San Diego Museum of Art to host retrospective of Everett Gee Jackson

Wednesday, 05 September 2007 09:01

SAN DIEGO, CA - The San Diego Museum of Art is presenting a major retrospective of the work of Everett Gee Jackson, one of the region’s most important Modernist artists. Running from November 3, 2007, through January 27, 2008, Everett Gee Jackson/San Diego Modern, 1920–1955 features more than 50 works that span the most significant and productive decades of the artist’s career. The exhibition presents a representative range of his multi-faceted work, while contextualizing Jackson within the broader scope of mid-twentieth century American modernism.

Everett Gee Jackson is considered one of San Diego’s most influential artists. This retrospective survey presents a biographical overview of Jackson’s vast artistic production and includes many of his most noteworthy paintings, lithographs, and drawings. Highlighting key moments of his life, Everett Gee Jackson also reveals how Jackson’s encounter with Mexican art—both ancient and avant-garde—influenced his transformation from an impressionist into a modernist artist.

“The San Diego Museum of Art has a long history of celebrating the creative legacy of local artists,” says SDMA’s executive director, Derrick Cartwright. “This is the third significant exhibition devoted to Everett Gee Jackson, one of the region’s most prolific artists, to be mounted by our museum. The works of art included in Everett Gee Jackson/San Diego Modern, 1920–1955 amply demonstrate his large influence as both a teacher and cultural leader in the city.”

Born in Mexia, Texas, in 1900, Jackson came to San Diego after studying at Texas A & M University and the Art Institute of Chicago. He continued his studies at San Diego State College, where he later taught and became head of the art department. As a young man in his twenties, Jackson was one of the first Americans to visit Mexico after the country’s prolonged social and cultural revolution. While there, he became influenced by artists such as Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, as well as the Mexican Mural movement. As a result, stylized forms and Mexican motifs became dominant in Jackson’s work, and his new artistic inclination towards realism began to form the basis of his modernist style.

A gifted artist and popular teacher, Jackson’s legacy in San Diego was pervasive in his own day and has had long-lasting impact. As one of the founding artists of the Contemporary Artists of San Diego, the region’s first professional artists’ organization, created in 1929, he staked out a course for vanguard art making in the region. Jackson also taught renowned conceptual artist John Baldessari and founded SDMA’s Latin American Arts Committee.

A diversified artist, Jackson was known as an outstanding illustrator and lithographer. Among the best-known literary works illustrated by Jackson are the classic California novel Ramona, by Helen Hunt Jackson, and the folk tale of Paul Bunyan and Babe. All of Jackson’s lithographs will be included in the exhibition, as well as a painting donated to SDMA by the Museum’s first director, Dr. Reginald Poland. The exhibition will be accompanied by a handsome, fully-illustrated catalogue featuring reproductions of all works in the show and a scholarly essay by SDMA’s chief curator and curator of American art, D. Scott Atkinson.

Everett Gee Jackson/San Diego Modern, 1920–1955 is made possible by the generosity of the L. J. Skaggs and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation, the SDMA Artists’ Guild, the Latin American Arts Committee, Mr. Philip Klauber, Mr. Robert J. Watkins, and Mrs. Mary H. Clark. Additional support is provided by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program, and members of the San Diego Museum of Art.

Museum Information
San Diego Museum of Art
1450 El Prado, Balboa Park
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 122107
San Diego, CA 92112-210
General Information: (619) 232-7931 / Facsimile: (619) 232-9367
Web site: www.sdmart.org

The historic San Diego Museum of Art provides a rich and diverse cultural experience for more than 400,000 annual visitors. Located in the heart of beautiful Balboa Park, the Museum’s nationally renowned collections include Spanish and Italian old masters, South Asian paintings, and 19^th- and 20^th-century American paintings and sculptures. In addition, the Museum regularly features major exhibitions of art from around the world, as well as an extensive year-round schedule of supporting cultural and educational programs.