GIFTED

Closing reception with Jean Stern lecture and book signing

November 12, 2-4 pm

A nationally recognized authority on California Impressionism, Mr. Stern has extensive experience as an author, curator, lecturer, and teacher.  He was the founding and sole director of The Irvine Museum (1992-2016), a small but exceptionally active California institution that collected, researched and displayed paintings of the California Impressionist Style (1890-1940).

As director, Mr. Stern worked to establish a national presence for California Impressionism through a noteworthy series of books, exhibitions, lectures, articles and video documentaries.  He has authored, edited or contributed to over 30 books on California art.  He is credited with coining the term “California Impressionism” first used in his introductory essay to Plein Air Painters of California: The Southland, published in 1982 by Ruth Lilly Westphal, the first book on Southern California painting to gain national distribution.

He currently serves on the board of the California Art Club, founded in 1909, and is a board adviser to the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, in Laguna Beach, California.

In 2017, Mr. Stern received the prestigious CHEVALIER OF THE ORDER OF ARTS AND LETTERS from the French Ministry of Culture.  He has also been presented with three LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS: by the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association in 2013; by the Plein Air Painters of America in 2014; and by Plein Air Magazinein 2014.  In 2011, he and his wife Linda Weingarten Stern were honored with the SAMUEL GENDEL COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD, presented by the American Jewish Committee of Orange County.