Laguna Art Museum’s permanent collection reflects both California’s historical interaction with its artists and the museum’s own idiosyncratic history. Founded ninety-three years ago as an “artists’ space” to showcase recent art, the Laguna Beach Art Association matured in the 1940s into a collecting institution that, since 1972, has developed into a museum of American art with a focus on the art of California.

Over the years, Laguna Art Museum has been fortunate to take into its collection significant holdings by underrepresented individual artists who, though they have had little art historical attention thus far, have made significant contributions to regional and national art. These holdings have inspired a curatorial interest in the artists’ work, enough of an interest to explore the possibility of future exhibitions.

Extract consisted of several small, one-person shows from the collection by Florence Arnold, Elanor Colburn, George Brandriff, Laddie John Dill, Jules Engel, Oskar Fischinger, Tom Holland, Peter Krasnow, Ruth Peabody, David Simpson, Vic Joachim Smith, Jean St. Pierre, and Chris Wilder. The exhibition included brief curatorial statements on the importance of each artist’s work, and aimed to assess the potential for fully-formed, monographic exhibitions.

This exhibition was generously supported by Julie Padach-Mathewson and Curtis Mathewson.