Echoes of Perception: Peter Alexander and California Impressionism

(L) Peter Alexander, Violet Block Wedge, 1968, Polyester, 13 x 9 x 9 in. Lent from Filimonov Alexander Collection for Global Solutions, © The Estate of Peter Alexander (R) Calthea Vivian, Morning Fog, circa 1915, Oil on canvas, 21 x 15 in. The Buck Collection at UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art
Peter Alexander, Cloverfield I , 1988, Oil, wax and acrylic on canvas, 72 x 84 in. The Buck Collection at UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art, © The Estate of Peter Alexander
Elsie Palmer Payne, Laguna Coast, circa 1925, Gouache on paper, 11 x 16 in. The Buck Collection at UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art, © DCM Trust/Dewitt C. McCall III
(L)Hanson Duvall Puthuff, Mystical Hills, circa 1922, Oil on canvas, 26 x 34 in. UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art, Gift of The Irvine Museum (R) Peter Alexander, Blue Black Bar Triptych (12/5,8,12/14), 2014, Urethane, 77 x 24 x 1 in. Lent from The Estate of Peter Alexander, © The Estate of Peter Alexander
Granville Redmond, Untitled - Moonlight Marsh Scene, early 20th century, Oil on canvas, 26 x 43 in. UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art, Gift of The Irvine Museum

Echoes of Perception: Peter Alexander and California Impressionism

Curated by Kevin Appel, Julianne Gavino, Kim Kanatani, Curt Klebaum, Claudia Parducci, and Bruce Richards

September 24, 2022 – January 14, 2023

In 2019, artist Peter Alexander was invited by Langson IMCA Museum Director Kim Kanatani to curate an exhibition of California Impressionism from the Museum’s collections. Prior to his untimely death in 2020, Alexander had begun identifying works that he felt exemplified the California Impressionists’ profound connection to the light, space, and natural phenomena of California and the similar influence they had on his own work. In honor of Alexander’s commitment to the project, a team of curators consisting of Kevin Appel, Julianne Gavino, Kim Kanatani, Curt Klebaum, Claudia Parducci, and Bruce Richards expanded the exhibition into a dialogue between the early modernist painters and Alexander’s own work, forming a fluid exchange between generations equally influenced by the atmospheric light of the Golden State.

The passages in this exhibition follow phenomena experienced over the course of a day from dawn, to dusk, to the depths of night. From mountain peaks to the ocean floor, Alexander and these California Impressionist painters echo one another in their pursuit of capturing the ineffable sensibility of place and space.

With works spanning from 1896 to 2020, Echoes of Perception: Peter Alexander and California Impressionism includes 14 Impressionist works from Langson IMCA’s collection along with 11 of Alexander’s resin sculptures, canvases, works on paper, and a painting on velvet that offer an alternative way to engage with California Impressionism through the eyes of this pioneering contemporary artist.

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Recordings of Public Programs

Curatorial Roundtable | Echoes of Perception: Peter Alexander and California Impressionism

Exhibition-related Film

An Interest in Looking Around: Peter Alexander in California