Manetti Shrem Museum of Art
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The Manetti Shrem Museum of Art is a fine arts museum located at the
University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...
in
Davis, California Davis is the most populous city in Yolo County, California. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 66,850 in 2020, not including the on-campus population of the University of California, Da ...
. Its full name is the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. The museum opened on November 13, 2016. According to ''The New York Times'', the museum includes "trailblazing contributions by the school’s renowned art faculty, which contributed to innovations in conceptual, performance and video art in the 1960s and 70s".


Background

Richard L. Nelson was the founder of the art department at UC Davis, and he recruited a faculty in the early 1960s that included highly successful artists such as
Wayne Thiebaud Morton Wayne Thiebaud ( ; November 15, 1920 – December 25, 2021) was an American painter known for his colorful works depicting commonplace objects—pies, lipsticks, paint cans, ice cream cones, pastries, and hot dogs—as well as for his la ...
,
Robert Arneson Robert Carston Arneson (September 4, 1930 – November 2, 1992) was an American sculptor and professor of ceramics in the Art department at University of California, Davis for nearly three decades. Early life and education Robert Carston Arn ...
,
Roy De Forest Roy De Forest (11 February 1930 – 18 May 2007) was an American Painting, painter, Sculpture, sculptor, and teacher. He was involved in both the Funk art and Nut art movements in the Bay Area of California. De Forest's art is known for its quirk ...
,
Manuel Neri Manuel John Neri Jr. (April 12, 1930October 18, 2021) was an American sculptor who is recognized for his life-size figurative sculptures in plaster, bronze, and marble. In Neri's work with the figure, he conveys an emotional inner state that is re ...
,
Roland Petersen Roland Conrad Petersen (born 1926) is a Danish-born American painter, printmaker, and professor. His career spans over 50 years, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area and is perhaps best-known for his "Picnic series" (a yearly event at UC Davi ...
and
William T. Wiley William Thomas Wiley (October 21, 1937April 25, 2021) was an American artist. His work spanned a broad range of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, performance, and pinball. At least some of Wiley's work has been referred to as ...
. Several were associated with the
Funk art Funk art is an American art movement that was a reaction against the nonobjectivity of abstract expressionism. An anti-establishment movement, Funk art brought figuration back as subject matter in painting again rather than limiting itself to th ...
genre. In a negative 1981 review in ''The New York Times'', conservative art critic
Hilton Kramer Hilton Kramer (March 25, 1928 – March 27, 2012) was an American art critic and essayist. Biography Early life Kramer was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and was educated at Syracuse University, receiving a bachelor's degree in English; Col ...
referred to Arneson as the leader of "a spirit best defined as defiant provincialism" at UC Davis. That phrase has since been embraced as a defining description by artists associated with UC Davis. For nearly 60 years, the art faculty hoped for and discussed the possibility of building a dedicated art museum, according to museum director Rachel Teagle.


Financing

Margrit Mondavi Margrit Biever Mondavi (''née'' Kellenberger; August 2, 1925 – September 2, 2016) was a Swiss-born American businesswoman. She was vice president of Cultural Affairs at Robert Mondavi Winery which she joined in 1967. Under her direction, Robe ...
, widow of Napa Valley winemaker
Robert Mondavi Robert Gerald Mondavi (June 18, 1913 – May 16, 2008) was an American winemaker. His technical and marketing strategies brought worldwide recognition for the wines of the Napa Valley in California. From an early period, Mondavi promoted label ...
, made an initial $2 million donation to begin the project. Napa Valley winemaker Jan Shrem, founder of Clos Pegase winery, and his wife Maria Manetti Shrem, donated $10 million of the $30 million budget for building the museum.


Design

The architects were Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu of the firm
SO-IL SO – IL or Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu is an architecture firm in Brooklyn, New York City, which was founded in 2008 by Florian Idenburg (born 1975, Netherlands) and Jing Liu (born 1980, China).Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, who partnered with local architect
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Bohlin Cywinski Jackson is a United States-based architectural practice that was founded in 1965 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania by Peter Bohlin and Richard Powell. Bohlin's firm then merged with John F. Larkin and Bernard Cywinski's Philadelphia ...
. Writing in the ''Los Angeles Times'', architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne described the building: "Inside, a lobby with lightly polished concrete floors is lined with a sweeping curve of floor-to-ceiling glass. As you enter, a multipurpose room that can be arranged as an auditorium is off to the left, with classrooms, studios and museum offices straight ahead. To the right are the galleries, which fill rooms of varying sizes and heights and are topped with a ceiling of aluminum mesh, through which mechanical equipment is left visible." A "focal point" of the design is the Grand Canopy, a structure of swooping curves that surrounds the museum. Described as a "perforated aluminum and steel roof that creates textured light and shadows throughout the grounds", it was inspired by the geometry of the farm fields that surround Davis. According to acting university chancellor Ralph Hexter, "Students, faculty, staff and the public all will be able to enjoy our rich art legacy and history at UC Davis in a gorgeous and inviting building at the gateway to our campus. Our new museum stresses education first and foremost, with classrooms, a working studio for students and other resources near the entrance where all can see and enjoy for generations to come." In 2022, the Manetti Shrem Museum was listed as #24 of
ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countri ...
's "The 25 Best Museum Buildings of the Past 100 Years".


Collection

The museum owns nearly 6,000 art objects, including many works by
Bruce Nauman Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives near Galisteo, New Mexico. Life and work ...
, a 1966 MFA graduate of the university. Wayne Thiebaud has donated 72 of his own works and 300 works by other artists to the museum's permanent collection. In addition to his financial support, Jan Shrem has also donated works of art including sculptures from his collection to the museum's collection.


See also

*
C.N. Gorman Museum C.N. Gorman Museum is a museum focused on Native American and Indigenous artists, founded in 1973 at University of California, Davis (UC Davis) in Davis, California. History The C.N. Gorman Museum was founded in 1973 by the Department of Nativ ...
, UC Davis on-campus museum dedicated to Native American art


References


External links


Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of ArtUniversity of California Television - You See: The Early Years of the UC Davis Studio Art Faculty
{{authority control Art museums and galleries in California University of California, Davis campus Art museums established in 2016 2016 establishments in California