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from Linda Sorensen |
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Painting of the Month |
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Linda's Studio News | Gallery Notes |
This issue is about two amazing murals: Diego Rivera's "Pan American Unity", now at SFMOMA until January 2024 and Jos Sances' "Or, the Whale", now at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts through December 2022 |
Pan American Unity, 1940, 22 x 74 feet, 5 panels, Fresco on plaster (pondering Diego Rivera's largest mural ever) |
Jos Sances, Or the Whale, 2019 (a life sized Sperm Whale) 14 x 51 feet, intricately drawn onto 119 24" x 36" scratchboard panels (The two photos above show an approximate size comparison of both murals.) |
A closer look ... Diego Rivera's Pan American Unity Mural Now at SFMOMA by Daniel Rohlfing |
From our Oct. '22 issue Diego Rivera's America now at SFMOMA thru Jan 2, '23 |
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Diego Rivera's Pan American Unity mural is located on the first floor in the Roberts Family Gallery and admission to this part of the museum is free! You access it by going up the big stairs from the entry floor, then down other stairs at one side. By contrast, SFMOMA's featured exhibition Diego Rivera's America requires an admission ticket. |
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Diego Rivera's Pan American Unity, seen from staircase |
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Dan Rohlfing, dwarfed by Pan American Unity |
In the photo (left), I am dwarfed by the mural's phenomenal dimensions. |
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Rivera chose a theme calling attention to the strength and unity of North and South American myth, culture, economic ingenuity and strength in the face of the threat of rising European fascism and tyranny. Bear in mind that he did it nearly two years before Pearl Harbor and America's entry into World War II. |
Pan American Unity - Panel 1 The Creative Genius of the South Growing from Religious Fervor and a Native Talent for Plastic Expression |
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Diego Rivera, Pan American Unity mural, whole of Panel 1 |
Diego Rivera, Pan American Unity, Panel 1, TOP portion |
Panel 1 - Top |
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Panel 1 - Middle |
Diego Rivera, Pan American Unity, Panel 1 - MIDDLE portion |
Diego Rivera, Pan American Unity, Panel 1 - BOTTOM portion |
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Pan American Unity - Panel 3 The "plastification" of Creative Power of the Northern Mechanism by Union with the Plastic Tradition of the South |
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Diego Rivera, Pan American Unity mural, the whole of Panel 3 |
Panel 3 TOP, the Aztec Goddess of Life, Coatlicue |
The top of Panel three shows the Aztec Goddess of Life, Coatlicue merged with a huge stamping machine from Detroit symbolizing the union between North American industrial strength with South American myth. |
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At the very top right of Panel 3 is an image of the the Golden Gate Bridge. Below Coatlicue is a man swinging an ax and carving. This carver is Dudly C. Carter, a Canadian wood carving artist and participant in "Art in Action." His exhibit was just across from Rivera's location at the exposition, and Rivera and Carter became friends. Carter's sculptures were inspired by traditions of Northwest Indians. He was well known for his use of traditional tools. |
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Panel 3 BOTTOM, featuring Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Paulette Goddard |
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Paulette Goddard, on her couch below her portrait by Diego Rivera |
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An aside -- In 1940, Paulette Goddard (pictured above) was a big Hollywood star. At the time of the exposition, she was the wife of Charlie Chaplin. Hollywood reporter and "The Queen of Hollywood Gossip" Louella Parsons wrote in William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner that Goddard had an affair with Diego Rivera and that Frida Kahlo and Paulette Goddard were good friends. Previously, Kahlo was widely believed to have become a friend and lover with another of Diego Rivera's love interests, Dolores del Rio. Louella Parsons repeated a rumor too good not to share that implied that Frida Kahlo and Paulette Goddard were more than just friends. |
Pan American Unity - Panel 4 Trends of creative effort in the United States and the rise of women in various fields of creative endeavor through her use of the power of man-made machinery |
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Panel 4 TOP, Helen Crienkovich arched above the Bay |
