'Claremont Modern' exhibit open through Dec. 18

Claremont Modern: The Fiesta Artists of Padua Hills 1953-1959
One of a series of exhibitions produced by the Claremont Museum of
Art and Claremont Heritage, Claremont Modern: The Fiesta Artists of
Padua Hills 1953-1959 celebrates the artists and craftsmen of
Claremont's first art festival with historical material and work by
thirty-five artists.

Saturdays and Sundays noon-5pm through December 18
Ginger Elliot Exhibition Center, 840 N. Indian Hill Boulevard,
Claremont
The exhibition is free and open to the public

Inspired by Getty's Pacific Standard Time celebration, Claremont
Modern is a series of exhibitions that focus on the artistic vibrancy
of Claremont at mid-century. Many of the artists who studied and
lived here in the 1950-60s produced outstanding work that impacted
the Modernism movement.

First held in 1953, the Padua Hills Art Fiesta was organized by local
artists to bring art into the community. The studio art movement that
flourished here in the 1950s centered on the use of natural materials
and traditional sensibilities - watercolor, pottery, woodworking,
sculpture in stone, bronze and ceramic, mosaic, textiles as well as
painting. Visitors came from miles around to meet the artists and
watch "art in action" at the popular festival.

The exhibition will feature work by many of Claremont's well-known
artists: Karl Benjamin, Paul Darrow, Betty Davenport Ford, James
Hueter, Doug McClellan, Harrison McIntosh, James Strombotne, John
Svenson and Jack Zajac. The exhibition includes a series of recent
photographic portraits of these Fiesta artists by Sioux Bally-Maloof.
Other 1950s artists are represented such as Paul Coates, Rupert
Deese, Phil and Betty Dike, Diane Divelbess, Carl & Sue Hertel, Roger
Kuntz, Sam Maloof, Walter Mix, Hildred Reents, Millard Sheets, Albert
and Marion Stewart, Sylvia Pauloo-Taylor, Ed Traynor, Melvin Wood,
Robert E. Wood and Milford Zornes.

The exhibition is accompanied by a booklet funded by the Claremont
Community Foundation and available for $5.