Palos Verdes Art Center / Beverly G. Alpay Center for Arts Education is pleased to announce GIFTED: Collecting the Art of California at Gardena High School, 1919-1956, organized by the GHS Art Collection, Inc. in association with the Gardena High School Student Body and curated by Susan M. Anderson. The exhibition featuring 50 paintings will open at Palos Verdes Art Center September 17, followed by a public reception, September 24 from 6 to 9pm. Docent tours will be available Tuesdays and Saturdays during the run of the show, from 10am to noon and by appointment.
The exhibition and accompanying catalogue chronicle the history of the school’s ambitious endeavor within the context of the wider cultural scene in Los Angeles, revealing that a broader public than was previously known—one driven by educational rather than economic values—participated in the development of Southern California art.
From 1919 to 1956, students in the senior class selected, purchased, and donated some seventy-two works of art to the high school as class gifts. Over the years, artists, the federal art projects, and other individuals and organizations also made many gifts of art to the collection. In 1923 Gardena High School designed a new auditorium to house the permanent collection, establishing the first public art gallery in Southern California with a collection of regional art. Since the mid-1950s, the collection has been in storage and unavailable for viewing by the public. The exhibition GIFTED: Collecting the Art of California at Gardena High School, 1919- 1956 was originally exhibited at the Hilbert Museum of California Art in 2019. This presentation of GIFTED is the first for Los Angeles County, where Gardena High School is located. PVAC is thankful to the organizers for sharing this important exhibition with our community.
