MMA’s Midlife Renewal

Generous Harvest: Emmy Lou Packard’s mixed media “Artichoke Pickers Near Half Moon Bay, California,” promised to MMA by Dr. and Mrs. Eric J. Del Piero, is one example of 50/fifty community giving.

50/fifty show showcases works that will get the museum through next half-century.

By Walter Ryce

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Fifty years ago, in 1959, the average cost of a movie ticket was a dollar; NASA introduced the country to the first astronauts; Fidel Castro came into power, and Hawaii and Alaska became states.

Into this heady atmosphere, the Monterey Museum of Art was born, initiated by the Carmel chapter of New York’s American Federation of Art, itself established 50 years prior to send art “on tour to the hinterlands of the United States.” Its founding was charmingly humble: The meeting took place at Carmel High School’s cafeteria.

This year, Monterey’s flagship museum celebrates its golden anniversary with gifts and artistic fanfare, starting with the 50/fifty show at La Mirada, for which 50 works of art and objects have been donated or promised by local galleries and patrons to kick off the next five decades.

Chief Curator Marcelle Polednik says the museum’s “main collecting areas” are California and Monterey art from 1875-1945 photography, Asian works, and contemporary art.

“Contemporary art is big for [us],” she says. “This exhibition really promotes that. The portfolio of [Yousuf] Karsh, arguably the most important portrait photographer of the 20th century, is a big coup for us.”

But not the only one. The exhibition also includes abstract expressionist paintings from the 1950s by Ruvolo and George Abend; two works by photographer Imogen Cunningham, including “Umbrella HandleWith Hand” (“This image was pictured in the first exhibit of Group f/64 in 1932; this would be one of their defining works,” says Polednik); two photographs by Angela Strassheim; and works by local artists like Susan Manchester, Johnny Apodaca, Barry Masteller, David Ligare and Joan Savo.

The show also highlights how MMA’s two locations work in tandem.

“Pacific is devoted to our permanent collection,” says Polednik. “[It] draws heavily on California art, photography, the rotating Monterey NOW series. La Mirada is mostly devoted to temporary exhibits, from other venues. It’s well suited for contemporary art.” (And to fresh art parties like Art After Hours, which it’s been hosting since the temporary shuttering of Pacific.)

“Our [Pacific] galleries went dark in January,” says Executive Director E. Michael Whittington. “They’ll reopen April 18.” That’s when MMA-Pacific, itself, unveils a major show called Made in Monterey that Whittington describes as “a celebratory exhibition of Monterey Peninsula artists since 1870, by chronology.” A preview is offered 6-8pm, April 15.

While Pacific was closed to prepare for Made in Monterey, La Mirada stayed open to keep their deep resources of art accessible. On March 7, after rigorous scrutiny and vetting, the museum’s Collector’s Guild approved the purchase of seven works for the show and to fill “gaps” in the collection.

“You have to be inventive to do that,” says Polednik, who worked at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York before moving west.

“My first exhibit [here] was Monterey Collect,” she says. “It was not unlike 50/fifty. There were 60 lenders and 110 objects. It was ambitious because it took over both locations of the museum.”

To help people connect more deeply with the art, there will be expository labels next to the works, guided walk-through lectures and a catalog.

A question lingers, though: Why should people connect with art now, in a time of war and recession and shots over the bow between classes?

“The mission [of the museum],” says Polednik, “is what it’s always been: to inspire, to educate, to garner passion. In economic hardship, the arts tend to flourish – like public artworks, the WPA [the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration]. It’s an expression of our humanity. It can be indicative of what’s going on. It can alter the way we feel. It can transform.”