Laguna Art Museum presents Her Great Gift: The Nancy Dustin Wall Moure Collection

The exhibition, Her Great Gift: The Nancy Dustin Wall Moure Collection, opened August 28 at Laguna Art Museum (LAM) and is on display through February 12, 2003.

Presented together for the first time, this eclectic collection of California art is full of gems. The picture of Mission San Gabriel created in the 1830s is believed to be the first oil painting made in Southern California. From there the collection departs on a journey that parallels California’s boom in population, matched by an immense output of artistic diversity. The Nancy Dustin Wall Moure Collection spans across time and demonstrates how early preferences for painting dark, formal and interior spaces were replaced by scenes of the outdoors, explorations of light and imagery that captures the quintessential California lifestyle.

Each year LAM presents the Wendt Award to an individual who has made a significant contribution to understanding or promoting California art. This year the museum acknowledged Nancy Dustin Wall Moure for her great gift.

Click on photo for a larger image

Courtesy of Chris Bliss

“Landscape” by William Wendt, 1912

According to the LAM website, “Her Great Gift is the first presentation of the Nancy Dustin Wall Moure Collection. The exhibition focuses on 40 artworks made from the 1830s through the 1970s that traces how artists documented the California experience. Discover the earliest known oil painting made in Southern California, California plein air paintings, watercolors from the WPA period, mid-century abstractions and explorations into Light and Space. Artists include Mabel Alvarez, Karl Benjamin, Norton Bush, D.J. Hall, Roger Kuntz, Fernand Lungren, James McCray, Arnold Mesches, Charles Rollo Peters, F. Grayson Sayre, Stanislav Szukalski, John Law Walker, Julian Bracken Wendt, William Wendt and many others.

“Art historian Nancy Moure assembled and gifted her collection of nearly 100 paintings, works on paper and sculptures to the Laguna Art Museum permanent collection in the 1990s. This year, Laguna Art Museum is honoring Moure with the Wendt Award for her contribution of more than 50 publications and exhibitions documenting the artistic history of California art history.”

 For more information, visit www.lagunaartmuseum.org.

Laguna Art Museum is located at 307 Cliff Drive, Laguna Beach.