November 22, 2014 - March 8, 2015
NAKED: 20th Century Nudes from the Dijkstra Collection
Oceanside Museum of Art is proud to present NAKED: 20th Century Nudes from the Dijkstra Collection, the second exhibition within the Museum's 'Collectors Initiative' launched in 2012. Opening on Thursday, November 22, 2014, NAKED is a revelation. Taken from the wide-ranging art collection of Bram and Sandra Dijkstra, this exquisite group of works contributes to the museum-wide focus on artwork concerning figurative and portrait themes occupying all five exhibition spaces at OMA this fall.
Over the past 100 years, the human body hasn't changed much, but you wouldn't know that from the diversity of artists' representations of it. This group of works spans the 20th century including figurative paintings, drawings, and photographs specifically featuring the nude human figure, created by a wide array of artists: from traditional works with a more painterly aesthetic such as F. Humphry Woolrych's The Music of Pan (1900), Elliott Daingerfield's Nymph at a Spring (1915) and Charles Hawthorne's Seated Nude (1921), as well as a variety of early modernist works by artists, including Isabel Bishop, Alexander Brook, Jan Matulka, Joseph Solman and Julio de Diego, Californians, including Boris Deutsch, Phil Paradise, Francis de Erdely, and Milford Zornes, and San Diego painters, including Belle Baranceanu, Dan Dickey, Ethel Greene, James Hubbell, Jean Swiggett, and James Aitcheson. The female form dominates the exhibition as the most frequently recurring motif throughout the works, while the male form provides a quieter presence, illustrating the typical ratio of male to female nudes throughout art history.
As passionate collectors, the Dijkstras acquired works of art based on personal and emotional connections with the work they encountered. The result is a strong and varied collection that began with a first purchase made some thirty years ago, and has continued into the present acquisiton of unique work with colorful histories, collected locally and abroad. Bram and Sandra Dijkstra have not only amassed an impressive collection of art created by the highest caliber of national and international artists, but have also consistently encouraged the collection and purchase of art by local artists.
Both Bram and Sandra Dijkstra have also contributed greatly to the world of literature. A retired professor of English literature at the University of California, San Diego, Bram Dijkstra has authored numerous books on literary and artistic subjects, including Faces in Skin: Poems and Drawings (Oyez, 1965), Hieroglyphics of a New Speech: Cubism, Stieglitz and the Early Poetry of William Carlos Williams (Princeton University Press, 1969), Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-de-siecle Culture (Oxord University Press, 1986), Defoe and Economics (McMillan, 1987), Evil Sisters: The Threat of Female Sexuality and the Cult of Manhood (Knopf, 1996), Georgia O'Keeffe and the Eros of Place (Princeton University Press, 1998), American Expressionism: Art and Social Change 1920-1950 (Harry N. Abrams, 2003), and Naked: The Nude in America (Rizzoli, 2010). Bram has curated exhibitions and written catalog essays for a number of San Diego art institutions.
Literary agent Sandra Dijkstra is the founder, owner, and president of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. Dijkstra is responsible for establishing and guiding the renowned careers of many bestselling and award-winning authors working in both fiction (Amy Tan, Lisa See, and Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan), and nonfiction, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eric Foner and world-renowned psychotherapist Irvin Yalom.
Work from The Dijkstra's collection has been featured in several exhibtiions, including: The Not-so-still Life: A Century of California Painting and Sculpture (San Jose Museum of Art), Nature Improved: San Diego Artists Interpret Our Landscape (the San Diego History Center) and Charles Reiffel: An American Post-Impressionist (San Diego Museum of Art), and at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Northwestern's Block Museum, LACMA, Laguna Museum, and at SDMA.
