Traveling Exhibits
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
The Tom Golden Collection
In 2001, Tom Golden donated his collection of works by renowned artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude to the Sonoma County Museum. Golden’s personal and professional relationship with the artists began when he met them during the 1974 public hearings for their project Running Fence,Sonoma and Marin counties, California, 1972-1976. Golden went on to manage or assist with a number of the artists' large scale projects including The Umbrellas, Joint Project for Japan and the USA, 1984-1991 and, more recently, the as yet unrealized Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River. Actively engaged with the art he so loved for nearly 30 years, Golden passed away at his home in late 2002.
Tom Golden’s remarkable collection reflects his friendship with and admiration of Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Over 100 original drawings, sculptures, collages and photographs trace their impressive careers. Drawings and collages of the large-scale public works, sold to fund the actual installations, are an important component of this collection. Those projects include Running Fence, Surrounded Islands, The Pont Neuf Wrapped and Wrapped Reichstag, among many others. There are also a multitude of smaller projects represented in original drawings, from the whimsical Package on Radio Flyer Wagon to the haunting Wrapped Woman. Finally, unique to this collection are some small, poignant pieces made especially for Golden, including a wrapped bouquet of flowers.
Mapping the Pacific Coast:
Coronado to Lewis and Clark
The Quivira Collection
The maps and illustrations in this exhibition encompass the story of a quarter-millennium of exploration framed by two remarkable journeys, that of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, the relentless Spanish seeker of legendary cities, and the expedition of Lewis and Clark, the celebrated American explorers sent by Thomas Jefferson to find their way to the Pacific ocean. At the heart of Mapping the Pacific Coast is the Quivira Collection,comprised of over 40 maps, illustrations and books that date from 1544 to 1802. The Sonoma County Museum (SCM) worked in close collaboration with Henry Wendt, the owner of the Quivira Collection, to produce the exhibition. The Museum interpreted the collection through the themes of Territory, Technology, and Imagination. Expanding on those themes to stretch the exhibition boundaries, SCM included a contemporary art installation on mapping portraits, a gallery devoted to the surveying, mapping and cultural land divisions of Sonoma County, and a technology gallery that included a GIS computer system, a selection of ancient navigation tools, and several examples of modern map uses. The exhibition further includes a comprehensive catalog, audio guide,and fully developed education program. In addition to the Quivira Collection, the audio guide, catalog, and education materials are available to interested parties. SCM will gladly provide information on other components.
Envisioning the World:
The First Printed Maps, 1472 - 1700
Drawn from the collection of Henry and Holly Wendt, this exhibition presents thirty of the very first printed world maps, illustrating the ways in which early Renaissance Europe came to comprehend world geography.
Today, with the availability of powerful mapping technology such as Google Earth that allows anyone with access to the Internet to search the world from a desktop, we take for granted the ability to visualize the Earth and its geography. Yet it is only within the past seventy years or so that the first images of the earth from space were captured by a missile launched sixty-five miles into the air. Those original, grainy photographs were met with wonderment. The maps in this exhibition capture similarly magical moments in the awakening of human consciousness.
Envisioning the World challenges us to examine the conceptual and philosophical framework behind the maps that mark our understanding of geography. The Wendt maps offer a visual means of understanding much of Western intellectual history: the knowledge of the ancient Greeks and the lasting importance of classical sources; the pervasive influence of religion over early mapmaking; the revelations derived from the voyages of explorers; and the rise of scientific thought. By the 1700s, where Envisioning the World concludes its story, European intellectuals generally believed that science enabled man to accurately measure, collect, categorize and understand the physical structure of the world and the universe. This was a reflection of the confidence that flowed from the grand accomplishment of accurately envisioning the world.
