Nov. 6, 1999 through March 12, 2000
Meaning and Message: Contemporary Art from the Museum Collection
Art Special Gallery
Presented by the Art Department

A window into the often-controversial world of contemporary art is presented in Meaning and Message: Contemporary Art from the Museum Collection, at the Oakland Museum of California Nov. 6, 1999 through March 12, 2000. The exhibition presents works collected by the museum which visitors unfamiliar with contemporary art often find challenging.

The 20 featured California artists have taken bold approaches in their mixed-media sculptures, photographs and installations. Created between 1966 and 1998, their works incorporate unconventional materials and reflect the artists' relationships to various art movements such as arte povera (poor art), conceptualism and minimalism. The art extends from sculptures incorporating modern computer technology to pieces made from such salvaged materials as rubber, fake fur and old found objects.

California and the San Francisco Bay Area are known internationally as centers for the development of such nontraditional art. This has been especially true since the 1970s, when California artists began creating work that radically redefined the vocabulary and value system of art. These artists are working with the premise that art's status as "art" is a conceptual state. What they suggest through their work is that any object, any situation can be art if so experienced. Since that time, many other California artists have moved on to create in a wide range of media, creating a complex and varied body of work that extends the definition of how art is made, what it expresses, and what, ultimately, art can be.

Karen Tsujimoto, Senior Curator of Art, has assembled these pieces from the museum's permanent collection, including works by internationally recognized figures whose artworks are complemented by those of younger artists. The artists in the exhibition are John Baldessari, John Beech, Ray Beldner, Amy Berk, Jonathan Borofsky, Chris Burden, Peter Cole, Bruce Conner, Marisa Hernandez, Lynn Hershman, David Ireland, Tom Marioni, Sono Osato, Carla Paganelli, Alan Rath, Dorothy Reid, Kathryn Spence, Robert Therrien, William T. Wiley and Baochi Zhang.

Tsujimoto has collaborated with the museum's educators to develop special interpretive materials for this show. They have employed various techniques to give viewers more information about the art and artists. These include videotaped interviews with the artists; docent tours; labels with more background text than art exhibitions usually present; photographs and quotes by the artists; a reading and resource area and hands-on materials that relate to the artists' processes and techniques.

The exhibition and associated public programs have been generously funded by the Oakland Museum Women's Board, California Arts Council, and Margot S. Biestman and Joan S. Dodd in memory of their mother, Nell Sinton.

© 1999 Oakland Museum of California | Credits |Phone: 510-238-2200