Latest Events in San Marino(July Updated)

Nov. 11, 2023–Nov. 30, 2027 | Renowned American artist Betye Saar’s large-scale work “Drifting Toward Twilight”—commissioned by The Huntington—is a site-specific installation that features a 17-foot-long vintage wooden canoe and found objects, including birdcages, antlers, and natural materials harvested by Saar from The Huntington’s grounds.

This site-specific work explores the fragility of the Earth’s ecosystem, as well as the destruction of the forest and its potential for regeneration. The sculpture celebrates the beauty of wood in its natural state and emphasizes its potential as a reusable and renewable resource.

This site-specific work explores the fragility of the Earth’s ecosystem, as well as the destruction of the forest and its potential for regeneration. The sculpture celebrates the beauty of wood in its natural state and emphasizes its potential as a reusable and renewable resource. California-based Japanese American artist Mineo Mizuno’s site-specific sculpture, titled Homage to Nature, is crafted from fallen timber gathered in the forests of the Sierra Nevada, where the artist lives and works. Views of the San Gabriel Mountains in the background will frame the work. The sculpture explores the fragility of the Earth’s ecosystem, as well as the destruction of the forest and its potential for regeneration. Homage to Nature celebrates the beauty of wood in its natural state and emphasizes its potential as a reusable and renewable resource. Using yakisugi (shou sugi), a traditional Japanese method of wood preservation known in the West as burnt timber cladding, the charred surfaces of the reclaimed timber in the sculpture speak not only to fire’s destructive power but also to its ability to reinvigorate the land. As a companion and response to the sculpture, a “fire landscape” will be planted near the sculpture to mimic new growth that occurs naturally after a fire. This new sculpture marks the culmination of a series of installations by the artist designed to reflect on The Huntington’s collections and link the gardens and art galleries. Homage to Nature will be unveiled on May 25, 2024, and will remain on view for five years.

This exhibition examines the ways painting manuals published in the 17th and 18th centuries used innovative printing methods to introduce the techniques, history, and appreciation of painting to widening audiences in early modern China. Gain insight into early art education in China through painting manuals originally published in the 17th and 18th centuries. “Paintings in Print: Studying Art in China” examines the ways these manuals used innovative printing methods to introduce the techniques, history, and appreciation of painting to widening audiences in early modern China. In the 16th century, Chinese publishers began creating educational art manuals that were filled with colorful prints of paintings and texts on the history and methods of brush arts. The manuals were unprecedented because they taught aspiring painters and collectors from the growing merchant class how to create and appreciate literati art—a combination of painting, calligraphy, and poetry long practiced by elite scholars. Drawing from The Huntington’s collection, “Paintings in Print” will focus on two books: The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting and the Ten Bamboo Studio Collection of Calligraphy and Painting. The books will be displayed together, in their entirety, for the first time in the United States. The texts will be presented in their original form as well as digitized to allow visitors to explore the materials more closely. The books will be complemented with paintings—including recent donations from the Berman Foundation—that exemplify how artists studied manuals like these to learn the basics of their art.

On view will be The Huntington’s Head of a Boy (ca. 1928) and monumental carved redwood Organ Screen (1933–34), which was created for the auditorium of the California School for the Blind in Berkeley, California. In this exhibition, the screen—which had been out of public view from 1980 to 2011, when The Huntington acquired it—will be reunited with the other parts of Johnson’s California School for the Blind commission for the first time in over four decades. Johnson’s work speaks volumes about the fragility of our shared cultural heritage and the critical role that institutions like The Huntington play in safeguarding this heritage for future generations. With this exhibition, The Huntington is making the full range of Johnson's work accessible to the artists, researchers, and audiences of today.

“Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West” is an invitation to see the world as Raqib Shaw sees it. The London-based artist, known for his opulent and fantastical works, blends Eastern and Western influences to create mesmerizing paintings that merge fable, history, and autobiography.

H Art Foundation and AT Gallery present Aurora Rainbow, an exhibition of new abstract works by renowned Chinese artist Pan Jian (b. 1975). Co-curated by AT Gallery's Allison Thompson and H Art Foundation's Rong Peng, the exhibition continues in the vein of Pan Jian's previous Fire Rainbow series, inspired by the celestial beauty of the aurora borealis and rainbow. A total of 15 works are on display, 10 of which are being shown for the first time in Los Angeles, providing a rare opportunity for viewers to experience the latest transformation of Pan Jian's artistic career up close. Through his strong abstract language, the artist invites viewers to experience the collision of color, light and emotion, and to rediscover the magnificence and magic of the natural world.