Experimentation comebacks

A large trunk rested against a wall in the Orange County Museum of Art, the glassy pieces from its insides splayed across the floor. The last time the chest and its dusty, aged contents had been displayed at the museum it was 1972 and creator Barbara T. Smith was just gaining a reputation for her work as a conceptual artist.

Of course, back then the venue was called the Newport Harbor Museum of Art and resided inside of the Balboa Pavilion.

So when Smith received a call from the museum staff asking her to reuse the piece, she gathered her Polaroids of the original set up and made her way down the 405 Freeway from her home in Venice to help set things up.

Frankly, she was thrilled to do so.

“I thought no one would find it [again] until after I was gone,” Smith said.

However, Smith’s was not the only piece making a comeback this summer at the Newport Beach museum.

Museum curators dug deep into the archives when compiling “Art Sine the 1960s: California Experiments,” a look into some of the more vocal art from the cold war era and after. The show, open until through Sept. 14, revisits a number of those archival presentations from the museum’s earlier years and even borrows a few notable pieces from the period not displayed before at the museum.

For instance, Andy Warhol’s “Campbell Soup Can” and Marcel Duchamps’ “LHOOQ” of the Mona Lisa with a beard and mustache penciled in on are loan from the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.

While Smith sat musing over the chaotic experience of setting up the work the first time through, the she tipped a beer to her lips, knowingly participating in a social art experiment from fellow conceptual artist Tom Marioni.

A reinvention of Marioni’s 1970 piece, “The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art,” the interaction of those drinking socially analyzes the makeup of the interaction between people in such activities.

Many of the pieces, reminiscent of a time of social protests and reawakening still seemed to elicit a dramatic reactions from their viewers. A dark room in the back of the exhibit featured a number of graphic videos from feminists and artists.

Many were angered by the presence of a Warhol image of famed Chinese dictator Mao Zedong.

A set of urban-inspired etchings by Kim Abeles displayed the gritty power of smog on the physical world by leaving pieces of silk and plexiglass out in the open air to collect particles. A stenciled design attached to the silk would be removed, leaving a contrast between the smog-covered surface and the untouched area, which makes a stark statement on the effects of pollution.

But for the most part the show drew a receptive crowd of baby boomers who were able to somewhat relive an era of experimentation in art and societal questioning through such art forms.

“This stuff hasn’t been up for years and I’m glad to see it back,” said writer Liz Goldner.

An interactive media lounge blends the past with the present, as video presentations are on a wall and guests have access to computer searches as well as hard copy art texts.

The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays. Admission is $10, children 12 and under are free.

For more information call (949) 759-1122 or visit www.ocma.net.