Items in today’s column include:
*SDMA exhibit on women of abstract impressionism includes some Jewish artists
*UC San Diego’s economic impact
*Political Bytes
*Coming Our Way
SDMA exhibit on women of abstract impressionism includes some Jewish artists
Lee Krasner, Pink Stone, 1969, Lithograph, Gift of Mr. Sanford Robertson. 1979.34.3
SAN DIEGO — Jewish artists Lee Krasner and Helen Frankenthaler and another artist of Jewish descent, Elaine de Kooning, are among artists whose works are featured in the San Diego Museum of Art’s exhibition through Feb. 23 on women whose works were important in the development of abstract impressionism.
De Kooning, daughter of Mary Ellen O’Brien and Charles Frank Fried (a Protestant of Jewish descent) married artist Willem de Kooning, who had been her art teacher. Krasner was married to artist Jackson Pollock, and Frankenthaler was married for a time to artist Robert Motherwell. While these women influenced and were influenced by their husbands, the point of this exhibition is that they all are important artists in their own right.
“Great efforts have been made in recent years to reevaluate the development of Abstract Expressionism in relation to women’s contributions and it is from these efforts that this show builds,” the San Diego Museum of Art says in a notice of the show. The works of Krasner, Frankenthaler, de Kooning, and other female artists “demonstrate that the masculine lens through which abstraction has been previously understood must be removed.”
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UC San Diego’s economic impact
A study by the Tripp Umbach consultancy group estimates that UC San Diego has an annual economic impact of $16.5 billion in California. In San Diego County, 74,071 jobs are in some fashion or another related to UC San Diego, including companies that license technology and startups. The report notes UC San Diego has various component parts including the Jacobs School of Engineering, Jacobs Medical Center, and the Rady School of Management, named respectively for philanthropists Irwin and Joan Jacobs and Ernest and Evelyn Rady.
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Political Bytes
Attorney Joe Leventhal reports raising over $100,000 in the 22 days between announcing his candidacy for San Diego’s 5th City Council District and the Sept. 30 campaign reporting deadline. … Meanwhile in the 50th Congressional District where incumbent Congressman Duncan Hunter faces trial on charges of misappropriation of campaign funds, challenger Carl De Maio has announced raising $1.3 million in more than 20,000 contributions. … San Diego City Councilwoman Barbara Bry, a candidate for mayor, offers a three-point program for improving the environment: “Providing for higher density growth along transit corridors to reduce traffic and greenhouse emissions; expanding recycling programs to reduce our reliance on imported supplies; planting trees throughout our neighborhoods that make an enormous contribution to our environment and our quality of life.” … Mayoral candidate Todd Gloria, currently a state assemblyman, has been endorsed by Congressman Scott Peters.
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Coming Our Way
Matt Tyrnauer’s Where’s My Roy Cohn? about the unscrupulous lawyer who was an aide to Senator Joseph McCarthy and a mentor to Donald Trump, will be presented at the Hillcrest Cinemas, 3965 5th Avenue, Oct. 4 through Oct. 9 … Coastal Roots Farm will feature Chef Giselle Wellman of the San Diego Jewish Academy and a dozen chefs from local restaurants “who are making waves of sustainability within our food system” from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, Oct 27. In addition to the opportunity to sample these chefs’ cuisine, visitors to the farm in Encinitas will be able to view exhibits on beekeeping, clean water, fermentation, food as medicine, gleaning, pastured chicken, vermiculture, and zero waste.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com