Diego Rivera, Pan American Unity mural, the whole of Panel 4 |
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In the middle of Panel 4, we see two diving competitors looking skyward at the graceful Helen Crienkovich. |
Panel 4 BOTTOM, featuring Edward G. Robinson, Charlie Chaplin |
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I believe the bottom of Panel 4 to be the core message of the mural. Rivera is visually making a plea for the Americas to prepare for war. Its imagery is rich and urgent. Rivera was working on this in 1940, nearly two years before the United States enters the war in December of 1941. In 1940, life is good. The Great Depression is fading and optimism rules. Most Americans are enjoying peace and isolation and don't want to become involved in another European war. |
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Edward G. Robinson and Francis Lederer in a scene from 1939's Confessions of a Nazi Spy. |
The bottom panel also highlights two then-very-current (pre WWII) anti-Nazi films. |
The right side of the panel shows Charlie Chaplin in two scenes from Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. The film was nominated for five Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score. The scene of a Hitleresque character dancing with the fantasy of world domination is especially noteworthy and bears relevance today. |
At the top Charlie Chaplin holds a globe, his parody of Adolph Hitler's quest for world domination. Below is a clip of Chaplin performing his Globe Ballet. |
Charlie Chaplin's "Globe Ballet", a parody of Adolph Hitler's dream of world domination, complete with its doomed conclusion. |
Trailer for the 1939 film, Confessions of a Nazi Spy. This was the first anti Nazi film produced by an American Studio. German actors in the film had already fled the Nazi regime. |
Pan American Unity - Panel 5 | |
Panel 5 TOP, featuring Mount Lassen and Mount Shasta, and the building site for Shasta Dam |
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At the very top of Panel 5 are Mount Lassen and Mount Shasta, balancing Mount Ixtaccihuatl and Mount Popocatepetl at the top of Panel 1. |
Panel 5 MIDDLE |
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The men to the right in Panel 5 Middle are artisans, fashioning a wooden power screw. I've been unable so far to discover what a power wood screw was or what it would have been used for, but it is an example of industrial might and determination. |
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The Bottom of Panel 5 shows Henry Ford holding a fuel pump used in his Model A & B Fords. He is standing in front of an assembly line, similar to the ones Rivera painted in his Detroit murals. Next to Ford is Thomas Edison, shown with his inventions, the light bulb and phonograph. Edison was a favorite of Rivera because of his production of motion picture equipment. The famous San Francisco art critic Alfred Frankenstein quoted Rivera, "The motion picture is the ultimate development of mural painting, and is the most important original contribution to art made by North American culture." |
Panel 5 BOTTOM |
On the right side of Panel 5 Bottom are Samuel F.B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph. Next to him is Robert Fulton, engineer and inventor who engineered the first successful steamboat. He is shown with models of two steamships, the Clermont and the Demologos, an armed floating battery. |
Mural docent Liliya Zakharova, student at the City College of San Francisco, explains the timeless message of Diego Rivera's Pan American Unity |
Exhibition page, Diego Rivera's America at SFMOMA | Back to the Top |
Jos Sances' Or, the Whale now at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts through December |
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The whale is the big picture, representing the natural world, the setting in which we live. But inside this whale reside many pictures and stories of America's past, stories about our profit-seeking offenses against the natural world, stories which reveal acts even more crazy and evil than Ahab's quest for vengeance. |
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Brief video showing installation process of Or, the Whale |
Jos Sances explains Or, the Whale in his own words |
Jos Sances points to America's extraction of minerals, timber, coal and oil, their scaring of the land and effects on people. He illustrates the horror of the American slave trade and the stripping of native Americans from their land, from their culture, and their subjugation to life on the reservation and eventual assimilation. He tells the visual story of Henry Ford and the overwhelming effects of the automobile and freeways, linking, but also transforming our landscape and culture. He points with horror to the threat of fascism and Naziism brought on by World War II and its effects capped by the Holocaust. He illustrates how fascist ideas still thrive today through fundamentalism (Islamic, Zionist, and Christian). He draws so poignantly the plight of both economic and political refugees from the 1930's to the present. And then he points to environment, to the melting of the polar ice caps and the effects of climate change weather events. He shows our shores littered with plastic deposited by the ocean on America's beaches, 'from sea to shining sea.' |
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Sand Creek Massacre Historical site, Kiowa County, Colorado. On Nov. 29, 1864, according to most sources, the Third Colorado infantry numbering 675 soldiers massacred around 150 Arapaho and Cheyenne, two-thirds of them being women and children. |
The effects of coal mining and the effects of black lung disease. and the black smoke belching smoke stacks of American industry. |
Taken as a whole, Jos Sances' mural is a gut punch, a huge dose of well documented evidence for Americans to ponder and address. It's a poignant teaching tool, not meant to hurt anyone or to preach, but to be a reality check, an invitation to truthfully consider our past and question our direction going forward. It doesn't have one singular message, but a chorus of messages. It is most worthy piece of art and is well worth your time to go see it, stand beneath it, and peer and ponder its many striking images. It's best to see it with a friend and discuss and comment as you stand below the whale. |
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John D. Rockefeller, his discovery of Pennsylvania crude, his founding of Standard oil and the impact of cars in America. |
Henry Ford, his assembly line and the exponential proliferation of automobiles transforming American life. |
Adolph Hitler to Vietnam, the effects of war, those who wage war and the countless victims who pay the price. To the right, "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work makes you free") sign at the entrance of Auschwitz.. Below this, the terrorized faces of a Vietnamese family with a Vietnam War era Huey helicopter gunship in the background. |
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Naziism and the racism of the KKK, and the pure evils of cultural domination of one race over another. |
Domestic victims of America's disparity of wealth. in the top-left, a contemporary woman holds her child below BART tracks in the Bay Area. To the right, Dorothea Lange's famous Depression era photo of a woman in anguish, wondering where her children's next meal will come from. Together, these images call attention to the ever increasing plight of homelessness. |
Economic refugees crossing our borders, the courage and desperation of immigrants risking crossing the border, the horrors of ICE agents rounding up, caging refugees, even separating children from their parents. |
A bold visual comparison, how we treat immigrants who come for a life and opportunity as if they were livestock herded to the slaughter. |
The rise of fundamentalism worldwide, Islamic, Zionistic, and Christian. Jos Sances points to those drawn to radical beliefs and resultant terrorism. Here, Jos makes a reference to The Three Stooges which I didn't feel was especially helpful in making his point or fair to the stooges' comedic artistry. But so it goes with artistic expression. |
Climate change -- the plight of shrinking sea ice and polar bears, the 21st century version of the canary in the coal mine. |
Climate change at lower latitudes, the effects of storms, floods, fires, drought, and sea rise on coastal cities. |
Flint, Michigan Water Crisis ... Totally avoidable, a man-made environmental crisis victimizing thousands of residents, mostly people of color, for political reasons. Again, gain for the few with the costs and penalties born by the many. |
And now more recently, climate refugees. People stripped of their belongings and way of life due to floods, fires, wars. Hardship and need crying out for assistance. |
Steve Jobs and the high tech revolution. Here, Steve Jobs is pictured with an early Apple and the resultant flood of computers transforming the world's way of working and interacting, and the huge industry it spawned. |
Or the Whale, Sebastopol Center for the Arts| Jos Sances Lecture Nov 12 | Back to the Top |
Linda Sorensen ... open studios coming December 3 Saturday, December 3, 11:00-5:00, at least 12 Atelier One artist studios open to the public, |
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Linda's ETSY Shop | Linda's website | Back to the Top |
Gallery Notes | |
Jos Sances' Or, The Whale |
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The Flower Carrier, 1935 |
An Exhibition Opportunity for you in San Francisco |
from our Aug 2022 issue |
A NEW EDWARD HOPPER EXHIBITION -- Its a big hit in New York!
