In post-World War II America, on the East Coast, art critics, dealers, and collectors closely followed the evolution of American art, analyzing its sources and innovations. On the West Coast little attention was paid to the past; the present was motivation enough. The aesthetics of place were contributing factors also: the sprawling, sunny, freeway-laced county of Los Angeles in the south and the sometimes foggy, always cool, array of communities surrounding the San Francisco Bay in the north. California art of this period is narrative in the sense that words and images are mutually supportive in metaphor, in irony and in pun. Rare is the work that takes itself too seriously.

The Museum’s collection suggests the amazing productivity of California artists. Among the artists featured are, from Southern California, John Baldessari, Martha Alf, and Italo Scanga, and from Northern California, William T. Wiley, Roy De Forest, and Sam Richardson. The exhibition is organized by Suzanne Foley, curator of collections and exhibitions.