NEHMA Hosts Exhibition of Golden Years of San Francisco Art

Logan, UT — The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art in will open a new art exhibition titled San Francisco: The Golden Age, 1930-1960, Making a Scene. This exhibition is drawn exclusively from the NEHMA collection and will be open for viewing from June 18, 2024 – June 30, 2025.

San Francisco was the center of bohemian culture in California in the late 1930s and 1940s. It was a golden era for art making and the blossoming of Bay Area art due to a confluence of factors, one being the activities of the San Francisco Art Association (SFAA), a group of art enthusiasts and artists who nurtured the growth of a museum and art school, the California School of Fine Arts, and organized annual exhibitions that stimulated and propelled progressive art of the time.

Artists like Adaline Kent were central to the development of modernist art on the West Coast during the early to mid-20th century, and yet until recently, their influence remains largely untold in American art history. Kent was among the active members of the SFAA, and her work exemplified the period’s penchant for individualism and experimentation, as did the work of artists associated with the SFAA.

Other artists associated with the SFAA are Dorr Bothwell, Benjamin Bufano, Harry Crotty, Jay DeFeo, Sonia Gechtoff, Robert Boardman Howard, Sargent Johnson, Madge Knight, Knud Merrild, Henrietta Shore, Ralph Stackpole and Clay Spohn.

NEHMA’s collection, with its focus on the art of the Western United States, is ideally suited to provide in-depth examples of art from this little-known period in art history. This is the first major exhibition and publication to look at the pivotal and colorful history of the SFAA.

The exhibition is co-curated by art historian Michael Duncan and NEHMA curator Bolton Colburn. The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University fosters engagement with modern and contemporary art to facilitate learning and promote dialogue about ideas important to the people of Utah and the mission of Utah State University.

Admission is free and open to all. Parking is available in the free museum parking stalls and at the Gateway Terrace. For more information, go to artmuseum.usu.edu or contact Shaylee Briones: shaylee.briones@usu.edu, 435-797-0227.