The art festivals are coming to Laguna soon

Thought for the day

It’s hard to believe, but summer is rapidly approaching. To me, this means shorts, golf shirts, crowds and art everywhere in town. Even though I won’t be turning 75 until September, I’ve been thinking a lot about my past and what lies ahead. With these thoughts in mind, I hope you will find the following of interest.

As a young boy growing up in Palo Alto, I remember my parents' interest in art with great fondness.  I knew the Miro and Chagall posters my parents had been hanging were inexpensive.  What mattered more to me were the images themselves.

While visiting my oldest brother one summer day in 1960, when he worked in Laguna, I remember telling myself, “… some day I’m going to live here.” Lucky for me it first happened in 1970.

By the mid-1970s, I often would drive from Laguna to the Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena.  Then, in 1980, my first wife, a professor of contemporary art history and studio art at Orange Coast College, and I began helping friends and corporations collect works by David Hockney, Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, Martha Alf, Ellsworth Kelly, Barbara Kasten, Richard Diebenkorn, Gwynn Murrill, Robert Rauschenberg, Vija Celmins and many other artists.  

Two years later, Freidenrich Contemporary Art (FCA) published the Andy Warhol celebrity portrait of Jane Fonda.  The sale of 100 silkscreen prints raised $250,000 for Fonda's husband at the time, Tom Hayden.  It was Tom’s first campaign for the California Assembly.  The following year, FCA created a portfolio of works by several artists to support Arts & Architecture Magazine.

This 13-color silkscreen hangs in my son’s house. The Warhol print measures 31” x 39”

At the same time our art consulting business was taking off, I was retained by the trustees of the former Newport Harbor Art Museum to underwrite the costs associated with a special Edvard Munch exhibition.  (For those who need reminding, Munch was the Norwegian expressionist who painted "The Scream" in 1893.)    

The goal was to raise $150,000 in eight weeks.  We did it in six. Not only that, a record high 43,000 people saw the exhibit.

The following year, I tapped several 30-something friends to help me launch the museum's Contemporary Club, Orange County's first major fundraising group comprised of young professionals.  That club was so successful, I was asked to help grow Center 500, a different group of young professionals dedicated to supporting the original Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Along the way, I acquired works by Nathan Oliveira, Sylvia Mangold, