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For the similarly-named museum at the University of Connecticut, see William Benton Museum of Art.

Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College
Former namesGladys K. Montgomery Art Center/Gallery (until 2001)[1]
Pomona College Museum of Art (until 2020)
Established1958; 63 years ago (1958)
Location211 N. College Ave., Claremont, California, United States
Coordinates34°5′46.2″N 117°42′55.1″W / 34.096167°N 117.715306°W / 34.096167; -117.715306Coordinates: 34°5′46.2″N 117°42′55.1″W / 34.096167°N 117.715306°W / 34.096167; -117.715306
TypeArt museum
Collection size15,000 items[2]
Visitors18,000 per year[3]
DirectorVictoria Sancho Lobis[4][5]
ArchitectsMachado Silvetti, Gensler
OwnerPomona College
Public transit accessClaremont Metrolink icon.svg
Websitepomona.edu/museum

The Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, known colloquially as the Benton, is an art museum at Pomona College in Claremont, California. It was completed in 2020, replacing the Montgomery Art Gallery, which had been home to the Pomona College Museum of Art (PCMA) since 1958. It houses a collection of approximately 15,000 works,[2] including Italian Renaissance panel paintings, indigenous American art and artifacts, and American and European prints, drawings, and photographs. The museum is free to the public.

History[edit]

Pomona College established a separate School of Art and Design in 1892,[6] and incorporated it into the college c. 1913.[7] In 1958, responding to increased postwar interest in the arts, the Gladys K. Montgomery Art Center was completed adjacent to the art department in Rembrandt Hall, enabling the college to present its permanent collection in one place for the first time.[8][9]

The gallery experienced a brief golden age from 1969 to 1973,[10][11][12][13][14][15] during which director Mowry Baden (class of 1958) and curators Hal Glicksman[16] and Helene Winer[17] staged a number of groundbreaking post-minimalist and conceptual exhibitions, including work by James Turrell (class of 1965), Judy Fiskin (class of 1966), Chris Burden (class of 1969), and Peter Shelton (class of 1973), all of whom would later achieve fame.[18] Resistance from the more socially conservative administration, including to a controversial March 1972 performance by Wolfgang Stoerchle in which he urinated on a rug, led to a mass exodus of the art faculty in 1973.[19][20] Art historian Thomas E. Crow later wrote that the works created and presented at the college during this period were arguably "as salient to art history as any being made and shown anywhere else in the world at that time."[18]

In 1977, a new 2,500-square-foot (230 m2) gallery was added, doubling the available exhibition space.[21] A more minor renovation was completed in 2006, adding a new entrance.[22]

In 2020, the museum moved to a new building, the Benton, constructed diagonally adjacent to the old Montgomery Gallery. The new facility, named after donor and trustee Janet Inskeep Benton (class of 1979),[23] more than tripled the exhibition and storage space available to the museum.[2] It overcame local opposition from Claremont residents who objected to the moving of a historic house to create space on the lot.[24][25]

Design[edit]

The museum is located near the southwestern edge of Pomona's campus, adjacent to the Village, Claremont's downtown commercial district.[23] It was designed collaboratively by Boston-based Machado and Silvetti Associates and California-based Gensler, and cost $44 million to build.[23] The building is U-shaped around a courtyard,[23] and is constructed primarily of cast-in-place concrete, with stained heavy timbers as an ornamental accent.[26] It features several visual axes, and is designed to be "visually porous" so that visitors can easily see both into and out of it.[26]

Collections[edit]

Prometheus (1930) by José Clemente Orozco

The Benton houses a collection of approximately 15,000 works,[2] including Italian Renaissance panel paintings, approximately 6,000 Pre-Columbian to 20th-century indigenous American art and artifacts,[2] and American and European prints, drawings, and photographs.[23][27] Many of the museum's exhibitions focus on Southern Californian artists.[23] Former director Kathleen Howe described its primary focus as "contemporary art with an edge".[23]

The museum oversees several notable public artworks on Pomona's campus, including The Spirit of Spanish Music by Burt William Johnson (1915), Prometheus by José Clemente Orozco (1930), Genesis by Rico Lebrun (1960),[28][29][30] and Dividing the Light by James Turrell (2007). A statue by Alison Saar, Imbue, is located in the museum's courtyard; it depicts the Yoruba goddess of childbirth, Yemoja, carrying a large stack of pails on her head.[31]

