Northern California art shows fill up the fall

Several exciting exhibitions loom on the horizon this fall at regional art museums.

The Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St., Sacramento, (916) 808-7000, has three major shows planned for the fall:

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Oakland Museum of California join their collections to present “Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California” at the Oakland Museum, 1000 Oak St., Oakland, (510) 318-8400. This innovative show, which tells the stories of four creative communities active in Northern California between the 1930s and the early 2000s, opens Sept. 20 and runs through April 12. Bringing together artworks and historical documents from monumental paintings to handwritten letters, the show focuses on four key moments in the history of California art:

Among the artists included are Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Mark Rothko, Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, Clyfford Still, Joan Brown, Robert Arneson, William T. Wiley, Wayne Thiebaud, Bruce Nauman, Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen.

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco have two major shows planned for the fall:

“Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” which opens Oct. 24 and runs through Jan. 18 at the Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin St., San Francisco, (415) 581-3500, offers West Coast audiences a first look at recent archaeological discoveries from the Arabian peninsula. Funerary treasures from the tomb of a young royal girl buried nearly 2,000 years ago are among the surprising discoveries on display in this fascinating exhibition. Including more than 200 objects, the show reveals the Arabian peninsula as a cultural crossroads through trade and pilgrimage over thousands of years.

“Arnold Newman: Masterpieces” at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission St., San Francisco, (415) 655-7800, celebrates the singular vision of one of the most influential portrait photographers of the 20th century. Over the course of nearly seven decades, Newman (1918-2006) created images of some of the most prominent innovators, celebrities and cultural figures of his time, among them Martha Graham, Marilyn Monroe, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Philip Glass and Twyla Tharp. The exhibition takes stock of the entire range of Newman’s photographic art, including lesser-known and rarely shown still lifes, architectural studies and early portraits.

“American Wonder: Folk Art from the Collection” at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, (510) 642-080, opens Oct. 1 and runs through Dec. 21. The show includes approximately 50 portraits, landscapes, commemorative mourning pictures, weather vanes and decorative sculptures from the museum’s collection, ranging from the Revolutionary War to the onset of the Civil War. The vibrant show is drawn from one of the finest folk art collections in California.

This story was originally published September 4, 2014 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Northern California art shows fill up the fall."