant.
Images: Ann Page, Petit Homage: Stack VIII, 2010 (left) and Branching II, 2010 (right)
September 27, 2013 to January 5, 2014
Artist Beth Van Hoesen (1926-2010) is recognized as a major twentieth century printmaker. She was born in Boise, Idaho in 1926 and received an undergraduate degree from Stanford University in 1948. She later studied at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute), Ecole de Beaux Arts de Fontainebleau in Paris at Académie Julian and Académie de la Grand Chaumière. In 1951 she enrolled at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco (now San Francisco Art Institute) where figurative painter David Park and abstract expressionist Clyfford Still were among her influential teachers. Park became a major influence on Van Hoesen, inspiring her to eschew abstraction for the expressive realism seen in her exquisite nudes, portraits, still lifes, and animal studies. While studying at CSFA she met artist and designer Mark Adams, and they married in 1953. She died in San Francisco on November 16, 2010 at the age 84.
Van Hoesen has had numerous exhibitions in the United States and is represented in major collections worldwide. Her work has been the subject of several books including Works On Paper, A Collection of Wonderful Things, and Wonderful Things.
Born in Fort Plains, N.Y., Mark Adams (1925-2006) attended Syracuse University, but left before graduation to study abstract art in New York with prominent Abstract Expressionist Hans Hoffman. Although he studied painting, Adams began his early career as a tapestry and stained-glass designer where he designed the windows for Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco's largest synagogue, in Presidio Heights. He also did the stained glass for Grace Episcopal Cathedral on Nob Hill. His tapestry works can be found at the de Young Museum and at San Francisco International Airport.
Later in life he turned away from tapestry and stained glass as his art came to its fullest expression and he turned to using watercolors as his primary medium. Adams' watercolor style often involved taking everyday objects--a tie, a bowl of jello--and portraying them with new meaning through a series of vivid, delicate, and translucent color washes.
Adams was married to artist Beth Van Hoesen.
This exhibition features a number of works from the Fresno Art Museum's Permanent Collection.
Images: Beth Van Hoesen, Sally, 1979, HC, Aquatint, drypoint and etching and Mark Adams, Peaches in Silver Bowl, 1993, AP 3/15, Lithograph and screenprint with airbrush
September 27, 2013 to January 5, 2014
Landscape images from the Fresno Art Museum's Permanent Collection by American photographer and conservationist, Ansel Adams (1902 to 1984), who was best known for his black and white landscape photography of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park.
"At one with the power of the American landscape, and renowned for the patient skill and timeless beauty of his work, photographer Ansel Adams has been a visionary in his efforts to preserve this country’s wild and scenic areas, both on film and on Earth. Drawn to the beauty of nature’s monuments, he is regarded by environmentalists as a monument himself, and by photographers as a national institution. It is through his foresight and fortitude that so much of America has been saved for future Americans."
- President Jimmy Carter Presenting Ansel Adams with the Presidential Medal of Freedom
C.Normart: 50 Years of Downtown and #DowntownVisions were made possible by generous support from The James Irvine Foundation and Downtown Fresno Partnership
Media Partner: The Fresno Bee