California Beauty Contest
Which painting do you prefer?
One of my favorite art critics recently wrote of the painting on the bottom “There may be no more beautiful painting of California than this 1963 work by Richard Diebenkorn.”* And, Wow!, that is saying a lot.
I can certainly see the critic’s point. Diebenkorn is one of my favorite artists, Cityscape #1 lives right here at SFMOMA and is a painting I knows well and like very much. But all time most beautiful?
My mind goes to Granville Redmond. His paintings would be exceptionally strong candidates for most beautiful Caifornia images.
Redmond was born in Philadelphia but relocated with his family to San Jose at a very young age. He was diagnosed as deaf at age three, but this hearing impairment did not stand in the way of his development and career as an artist. An early deaf instructor who gave young Redmond courses in painting, drawing and pantomime was extremely important in this development and Redmond eventually enrolled at the California School of Design in San Francisco where he excelled.
He was well liked and befriended by many of his peer artists, including Gottardo Piazzoni and later Charlie Chaplin, both of whom learned sign language in order to make communication with Redmond easier. Chaplin was such a champion of Redmond that he included him in several of his silent films as well as collecting and promoting his art.
Like Diebenkorn, Redmond eventually settled in Los Angeles with his wife, Carrie Ann Jean, also deaf, and their three children. Again like Diebenkorn, landscape and California were Redmond’s true artistic loves (Cityscape #1 is essentially a landscape). But for Redmond it was impressionism and gorgeous poppy fields in broad valleys and gently rising California mountain peaks that called to him.
After and before Redmond’s and Diebenkorn’s there are the paintings by William Keith, Thomas Cole, even Hockney, Thiebaud… The list of talented artists, traditional and modern, who have fixed their eye and brush on California’s vast and complex beauty goes on and on. So, for me, it follows there are many entrants to the Most Beautiful Painting of California Contest.