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Link to Previous Shows:

Lon Megargee, 2008/2009
Carl Sammons, 2009
Edward S. Curtis, 2009
Mendocino Landscapes, 2009/2010
Current Exhibit

Link to all GHM Exhibits
prior to 2009

In what can only be described as a "coup" for a small-town museum, original paintings and drawings by famed American artist Maynard Dixon will be on display at Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah from Sunday, February 28 through June 20, 2010. "Space, Silence, Spirit: Maynard Dixon's West" comes to Ukiah courtesy of Abe Hays, an authority on Western Art, owner of the Maynard Dixon collection, and a long-term colleague of Grace Hudson Museum curator Marvin Schenck. Schenck and Hays first met in Scottsdale, Arizona, where Schenck was the curator at Scottsdale Center for the Arts.

Sababe, Sonora, 1941, oil on canvas

"Space, Silence, Spirit: Maynard Dixon's West" will present northern Californians with a rare opportunity to view an extensive collection of small-to-medium-sized paintings and drawings by Maynard Dixon that span the entire five decades of his artistic career. The seventy-one paintings and drawings in the exhibit will be hung chronologically, enabling viewers to trace Dixon's artistic development and the outlines of his life. The collection also contains photographs of Dixon by renowned photographers Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange (Dixon's second wife), and paintings by Dixon's third wife, Edith Hamlin. Abe Hays will give a free slide presentation on the life and art of Maynard Dixon at 2 p.m. on Sunday, February 28, and will be available to sign catalogs of the show during the opening reception following the lecture.

An Exhibition Preview Party on Saturday, February 27, from 7-9 p.m., will feature an intimate preview tour of the exhibition by Abe Hays, as well as delectable dessert treats and a wine bar. The preview party will cost $25 person; reservations can be made at 707-467-2836.

Morning on the San Joaquin Plains, 1921 oil on canvas board

Shadow Side, Utah, 1944 oil on canvas board

Unlike many early "Western" artists who were actually born in Europe or in the eastern United States, Maynard Dixon was born in Fresno, California in 1875. He developed a love of the natural world on family camping trips to Yosemite and other wilderness areas, and showed talent as an artist in his childhood drawings. During his teen years Dixon studied art on his own before attending the San Francisco School of Design. At art school Dixon soon realized that he preferred canyons and mountains to classrooms. He began working as an illustrator before he was twenty, and quickly gained a significant reputation for his work for Overland Monthly, the San Francisco Examiner, Sunset Magazine, and other publications.

Traveling Storm 1937, oil on canvas

Motivated by a desire to safeguard the diverse cultures and fragile ecosystems of the Southwest, Dixon took his first trip to the Sonoran Desert of southeast California and Arizona in 1900, when he was 25 years old. During the trip Dixon created portraits of Indians that revealed each person's individual personality, an approach that contrasted with the stereotyped portraits of "noble savages" more common in his day.

Apache, 1904, mixed media

The trip kindled a passion for the landscapes and people of the Southwest that remained with Dixon through the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, World War I, the stock market crash of 1929, and all the way to his death in 1945. After the San Francisco earthquake (which put him out of work as well as destroying most of his possessions), Dixon moved to New York where he became a successful illustrator of Western novels and advertisements. Dissatisfied, however, with the inauthentic images of the West he was forced to portray, Dixon moved back to San Francisco after several years.

Campo Santo Study, 1931, gouache on panel

In San Francisco Dixon was commissioned to paint a series of murals depicting Indians, a job that helped him make a welcome transition from illustration to fine arts. He began spending months at a time in the desert and canyon lands of Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico, enjoying the silence while drawing and painting skies, clouds, cliffs, mountains, cowboys, and native peoples. Welcomed by Hopi, Navajo, Pima, Apache, and other tribes for his talent with pencil, crayon, and paint, his art became a language between two cultures. In recent years interest in Dixon's art has risen to unprecedented levels, fueled by four books about the artist, three major exhibitions, and an award-winning feature-length documentary.

left: Canyon Wall, Cliffs of Betatakin, 1922, oil on canvas board
right: Walls of Walpi, Arizona, 1923, oil on canvas

More information about the Grace Hudson Museum and this exhibit is available at www.gracehudsonmuseum.org or (707) 467-2836. Funding for this exhibit came from several special donations, including the Historical Collections Council of California Art and the Sun House Guild.

EXHIBITION PREVIEW PARTY

Saturday, February 27, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Will feature an intimate preview tour of the exhibition by Abe Hays, as well as delectable dessert treats and a wine bar. The preview party will cost $25 person; reservations can be made at 707-467-2836.

EXHIBITION OPENING RECEPTION & LECTURE

Sunday, February 28, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Free slide lecture on the life and art of Maynard Dixon and opening reception.

DOCENT & MEMBER TOUR

Tuesday, March 9, Noon, 2 - 4 p.m.

Join Marvin Schenck, Museum Curator, on an informative tour of the Maynard Dixon exhibition. Free event.

FILM SCREENING & DISCUSSION

Saturday, May 1, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Join us for the screening of "Maynard Dixon: To The Desert Again", a recent hour long documentary film on Dixon's life featuring commentary from Dixon's descendents, friends and experts on the artist's work. Ukiah Civic Center, 300 Seminary Ave., Ukiah. Free event.

PUBLIC TOUR

Sunday, June 13, 2:00 p.m.

Marvin Schenck, Museum Curator, will give a public tour of the exhibition. Free event.

Call the Museum, (707) 467-2836, for further information. Group and School Tours are available by advance arrangement.

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Link to previous exhibits:
Lon Megargee: Legendary Prints of the Southwest, 2008/2009
Carl Sammons: California Impressionist Landscapes from the Donna Walsh Sumner Collection, 2009
Edward S. Curtis Refocused, 2009
Through the Viewfinder: Mendocino Landscapes, 2009/2010
Current Exhibit

Link to all GHM Exhibits prior to 2009

Grace Hudson Museum - 431 S. Main Ukiah, CA - 95482 - 707.467.2836