If you’re in the area, and by that I mean 90 minutes driving time or less, you really should visit the San Jose Museum of Art. I went today with a couple of friends and had a nice 90 minute visit. The major exhibit, occupying most of the ground floor, is a major retrospective of Nathan Oliveira which runs for another four weeks (May 12). The two other main exhibits are Is the Medium the Message? out of the museum’s permanent collection (ends April 28) and First Impressions: Paulson Press (ends June 2).
Oliveira is a Bay Area native and retired Stanford professor of art who has been an active artist since the 1950s; this exhibition of about 70 pieces covers essentially his entire career. Although there are a few sculptures, most of the pieces are paintings or prints and I saw a clear progression in his work. Early on Oliveira was considered part of the post-War California school along with Richard Diebenkorn because of their common use of gestural painting but I find Oliveira’s works much more appealing than Diebenkorn’s. To my taste, to the extent I’ve seen his work, Diebenkorn is too raw and rough in his painting. Not that Oliveira has all of a sudden found a place in my top ten artist list either, a lot of his pieces were to dull and earth-toned, but I did enjoy seeing the increasing refinement and sophisticiation in his efforts over time, particular the the paintings displayed which are part of his recent Stelae series. None of those images are online but here is one I liked:
In addition to the exhibits, another reason to visit is that the museum charges no admission fee. The building itself is very nice with tall ceilings and lots of light and is located right in downtown San Jose. There is plenty of parking and some good places to eat nearby and a little park across the street where we listened for a few minutes to a drum circle.
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