See also[edit]

  • List of museums in Los Angeles County, California
  • Scripps College § Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, a sister institution
  • Hannah Tempest Jenkins, Pomona's first art professor and founder of the Rembrandt Club

References[edit]

  1. ^ "2001". Pomona College Timeline. Pomona College. November 5, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  2. ^ a b c d e Heeter, Maria (September 25, 2019). "New Pomona art museum set to open fall 2020". The Student Life. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  3. ^ "Museum's Mission". Pomona College. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  4. ^ Kendall, Mark (January 2, 2020). "Victoria Sancho Lobis Named Director of New Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College". Pomona College. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  5. ^ "Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College Names Victoria Sancho Lobis Director". Artforum. January 2, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  6. ^ "1892". Pomona College Timeline. Pomona College. November 7, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  7. ^ "1913". Pomona College Timeline. Pomona College. November 7, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  8. ^ "1958". Pomona College Timeline. Pomona College. November 7, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  9. ^ "Arts Figure Gladys Montgomery Dies". Los Angeles Times. March 12, 1985. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  10. ^ Mizota, Sharon (January 6, 2012). "PST, A to Z: 'She Accepts,' 'It Happened'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  11. ^ Knight, Christopher (September 6, 2011). "Art review: 'It Happened at Pomona; Part I: Hal Glicksman' at Pomona College Museum of Art [Updated]". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  12. ^ Mizota, Sharon (February 8, 2012). "PST, A to Z: 'It Happened at Pomona Part 2: Helene Winer at Pomona'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  13. ^ Knight, Christopher (January 23, 2012). "Art review: 'It Happened at Pomona, Part II' at Pomona College". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  14. ^ Mizota, Sharon (September 10, 2012). "PST, A to Z: 'It Happened at Pomona Part 3: At Pomona' at Pomona College Museum of Art". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  15. ^ Knight, Christopher (May 10, 2012). "Art review: 'It Happened at Pomona' shows a brief, enduring period". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  16. ^ "1969". Pomona College Timeline. Pomona College. November 7, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  17. ^ "1970". Pomona College Timeline. Pomona College. November 7, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  18. ^ a b Muchnic, Suzanne (October 4, 2011). "How It Happened Again". Pomona College Magazine. Pomona College. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  19. ^ "1972". Pomona College Timeline. Pomona College. November 7, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  20. ^ "1973". Pomona College Timeline. Pomona College. November 7, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  21. ^ "1977". Pomona College Timeline. Pomona College. November 7, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  22. ^ "2006". Pomona College Timeline. Pomona College. November 7, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  23. ^ a b c d e f g Vankin, Deborah (February 27, 2019). "Southern California's newest art museum will be called the Benton". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  24. ^ "Pomona College's desire for a museum splitting the community". Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. May 15, 2016. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  25. ^ Browning, Kellen (April 26, 2018). "A fresh look at the Pomona College Museum of Art". Claremont Courier. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  26. ^ a b "Benton Museum of Art". Machado and Silvetti Associates. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
  27. ^ "Collections". Pomona College Museum of Art. October 2, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  28. ^ "Rico Lebrun's Genesis". Pomona College Museum of Art. December 18, 2014. Retrieved September 12, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  29. ^ Sutton, Frances (April 29, 2020). "Framed: 'Genesis' is the divine judgment above Frary's steps". The Student Life. Retrieved September 12, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  30. ^ Lyon, E. Wilson (1977). The History of Pomona College, 1887–1969. The Castle Press. pp. 485–487. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  31. ^ Finkel, Jori (November 5, 2020). "Alison Saar on Transforming Outrage Into Art". The New York Times. Retrieved November 6, 2020. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)

Further reading[edit]

  • McGrew, Rebecca; Phillips, Glenn; Shurkus, Marie B.; Crow, Thomas E. (2011). It Happened at Pomona : Art at the Edge of Los Angeles 1969-1973 : August 30, 2011 to May 13, 2012 : in Three Parts. Pomona College Museum of Art. CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)

External links[edit]

  • Official website