Credit Brian Suhr
Art connoisseurs embarking on a California holiday must plan a visit to this fabulous, multi-genre assemblage of exquisite European paintings, master drawings, international ceramics and significant African, Asian, and Oceanic works, with prized collections dating from the Gold Rush era to the present day. Landmark Crocker Art Museum, one of the most important art institutions in the Golden State and the longest continuously operational art museum in the West, is located in the State Capitol of sunny Sacramento. The museum is the grand vision, fulfilled, of prominent local banker/land baron Judge E.B. Walker and his wife Margaret; its fantastic core collection was assembled by the couple in the early 1870s and has flourished ever since – so much so that the historic Victorian Italianate art gallery building was quickly outgrown and the adjoining Teel Family Pavilion was constructed to accommodate expansion, effectively tripling the museum’s size to a massive 145,000 square feet, adding four times the space for traveling exhibitions and three times the space reserved for showcasing its incredible permanent holdings. The Art Museum regularly offers a diverse spectrum of special events, exhibitions and programs to complement its stunning collections: films, fundraisers, concerts, classes and more. The anchor of the Crocker’s fantastic photography collection is its wealth of American photography, with examples representing major artistic movements ranging from surrealism to street aesthetic, new topographies, and the conceptual; featured photographers include Ansel Adams, Edward Henry Weston, Richard Misrach and Marion Post Wolcott. Current exhibition African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond showcases an exciting presentation of 100 paintings, sculptures, and photographs by iconic African American artists, drawn from the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum; the Crocker is the only West Coast venue for this stunning survey of African American visual heritage.