Art Talk: The Beat & the Hip: San Francisco Art 1950-1970

Posted on 07 December 2019

This face-to-face event is cancelled, however you can access the recorded slide lecture here.

The Beat & the Hip: San Francisco Art 1950-1970

San Francisco was a happening place at mid-century: big new ideas about music, poetry, life and love were all developing in what was then a small city. Art, of course, was also in flux, and some uniquely Bay Area artists and styles challenged New York’s dominance of the American art scene. Discover the work of David Park, Richard Diebenkorn, Joan Brown, Jay DeFeo, Robert Arneson, and more as we explore the art world of San Francisco’s Beatniks and Hippies.

Independent Docent Speaker: Avril Angevine

I have had a lifelong interest in art, sparked at my first museum visit—to LACMA—where both Rembrandt’s “Portrait of Titus” and Ed Ruscha’s “Actual Size” made an impression. I also remember seeing a docent explaining a work of art to a group of visitors—these early memories have finally taken center stage in my life and work.

My professional career has been varied. I have worked as a graphic designer, both freelance and as Art Director of the California Coastal Conservancy magazine, Coast and Ocean, but when my children were small, I returned to teaching, which I had done as a grad student. I have taught every possible variety of English in local colleges, including the Fall Freshman Program at UC Berkeley. After training as a docent at SFMOMA in 2010, I began teaching Humanities at Diablo Valley College. I now teach at FPF at UCB, at DVC, and in the OLLI program at Cal State East Bay, and give lectures about art in local libraries and other venues. I’m also a public guide at SFMOMA and a docent at the Oakland Museum of California.