March 14, 2018 - We headed north into the Mojave Desert today to visit the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, CA. The museum opened in 2012 and consists of three floors and 20,000 square feet of exhibit space. The museum’s exhibits focus on post World War II American art with a special emphasis on California art. Currently the entire museum is holding a special exhibition called "It Takes a Village," focusing on the works of a half dozen West Coast artists. The space is both modern and spacious, which creates a wonderful atmosphere for enjoying the exhibits.
This is a sample of Richard S. Chow's exhibit called Distant Memories.
This is Lisa Bartleson's installation called Kindred.
This large gallery was filled with photographs taken by Wyatt Kenneth Coleman. His exhibit is called Beyond the Village.
Coleman has installed a three dimensional photograph that is astounding. Seen from the left, it shows a Japanese family.
Seen from the right, it's an African American family.
However, when you look at it straight on, both families are united.
We had to look twice at this installation before we realized what was going on.
If you're wondering where the history was in the Museum of Art and History, well, we were wondering as well. MOAH also owns the Western Hotel Museum just down the block and the entire permanent collection of historical art and artifacts are on display there. Built around 1888, the Western Hotel Museum is downtown Lancaster's oldest surviving structure. However, it's only open on alternate weekends so we weren't able to go inside, but it sure is pretty.
On the drive north to Lancaster we stopped at Rick's Roadside Café in Pinon Hills for their wonderful breakfast. Judy had a waffle, eggs and sausage and I stuck with my favorite here, Bread Pudding French Toast. It was great!
