NEW BRITAIN, CONN.- The New Britain Museum of American Art is presenting California Dreaming: Ed Moses, Billy Al Bengston & Ed Ruscha. Curated by Thomas Krens, Director Emeritus of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York, this exhibition marks the largest show at the NBMAA to date, occupying 11,524 sq. ft. This is the most extensive exploration of these artists’ collective achievements to be shown at an East Coast museum.

California Dreaming offers a retrospective of works by California-based artists Ed Moses (b. 1926), Billy Al Bengston (b. 1934), and Ed Ruscha (b. 1937), including approximately 30 iconic, as well as rarely seen, paintings and works on paper by each artist, spanning the 1950s to today. Moses, Bengston, and Ruscha are among the most influential figures of postwar West Coast art. Part of the first generation to be shown at the renowned Los Angeles Ferus Gallery in the late 1950s and referred to as the “Cool School,” their experimental approach to abstraction has gained attention in the last 65 years both nationally and internationally. This presentation explores the radical innovations and lasting impact of this significant cohort of artists, who have come to define not only Californian, but American art of the twentieth century. By showcasing their important works created over the last six decades, including Moses’s Wagu #2 (1993; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York); Bengston’s Skinny’s 21 (1961; Private Collection, Quenza); and Ruscha’s Standard Station Study (1986; Collection of the Artist), the New Britain Museum of American Art shines a long overdue spotlight on these iconic artists.

In addition to the individual contributions of each artist, the exhibition explores the unique cultural context from which these artists emerged. In postwar Los Angeles of the early 1950s, where the movie industry dominated the cultural landscape, the visual arts scene began to culminate in an explosion of creative activity driven by a group of artists that came to be known as the L.A. Cool School, of which Moses, Bengston, and Ruscha were central figures. The primary catalyst was the collaboration of curator Walter Hopps and artist Ed Kienholz, who established an offbeat gallery in 1957 called Ferus in downtown Los Angeles. Ferus attracted a like-minded group of radical individualists who challenged prevailing cultural attitudes with experimental approaches to art making. Many Southern California artists of the 1950s and 60s have come to occupy a prominent place in the constellation of American contemporary art and architecture, but it was three painters in this scene—Moses, Bengston, and Ruscha—who defined the parameters of art’s potential at that time and in the ensuing decades.

California Dreaming is on view June 23 to October 15, 2017 in the NBMAA’s second floor galleries.