Not everyone lingering around a masterpiece in a museum is focused solely on the work of art itself. Hanging back, snapping photos of a broader scene, waiting for the right composition of figures to coalesce around the piece of art, might be Susan Hoehn, gathering reference material for her next painting.
For many years, Hoehn’s name was, and in some circles still is, synonymous with lush depictions of California’s Napa Valley in all its seasonal splendor—rolling hills, vineyards, estate wineries, lavender fields—and these landscapes can still be found in many wine country galleries.
Attracting a Crowd, oil on canvas, 30 x 40"
But when she started participating in Festival of Arts of Laguna Beach—this will be her ninth consecutive year in the summer-long juried show—she wanted to try something different. She had always enjoyed painting interiors and going to museums, and soon expanded her scope to include other public spaces featuring fine art. “I found it interesting to watch the interactions between the museum-goers and the art, sometimes more so than the art itself,” Hoehn says. Hoehn always picks out a centerpiece that she is particularly fond of which makes it all the more enjoyable to recreate the artwork within the context of the museum setting.
Spanish Dancer Legion of Honor SF, oil on canvas, 30 x 40"
Spanish Dancer Legion of Honor SF is none other than John Singer Sargent’s La Carmencita which Hoehn saw in Sargent and Spain at the de Young museum in San Francisco—the largest exhibition of Sargent’s work Hoehn had ever seen in one place.
One on One depicts an individual before Franz Kline’s Black, White, and Gray, which Hoehn was surprised to find on an upper floor of The Met. She liked how the viewer’s body language suggested they were unsure if they were going to pause before the piece at all, and how the monochromatic nature of the painting, clothing and room all complemented one another. Hoehn says there are always a lot of people milling about the powerful Jackson Pollock in New York’s Modern Museum of Art featured in Attracting a Crowd. “It’s fascinating to see,” she says. “They just sit and stare at it for a long time.” Huntington Museum Pasadena, which was juried into California Art Club’s 112th Annual Gold Medal Exhibition opening July 9 in Santa Ana, depicts the interior of the historic library and art museum established by railroad tycoon and avid art collector Henry Huntington. Look closely and you may be able to spot Hoehn’s photo-taking reflection in the mirror in the far room.
One on One, oil on canvas, 48 x 36"
Huntington Museum Pasadena, oil on canvas, 30 x 24"
For Hoehn, these pieces are a way of telling a story, of sharing a common experience but enhancing it in a way that, even someone who may not savor museums as much as she does, can feel what she did in that moment. She also sees her paintings as homages to these great works of art, in the same way people often go to a museum to bask in the presence of a particular masterpiece. Her paintings bring the present and the past, the contemporary and the historic into the same frame, where they can intermingle.
“It all just comes from my love of art and all different types of art,” she says. “It’s a way of giving them the credit they deserve and showing how very relevant they still are today.” —
Susan Hoehn
Laguna Niguel, CA • susanhoehnart@gmail.com • www.susanhoehn.net
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