Section 1 of 6
Before the quake, painters came for the light
Plein-air work on the coast, and the collectors who followed it.
Painters came for the light and stayed for the cheap rent
Colin Campbell Cooper and Thomas Moran both worked on this coast, and the plein-air tradition arrived before any institution did.
Lockwood de Forest brought Indian carving to a Californian street
De Forest imported teak carving from Ahmedabad and built it into houses here, which is why some Santa Barbara interiors look nothing like the outside.
The other sections
The Compulsory Style
Thirteen seconds in June, and a style that became compulsory
The 1925 earthquake, the Architectural Board of Review, and what got rebuilt.
The Forum Years
A town of ninety thousand kept a kunsthalle
The Contemporary Arts Forum in Paseo Nuevo, 1976 to 2013.
After the Forum
The Forum closed and the thread was picked up
MCASB, and the galleries that grew near the tracks.
The Teaching
Half the story is the schools
Brooks, UCSB and a small college gallery that punches above its enrolment.
The Coast
The coast and what was painted on it
Chumash rock art, and a potter in the next valley.