Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
The Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University presents “Gifted: Collecting the art of California at Gardena High School 1919-1956,” a collection of California artworks collected over a 37-year period by then-students at Gardena High School.
The tradition started back in 1919 when a teacher suggested that the senior class purchase a piece of artwork to donate to the school. It continued for nearly 40 years, with the works being displayed around the school. After the tradition stopped, many of the pieces were stored in a closet and were mostly forgotten.
It wasn’t until 2009 that alumni of Gardena High came together in order to find a way to showcase the collection, which had increased in historical and monetary value. There were pieces obtained at low prices that turned out to have been created by artists who later went on to make names for themselves in California art.
“I saw paintings, but I didn’t know who they were created by or how they got there,” said Craig Ihara, secretary of the GHS Board and a 1961 graduate. “Most of the art was stored for 50 years, and it wasn’t temperature controlled, so a lot of them needed cleaning. Some needed repairs.”
A restoration of some of the paintings was attempted previously, but it was not very successful. The alumni spent years putting together their school’s old collection and looked for a place to showcase it. Wanting to stay in the Los Angeles region, they chose the Pasadena Museum of California Art, but ran into another problem — six months before their showcase, the museum folded and closed its doors for good. The group lost their opening venue, and now faced having over 70 paintings with no venue with very little time to find another place.
They reached out to the Hilbert Museum at Chapman University — not in Los Angeles County but still nearby in Orange County. Mary Platt, Hilbert’s director, said the museum was fortunate to be asked to showcase the collection.
“We are so happy to have been the premier venue for this collection, and to work with the wonderful people of Gardena and show this off to thousands of people,” Platt said. “It’s a tragedy when a museum closes.”
Platt said their museum stored one of their permanent collections to make room for Gardena’s pieces, and at first, some of their returning visitors were wary. But once viewing the collection, there was an overwhelming positivity about the showcase.
“People are responding so enthusiastically for this show,” Platt said. “They’re enthralled by the story of students buying and picking art, asking why don’t students do that today? They react to how this collection was nearly forgotten about.”
All the featured pieces are by California artists — demand for original works from the state has been in high demand recently.
“This collection was already known by people who love California impressionist art,” Ihara said. “This played a huge development in Southern California art.”
This year marks a century since the first painting was purchased, and the collection will remain at Hilbert until mid-October before moving to Fresno for 6 months, then to Oceanside for another 6 months.
For more information, visit https://www.hilbertmuseum.com/.
Kyarra Harris can be reached by email at [email protected].
Reader Comments(0)