Auction Focuses On Creation

Laguna Art Museum officials are playfully capitalizing on the doom and gloom the brink of the new millennium is bringing with their fund-raiser Saturday titled “Why 2K Art End of the World” Auction.

Organizers chose to chime in on what’s become a cottage-industry of Chicken Little themes, but theirs has a twist: “We predict, instead,” museum spokeswoman Ellen Girardeau Kempler said, “that art will save the world.”

Organizers have amassed 200 pieces for the auction block.

“Everyone’s been talking about being ready. About computers crashing. But our idea is more positive. It’s . . . to affirm that art has an important place in your life and your future,” Kempler said.

While a few of the 200 participating artists hail from distant locales such as New Mexico, Oregon and Tennessee, most are local--with nearly three-quarters from Orange County.

Organizers planned the event to appeal to a variety of tastes by choosing works in a mix of media, from contemporary takes on traditional impressionistic landscape paintings to abstract sculpture and collage.

Prices in previous years have ranged from $150 to $6,000. Museum officials say that many patrons in the event’s 17-year history have taken works home for well under their value.

“Plan your strategy,” said event co-chair Christine Hallen-Berg. “There’s no gallery markup on this. The opening bids can be really reasonable. . . . But it all depends on how fierce the bidding gets.”

A number of pieces are expected to draw special attention, including some by Laguna Beach’s Ken Auster, David Cooke and Jacobus Baas. The three are considered forerunners in the Neo Plein Air movement of contemporary impressionistic landscape paintings. The style--popular at the turn of the last century is currently enjoying a resurgence.

“There’s been a real flip-flop in terms of [more traditional work] and the avant-garde,” museum director Bolton Colburn said. “There doesn’t seem to be any particular movement that is more prevalent than others right now . . . that helps to create an environment where artists can go back to the more traditional and not be self-conscious about it.”

The work of another Laguna Beach artist, Ricardo Duffy, is also expected to fetch some attention. Duffy’s work tends to center around issues and themes he finds alarming, Colburn said.

“His work is interesting and complex” and tends to hit a political nerve, Colburn said.

For this year’s auction, Duffy has donated a silk-screen monotype portrait of an African-American sharecropper who turns his back on his race to save himself. Duffy hopes the piece--a watercolor on silk screen he describes as in the “Warhol-style”--creates a dialogue about today’s race issues.

“This was driven by inspiration,” he said. “But history is in the eye of the beholder.” Duffy said he got the idea for the piece by reading history books and recalling the Rodney King beating and subsequent riots of 1992.

About 70 pieces will be auctioned live; the rest will be offered through a silent auction. Proceeds from the event will fund the museum’s ongoing educational programs and future exhibitions. Most artists donate 100% of the sale of their works directly back to the museum. No surprise there; the museum began its annual auction in 1982 to help promote California art and artists.

Auction preview today through Saturday. Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m.. General admission is $5 for adults; $4 for students and seniors. Children younger than 12 admitted free.

Auction: Saturday 6 p.m.-midnight. Refreshments will be available in each gallery. Tickets are tax-deductible: $85; $75 for museum members. The Laguna Art Museum is at 307 Cliff Drive. Call (949) 494-8971.