New gallery at CSUS opens with legendary art

Bold landscapes by California plein-air artists of the early 20th Century are featured in “Society of Six,” the first exhibit in California State University, Sacramento’s spacious new Library Gallery.

The gallery, on the first floor of the University Library, has more than 2,000 square feet of exhibit space. It opens on April 4, the first day of the 10th annual Festival of the Arts.

The “Society of Six” exhibit features 34 paintings, most from the private collection of CSUS emeritus professor Robert E. Aichele. It is the first time the works have been shown together.

The paintings were created around 1917, when the Oakland hills were still rural and the shoreline of the San Francisco Bay was still a paradise of open space.

The East Bay hills and beaches were also the studios for a group of Northern California plein-air artists - six men with shared aesthetic ideals who painted and exhibited together.

The artists - Selden Gile, August Gay, Maurice Logan, Bernard von Eichman, William Clapp, and Louis Siegriest - called themselves the "Society of Six." Although considered outsiders in their day, their bold and colorful landscapes are now regarded among the most advanced and original paintings produced in the Western United States.

The “Society of Six” exhibit continues through July 26 and gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information call (916) 278-4189. Additional media assistance is available at the CSUS office public affairs at (916) 278-6156.

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For further information, send an e-mail to infodesk@csus.edu or contact
public affairs at (916) 278-6156. For ticketed events, call the CSUS Ticket Office at (916) 278-4323.

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