The California desert is alive with art this winter.

A new art fair hit the ground running during the 11-day Palm Springs Modernism Week (through Feb. 26). The Palm Springs Art Museum has mounted a notable exhibition of ethereal landscapes by Lockwood de Forest and will open a new satellite location in Palm Desert in March when the legendary mid-century modern estate 'Sunnylands,' home of the late art collectors Walter and Leonore Annenberg, is set to open for public tours.

Modernism Week

Running concurrently with the popular Modernism Show and dozens of other events, the inaugural Palm Springs Fine Art Show had a strong debut. This newly-hatched postwar and contemporary art destination drew over 9,500 visitors who were in a buying mood, reportedly snapping up a $75,000 Andrew Wyeth drawing, among many other works, over the weekend of Feb. 17 to 19.

Palm Springs Art Museum

"Night and Day: The Paintings of Lockwood de Forest," on view through April 8, presents over 70 oil paintings by Lockwood de Forest (1850-1932) ranging in date from 1876-1918. An exquisite assemblage of 40 American and Western landscapes paintings, 20 daylight Palm Springs-area desert paintings along with a selection of larger “studio” paintings are on loan from the artist’s estate and from the collections of his heirs, private collections and Santa Barbara's Sullivan Goss Gallery.

Fundraising and a naming gift of $1 million from major donor Helene Galen in memory of her husband Lou have helped create a satellite location for the museum in Palm Desert, at Highway 111 and El Paseo Drive, which will host exhibitions, community events, educational tours, classes and lectures. Known as The Galen, the location will open in mid-March.

Sunnylands

The iconic mid-century modern 25,000-square-foot house and its 200 acres, designed by Southern California architect A. Quincy Jones, that was a winter retreat for Ambassador Walter (1908-2002) and his wife Leonore (1918–2009) Annenberg, will open to the public on March 1, 2012.

Known as leading art collectors and philanthropists, the Annenbergs, of a multi-billion dollar publishing fortune, gifted many Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

They also amassed collections on view at Sunnylands of silver-gilt, Chinese porcelain and artifacts, Meissen porcelain, Steuben glass, Flora Danica, 19th and 20th century drawings and paintings, and sculpture by 19th and 20th century artists, including Henry Bertoia, Jean Arp, Alberto Giacometti, and Auguste Rodin.

From 1966 to 2009, Sunnylands fanously hosted a who's who of heads of state and Hollywood legends--from President Eisenhower to Frank Sinatra along with Bill Gates, Princess Grace and many others. Related memorabilia, photographs and a vast library of 3,400 books are on view.

A $25.5 million restoration of the historic 1960s house, grounds, golf course and cottages has now culminated with public tours of the property and usage for permitted programs and retreats, as stipulated through a trust created by the Annenbergs.

Prior to her death in 2009, Mrs. Annenberg also commissioned the Sunnylands Center & Gardens, a 17,000-square-foot building completed in 2011, at a cost of $30 million, that includes educational kiosks, and a 9-acre garden with 53,000 individual arid-landscape plants and 1.25 miles of walking paths.

Guided tours of the house are available by advance reservation and purchase of ticket at www.Sunnylands.org.

The Sunnylands Center & Gardens is free and open Thursdays through Sundays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.