San Diego, CA.- “High Fidelity: Selections from the 1960s and 1970s” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, showcases more than 50 of the “greatest hits” from MCASD’s collection. The featured works represent formative decades in the Museum’s own maturation and a period of artistic ferment in the United States. While reflecting different styles, such as minimalism, pop art, and assemblage, the works on view all reflect the experimental spirit of the period. Artists continued to challenge long-held stylistic conventions and allow room for contemporary content.
Primarily an exhibition of paintings, High Fidelity includes many works which hone their focus on the formal components of art. Abstraction is represented in many variations from gestural efforts, reflecting the pull of mid-century abstract expressionism, to refined monochromes, which rejected that very approach. “High Fidelity: Selections from the 1960s and 1970s” is on view from May 28th through September 5th.
Exhibiting artists, including John Altoon, Robert Irwin, and John McLaughlin, explore surface tension, positive and negative space, and push the limits of painting itself. Other artists such as Sol Lewitt, Alfred Jensen, and Donald Judd employ systems to determine their compositions. Alongside the refinement of such approaches, other works on view reflect a grittier, often informal quality. Artists such as Vija Celmins, Bruce Connor, Edward Kienholz, and John Baldessari use found materials, expanses of text, and prosaic imagery to reference the real world as much as the art world. Together, these images and references recall and represent a period of recent history with “high fidelity.” High Fidelity will honor the late Murray A. Gribin (1923-2011), an inspired trustee and patron of the MCASD since the 1970s. A passionate advocate for the arts, Gribin and his wife Ruth settled in California in the 1940s. Together they built a lively collection of recent art from the West Coast.
At MCASD, the collection was the subject of a 2006 exhibition La Dolce Vita. The show highlighted the range of Gribin’s collecting even as it underscored his dedication to certain artists over time. In his lifetime, Gribin donated more than 75 works to MCASD. High Fidelity will feature selections of these gifts with an emphasis on his early acquisitions including works by Sam Francis, Joe Goode, and Ed Ruscha.
With two locations, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) is the region’s foremost forum devoted to the exploration and presentation of the art of our time, presenting works across all media created since 1950. Located in the heart of downtown San Diego and in the coastal community of La Jolla, MCASD provides an unprecedented variety of exhibition spaces and experiences for the community, showcasing an internationally recognized collection and a dynamic schedule of exhibitions and public programs. At MCASD in Downtown, experience contemporary art in a historic setting – the Jacobs Building, formerly the Santa Fe Depot baggage building – and view site-specific installations by artists Jenny Holzer and Richard Serra. At MCASD in La Jolla, take in the fabulous ocean view from the Edwards Garden Gallery, or lunch on the patio at the Museum Cafe. The La Jolla location also houses the Museum’s X Store, filled with a selection of contemporary art books, apparel, and innovative design objects.
The collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego includes more than 4,000 works created after 1950, representing a variety of media and genres: painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, video, and installation. MCASD is known for collecting works by promising emerging artists and under-recognized, mid-career artists, as well as by major figures in international contemporary art. Among the greatest strengths of the MCASD collection are minimalism and Pop Art of the 1960s and 1970s, conceptual art from the 1960s to the present, installation art, art from Latin America, and art from California and the San Diego/Tijuana region. Many works in the collection are the result of artists’ residencies or works commissioned for MCASD exhibitions. In response to new local, national, and international developments in art, the Museum continually seeks to enhance its strengths and to expand the representation of artistic trends in its collection. At the same time, MCASD preserves, presents, documents, and interprets its holdings for current and future audiences. Visit the museum’s website at … http://www.mcasd.org