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in Bodega Bay | ||
Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery Showroom Art Trails 2022 Linda Sorensen's ART TRAILS OPEN STUDIO Sat & Sun, Sepember 24-25, 10-5 Sat & Sun, October 1-2, 10-5 open other times by appointment in Graton or Bodega Bay http://www.BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com | Call or Text 707-875-2911 email: Art@BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com |
"Mendocino Coast" Joshua Meador |
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Ren Brown |
The Ren Brown Collection 1781 Coast Highway One, Bodega Bay, 94923 707-875-2922 | rbc4art@renbrown.com http://www.renbrown.com | Back to the Top |
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Linda Sorensen Paintings LindaSorensenPaintings.com | 707-875-2911 |
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Bodega Bay's Jean Warren Watercolors Bodega Bay resident Jean Warren says her paintings are reflections of the places she has lived and traveled. Jean is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society, California Watercolor Association and full member of Society of Layerists in Multi-Media. http://www.JeanWarren.com / 707-875-9240 |
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What's nearby? in Sonoma, Napa & Marin Counties |
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IN SEBASTOPOL - Sebastopol Center for the Arts ... see website for on-line activities home of Sonoma County's Art @ the Source and Art Trails 282 S. High Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472 707.829.4797 Hours when able to reopen: Tue - Fri 10am - 4pm, Sat & Sun 1 - 4pm |
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Corrick's Keven Brown |
IN SANTA ROSA Corrick's Art Trails Gallery | http://www.corricks.com/arttrailsgallery 637 Fourth Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 | Contact:: http://www.corricks.com/contact-us Corrick's has been a Santa Rosa Treasure since 1915, a downtown stationery store serving the community's "cultural hub." Corrick's has long supported local artists with its impressive "ART TRAILS GALLERY," including paintings by Linda Sorensen. Corricks offers a number of originals by famed Santa Rosa artist, Maurice Lapp ... (see our August 2017 article) located on Fourth Street, steps away from Santa Rosa's revitalized town square and Fourth Street's Russian River Brewery |
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Dennis Calabi |
IN SANTA ROSA- Calabi Gallery | http://www.calabigallery.com We are located at 456 Tenth Street in Santa Rosa. Contact us with any questions at (707) 781-7070 or info@calabigallery.com 456 Tenth Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 | email: info@calabigallery.com | 707-781-7070 Famed master conservator Dennis Calabi brings his rare knowledge and experience to present a tasteful and eclectic array of primarily 20th century artwork. http://www.calabigallery.com | Back to the Top |
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IN Santa Rosa - The Annex Galleries specializing in 19th, 20th, and 21st century American and European fine prints The Annex Galleries is a member of the International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA). http://www.AnnexGalleries.com | Back to the Top |
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IN GRATON - Graton Gallery |
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IN DUNCANS MILLS - Christopher Queen Galleries 3 miles east of Hwy 1 on Hwy 116 on the Russian River http://www.christopherqueengallery.com |707-865-1318| Back to the Top |
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IN Healdsburg - Paul Mahder Gallery http://www.paulmahdergallery.com (707) 473-9150 | Info@paulmahdergallery.com 222 Mill Healdsburg Avenue, Healdsburg, CA 95448 | check for hours |
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Links to current museum exhibits relevant to Early California Art | |||
The Greater Bay Area | |||
The Walt Disney Family Museum -- see website for details This museum tells Walt's story from the early days. (on the Parade Grounds) 104 Montgomery Street, The Presidio of San Francisco, CA 94129 -- view location on Google Maps -- |
San Francisco ... see website de Young Museum Permanent Collection |
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San Francisco closed, see website California Historical Society |
San Francisco Legion of Honor ... see website -Permanent European and Impressionist Paintings |
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San Francisco open, see website for details Contemporary Jewish Museum |
Oakland ... see website Oakland Museum of California -- ongoing Gallery of California Art -showcasing over 800 works from the OMCA's collection |
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San Francisco |
Santa Rosa |
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Santa Rosa ... see website Charles M. Schultz Museum |
Moraga |
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Sonoma Mission San Francisco de Solano Museum featuring the famed watercolor paintings of the California Missions by Christian Jorgensen |
Sonoma Sonoma Valley Museum of Art ... see website 551 Broadway, Sonoma CA (707) 939-7862 |
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Ukiah Grace Hudson Museum ... see website http://www.gracehudsonmuseum.org |
Bolinas |
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Walnut Creek ... see website The Bedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts |
