Variations of Place: Southern California Impressionism in the Early 20th Century at UCI Langson IMCA

Organized by guest curator and art historian Janet Blake, Variations of Place features works by over 20 artists who settled in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and San Diego in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Drawn from Langson IMCA’s holdings and other public and private collections, the exhibition showcases seascapes, landscapes, and figurative paintings. Artists include Franz Bischoff, Maurice Braun, Alson Skinner Clark, Anna Althea Hills, Joseph Kleitsch, Edgar Payne, Granville Redmond, Guy Rose, George Gardner Symons, and William Wendt, among others.

During this period, artist enclaves emerged along the coast, forming networks where painters exchanged ideas and perspectives on impressionist styles and techniques, such as using unblended colors and loose brushwork and painting outdoors. With highly individualized styles informed by their education and experiences, these artists created a multifaceted genre rich with variation. Yet together they developed and reproduced themes and motifs that would become definitive characteristics of Southern California Impressionism.