Benjamin Brown, Autumn Glory, circa 1920, Oil on canvas, 28 x 36 in. UC Irvine Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art, Gift of The Irvine Museum.
Alfred Richard Mitchell, La Jolla Shores, circa 1936, Oil on canvas, 40 x 50 in. UC Irvine Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art, Gift of The Irvine Museum.
William Alexander Griffith, In Laguna Canyon, circa 1928, Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. UC Irvine Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art, Gift of The Irvine Museum.
Alson Skinner Clark, San Diego Mission, 1922, Oil on board, 15 ½ × 19 ¼ in. UC Irvine Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art. Gift of The Irvine Museum
William Alexander Griffith, Sycamore Trees. Early Spring, 1923, Oil on canvas, 20 ⅛ × 24 ⅛ in. UC Irvine Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art. Gift of The Irvine Museum
William Lees Judson, The Wendts at Laguna Beach, between 1912 and 1928, Oil on canvas, 15 × 25 in. UC Irvine Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art. Gift of The Irvine Museum
William Wendt, The Lake, 1940, Oil on canvas, 30 ¼ × 36 ⅛ in. UC Irvine Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art. Gift of The Irvine Museum
Lillian Whiting, Untitled (Beach below Heisler Park, Laguna), after 1917, Oil on canvas, 20 × 24 in. The Buck Collection at UC Irvine Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art

Common Ground: Early 20th-Century Artist Communities in Southern California

Curators: UC Irvine Visual Studies Ph.D. Student Dada Wang and
Ph.D. Candidates Ileana De Giuseppe and Zachary Korol Gold

February 8 – May 17, 2025

Common Ground explores how artists’ communities in Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and La Jolla contributed to the development of California plein air painting in the early 20th century. Southern California experienced rapid growth during this period, as marked by population increases, suburban expansion, and the rise of automobile culture.

Amid such transformations, a new wave of artists, many recent arrivals to the region, gravitated toward the region’s scenic locales. There they formed friendships and alliances that enabled artistic exchange and members gathered for painting trips, group exhibitions, and social events. These collaborative efforts honed their individual practices, gave plein air painting national visibility, and enriched the cultural fabric of their communities. The exhibition presents artworks by Franz A. Bischoff, Alfred R. Mitchell, Edgar Payne, Elsie Palmer Payne, Guy Rose, William Wendt, and others.

Curated by graduate students from UC Irvine’s Visual Studies Ph.D. program, the exhibition features thirty-six works that map out these creative ecosystems and evoke the spirit of fellowship that thrived in these seemingly uninhabited landscapes.

Download Recommended Reading Guide

Download Teacher Resource Guide

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Public Programs

Saturday, February 8: Gallery Talk with Exhibition Curator, UC Irvine Visual Studies Ph.D. Student Dada Wang

Saturday, February 22: Workshop - Exploring the Landscape through Collage and Drawing with Artist Fran Siegel Registration is full

Saturday, April 26: Live Performance - Songs of Common Ground: Voices of a Creative Community

Saturday, May 3: Drop-in Family Workshop - Communal Mold-Making with Ruben Ochoa

In this video, Dada Wang, graduate student researcher at Langson IMCA introduces the exhibition, exploring the dynamic artistic communities that shaped California's distinctive identity through landscape and social change.