San Jose San Jose Museum of Art ... see website approximately 2,000 20th & 21st century artworks including paintings, sculpture, new media, photography, drawings, prints, and artist books. |
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Monterey Monterey Museum of Art ... see website Ongoing exhibitions ... Museums Permanent Collection including William Ritschel, Armin Hansen and E. Charlton Fortune http://www.montereyart.org |
Palo Alto ... see website Cantor Art Center at Stanford University |
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Monterey |
Sacramento Crocker Art Museum Open Thurs - Sun, 10-5, masks, ... see websites |
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Sacramento Capitol Museum ... see website Governor's Portrait Gallery Permanent Exhibits (including one of our galllery's favorite artists, Robert Rishell's portrait of Gov. Ronald Reagan |
Stockton's Treasure! The Haggin Museum ... see website -Largest exhibition of Albert Beirstadt paintings anywhere, plus the works of Joseph Christian Leyendecker, Norman Rockwell's mentor. see our Newsletter article, April 2011 |
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Southern California (and Arizona) (for all museums below, see website for hours and protocols. | |||
Los Angeles Los Angeles Museum of Art Art of the Americas, Level 3: Artworks of paintings and sculptures from the colonial period to World War II— a survey of of art and culture & "Levitated Mass" |
Irvine UCI IMCA (University of California, Irvine Institute and Museum of California Art) (formerly The Irvine Museum) The Resonant Surface: Movement, Image and Sound in California Painting ... through Feb 19, 2022 |
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Santa Barbara The Santa Barbara Museum of Art |
Orange Our Golden State: Landscape Paintings from the Hilbert Collection November 9 - April 18, 2022 Hilbert Museum, Chapman University |
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Pasaden Norton Simon Museum -an Impressive Permanent collection, European impressionist and post impressionist paintings See our newsletter from March 2014 |
San Marino (near Pasadena) The Huntington Library American Art Collection Paintings by John Singer Sargent, Edward Hopper, Robert Henri, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, William Keith, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Hart Benton and many more. |
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San Diego San Diego Museum of Art Permanent Collection |
Palm Springs |
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Phoenix, AZ Phoenix Art Museum an excellent sampling of Artists of the American West |
Los Angeles California African American Art Museum adjacent to the LA Coliseum (see our newsletter articleof their Ernie Barne's Exhibition September 2019) |
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& Beyond | |||
Honolulu, HI Honolulu Museum (see our Newsletter article from February, 2015) |
Kamuela, HI (Big Island) Issacs Art Center 65-1268 Kawaihae Road Kamuela, HI 96743 (See our Dec '16 article "Hawaii's Paul Gauguin," modernist Madge Tennent, 1889-1972) |
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Seattle, WA Seattle Art Museum ( see our article Mar 2018 French and American Paintings ) |
Portland, OR Portland Art Museum Permanent Collection: American Art |
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Washington D.C. The Renwick Gallery Permanent ... Grand Salon Paintings from the Smithsonian American Art Museum |
Chicago, IL Art Institute of Chicago Permanent collection: the Impressionists |
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Cedar Rapids, IA The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art Grant Wood: In Focus is an ongoing permanent collection exhibition. |
Bentonville, AR |
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Washington D.C. The National Gallery Permanent collection American Paintings |
Philadelphia , PA The Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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Philadelphia , PA Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Campus |
Brooklyn, NY The Brooklyn Museum American Art Permanent Collection |
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New York , NY The Whitney Museum of American Art Edward Hopper’s New York Oct 19, 2022 - March 5, 2023 The largest selection of works by Edward Hopper |
New York , NY Metropolitan Museum of Art Its extensive collection of American Art |
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Detroit, MI Detroit Institute of Arts American Art Permanent Collection |
Ottawa, Ontario National Gallery of Canada |
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Denver, CO Denver Art Museum |
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For an appointment, email or call ... Art@BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com / 707-875-2911 | ||||
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Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery and Linda Sorensen's studio Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery .com / Linda Sorensen Paintings . com Art@BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com / LindaSorensen@Earthlink.net 707-875-2911 Atelier One, Studio 5, 2860 Bowen St, Graton, CA 95444 (not a mailing address) |
If you wish to sell a painting to us ... |
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