The San Jose Museum of Art will highlight works by such artists as Alexander Calder, Elmer Bischoff, David Levinthal, Nathan Oliveira, Anne Appleby, and Richard Misrach in a new exhibition on view July 26, 2012-January 13, 2013. Drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection, Local Color will explore the role of color in art and encourage visitors to look at color as content. The exhibition comprises approximately 50 paintings, photographs, sculptures, and prints spanning the last six decades.

“Color may be a vehicle for pure pleasure, for shaping the rhythm of a composition, or for invoking a particular emotional tone,” said Rory Padeken, curatorial assistant at SJMA and curator of the exhibition. “This exhibition looks at the primacy of color in works that range from Calder’s whimsical mobiles to Bischoff’s luscious, light-filled canvas to Levinthal’s slick, saturated photographs of Barbie dolls. Visitors will also see works in which artists consider nuances of black and white.”

Local Color will showcase some visitor favorites from SJMA’s collection that have not been on view recently: Bischoff’s Two Women in Vermillion Light (1959); Calder’s Big Red (1959); Oliveira’s Raptor 1 (1986); Yellow Cone (14,000 Curves) (2005) by Bean Finneran; and NOBODYWINSWHOFIGHTSALONE (2009) by Markus Linnenbrink. The exhibition will also include recent acquisitions on view for the first time, including Wheel (SJ), 2011, by Barbara Takenaga; Untitled (Oblique 1) 2011, by Sandeep Mukherjee; and photographs from the series “Modern Romance” by Levinthal.

The exhibition will also feature works by Josef Albers, Charles Arnoldi, Karl Benjamin, Fletcher Benton, Edward Corbett, Mary Corse, Tony DeLap, Sam Francis, Sonia Gechtoff, Paul Jenkins, Amy Kaufman, Karl Kasten, James Kelly, James Hayward, James Hyde, An Te Liu, Don Martin, Lee Mullican, Gordon Onslow-Ford, Gustavo Ramos Rivera, John Saccaro, Adrian Schiess, Shirley Shor, Hassel Smith, Fred Spratt, Sam Tchakalian, Patrick Wilson, and Elizabeth Voelker.

Local Color is sponsored by Doris and Alan Burgess.

SAN JOSE MUSEUM OF ART

The San Jose Museum of Art celebrates new ideas, stimulates creativity, and inspires connection with every visit. Welcoming and thought-provoking, the Museum rejects stuffiness and delights visitors with its surprising and playful perspective on the art and artists of our time.

The San Jose Museum of Art is located at 110 South Market Street in downtown San Jose, California. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students and senior citizens, and free to members and children under 6. For more information, call 408-271-6840 or visit www.SanJoseMuseumofArt.org.

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Programs at the San Jose Museum of Art are made possible by generous operating support from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, the Lipman Family Foundation, the Richard A. Karp Charitable Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, the Koret Foundation, a Cultural Affairs grant from the City of San Jose, and, with support for exhibiton development, Yvonne and Mike Nevens.