Impressionist Landscape: 1860s to 2019
The impressionist revolution that began sometime in the late 1860s, showed a whole new way of representing nature. Optical perception, and observation-based painting took over memory and concept. Cutting edge and controversial at first, impressionist technique turned into a style as the century turned, creating a school of plein air landscape that continued to thrive alongside unceasing innovations within the genre.
Lectures take place on Wednesdays from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.
Food and drink are not allowed inside the museum’s galleries, so we suggest having lunch before the lecture.
Tickets are $25, or $20 for museum members. Advance tickets are recommended.
For questions or to purchase tickets by phone, please call 949.494.8971 x203.
Forever Landscape
Landscape is at once the most popular and the most misunderstood genre in painting. On the surface, it seems deceptively simple: after all, what is there to the “portrait” of nature? Yet, once we take a closer look at the history of landscape in Western painting from the early 1800s to the present day, the complexity and diversity of the genre manifests itself very clearly—landscape painting has been anything but a straightforward reflection of nature on the canvas. Forever Landscape will explore the fascinating and complex development of the genre, its centuries-long evolution from decorative, symbolic, quasi-religious and socially-charged, to the technique-oriented, lyrical, expressive and abstract. Far from being a quaint relic of the past, landscape painting is as prominent today as it has ever been—its currency and necessity underscored by looming environmental threats and nature-averse technological progress.
Julia Friedman
Julia Friedman is an art historian, critic, and curator based in Orange County. She began her art historical studies at the Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg, where she grew up. In 2005 she received a Ph.D. in Art History from Brown University, and has since researched and taught in the U.S., U.K., and Japan. Her trans-disciplinary work on European Modernism, Russian emigration, and book art resulted in the illustrated monograph Beyond Symbolism and Surrealism: Alexei Remizov’s Synthetic Art, published by Northwestern University Press in 2011. In 2016 she completed a project based on the digital writings of Dave Hickey, editing Dust Bunnies and Wasted Words—two pendant volumes of the critic’s Facebook exchanges. She has been a regular contributor to Artforum, the Huffington Post, and the New Criterion. Her current research explores the tragicomic genesis of Wayne Thiebaud’s clown paintings. www.juliafriedman.net
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