Radiant Skies: California Paintings by Frederick Wight

Under the inspired tutelage of Frederick Wight, the California sky has never looked so thoroughly or unapologetically radiant.  The titles tell all:  Looking West, New Moon Over Sierras, Western Sea, Tame Palms, Hour by Hour.  The compositions capture the passage of time via the transcendent colors of the sky.  The oil paint is applied thickly with a sense of joyful urgency and light seems to pour forth from the canvas itself.

Though a New Englander by birth, Frederick Wight (1902 – 1986) came to Los Angeles, and the UCLA Art Department, in 1953 and remained here for the rest of his life.  His accomplishments as instructor, curator, writer and driving force behind the UCLA Art Gallery, a forerunner of the UCLA’s Hammer Museum, are legend.

However, Wight’s career as a painter languished until 1973 and his retirement from UCLA.  For the final dozen years of his life, Wight devoted himself to painting and produced a revelatory body of work:  the culmination of a lifelong passion and the realization of an extraordinary gift.

The gallery is the exclusive representative of the estate of Frederick Wight.  This exhibition marks the third in an ongoing series.