The Desert Speaks: The Art of Fernand Lungren
June 16 through September 19, 2010

Many years in the making, the Wildling is proud to present The Desert Speaks, featuring the evocative desert landscapes of Fernand Lungren (1857-1932). Lungren was a Santa Barbara resident for the last 26 years of his life from which he travelled frequently to Death Valley, the Sierras, the Mojave, and the Grand Canyon to paint. He bequeathed over 300 works to the Santa Barbara State Teacher's College, later to become the University Art Museum (UAM) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. UAM has generously loaned 23 of Lungren's beautiful desert landscapes (oil paintings and a few studies) from their collections which is augmented by other loans and a biography of his life and work. There are also interpretative materials about the fragility of the desert landscapes he portrayed so lovingly in his work.

We are pleased to be working with UAM and bringing the work of this important California painter who travelled in the circles of well known artists like Thomas Eakins, James McNeill Whistler, Childe Hassam, and many others to our members and community.

Image: (left) Desert Gorge: Calico, n.d., oil on canvas, 30 x 120", Fernand Lungren Bequest, University Art Museum, UC Santa Barbara, 1964.667. (top right) Fernand Lungren in his studio. (bottom right) Starlight in the Desert, ca. 1910, oil on canvas, 42 1/4 x 27 1/2", Fernand Lungren Bequest, University Art Museum, UC Santa Barbara, 1964.635.