The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art will offer several dynamic and diverse exhibitions during the 2015–2016 season, including shows featuring Santa Barbara artists such as Dane Goodman and Keith Puccinelli; 19th-century French artists including Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Berthe Morisot and Henri Matisse and contemporary artists Betye Saar, Richard Serra and James Surls.
The museum opens the season with “tug: Dane Goodman and Keith Puccinelli,” which runs Sept. 2 through Oct. 17. An opening reception will be held Wednesday, Sept. 2, from 4:30 to 7 p.m.
The show will include a collection of 110 trace monotypes and a three-dimensional, full-scale boat made by Goodman and Puccinelli, well-known Central Coast artists.
The prints, drawings, sculptures and installation pieces in this exhibition address racial and gender stereotypes, war and violence, the environment, the consequences of poverty and other issues from our times. They are charged with the artistic duo’s signature stinging punches.
A catalogue accompanies the exhibition.
The museum shows off some of the amazing art it has acquired in the past five years in “Saar, Serra, Surls, and More: Thirty New Acquisitions in Contemporary Art.”
All works were created from 1980 to the present and feature artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, Urs Fischer, Carl Andre, Jessica Stockholder, Claes Oldenburg, Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith, Chakaia Booker, Nancy Graves and Lynn Aldrich.
The museum will display “Barbizon, Realism and Impressionism in France” from Jan. 14, to March 19, 2016, with an opening reception on Thursday, Jan. 14, from 4 to 6 p.m.
The exhibit will feature works of Corot, Matisse, Frederick Childe Hassam, Alfred Sisley and Mary Cassatt, along with many other artists. All works are lent from the private collection of Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree. A fully illustrated catalogue with interdisciplinary essays will be published.
The museum is planning a series of lectures by 19th-century French scholars to coincide with the exhibition.
“Bonjour de France!” a family day celebrating French culture, will include French dance groups, a flea market, crafts, games, prizes and French food trucks (crepes, pastries, coffee).
The museum, which holds these types of festivals every other year, has hosted Japanese Family Day (2010), Días de Mexico (2012) and American Family Folk Festival (2014), attracting more than 2,000 people to campus for each event.
A show featuring the works of Westmont’s graduating art majors runs April 7 to May 7, 2016.
“Joie de Vivre: Tri-County Juried Exhibition,” Westmont’s annual exhibition featuring local artists, runs May 19 to June 18, 2016. Artists will create works that celebrate the joy of living.
Jennifer Frias, associate curator of Sweeney Art Gallery at University of California Riverside ARTSblock, will serve as the exhibition juror.
— Scott Craig represents Westmont College.