A summer state of mind

The new exhibition at UC Irvine’s Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art will focus on the one thing everyone in the Golden State shares: the joys of summer in California.

“Picturing Summer” presents 31 paintings from the late 19^th to mid-20^th century drawn from the Langson IMCA’s collection supplemented by five works on loan from private collections. Eighteen of them have never before been on public display.

The landscapes feature verdant meadows in the state’s northern regions, shorelines and the mountains of the Pacific Coast and Sierra Nevada ranges. They depict such outdoor ventures as going to the beach, fishing, hiking and boating, as well as more intimate moments shared by friends and families.

The exhibition will be on view from July 20 through Sept. 20 at Langson IMCA’s interim site on the main level of the Airport Tower building at 18881 Von Karman Ave., in Irvine.

Guest curator Susan Davidson organized “Picturing Summer” in five sections. “I took a deep dive – no pun intended – through the collection in search of artworks that explicated summer activities and summertime,” she says. “And once I honed down the checklist and settled on the best examples, I grouped them into themes. I paid special attention to how the gallery is organized so visitors will encounter different sections as they walk through the exhibition as well as different types of activities that they would enjoy during the summertime.”

The first section, “Leisurely Days,” portrays the private lives of ordinary people. Revealing moments of everyday activities, these paintings convey a sense of domestic tranquility while evoking universal themes of connection and belonging, as in Joseph Kleitsch’s figures gardening in “Red and Green” (1923).

The “Sun and Sand” section includes works by plein air painters who established studios and homes along the coast. Donna Schuster, for example, purchased a small house in Laguna Beach and spent her summers there, and Claude Buck made the beachfront city of Santa Barbara his permanent home. Expanses of sand and sea offered artists abundant material, which E. Roscoe Shrader capitalized on in “On the Beach” (1936), featuring lounging figures at the shore.

“Off the Beaten Path” comprises paintings of mountainous and forested scenery that serve as both subject matter and muse. When introduced, the works fueled public interest in experiencing California’s natural wonders firsthand. Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel scaled wild terrain to capture secluded landscapes such as the one in “Long Lake, Sierra Nevada” (c. 1929), while David Park’s “Forest Trail” (c. 1954) affirmed hiking as a popular activity.

In the fourth section, “On the Water,” the dynamic maritime culture inspired artists who sought to reflect the vibrant coastal lifestyle, as illustrated in William Lee Judson’s “California Coast”(before 1928).

Finally, “Coastal Living” presents the natural beauty of the inhabited coast, including fishing villages, weathered houses and the region’s unique architectural heritage, as portrayed in Judson’s “Avalon Bay”(1895) and Phil Dike’s “Corona del Mar (Newport Harbor) (1932) – a Davidson favorite.

Curating this exhibition has been a labor of love for her. Although a native New Yorker, Davidson says, “I’ve had a long history with California. My father lived in Newport Beach in the seventies, and I would often visit him. A lot has changed there since then.”

But through “Picturing Summer,” she presents a vision of California back when it was truly golden.

If you want to learn more about supporting this or other activities at UC Irvine, please visit the Brilliant Future website. By engaging 75,000 alumni and garnering $2 billion in philanthropic investment, UC Irvine seeks to reach new heights of excellence in student success, health and wellness, research and more. The Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art plays a vital role in the success of the campaign. Learn more by visiting https://imca.uci.edu/support.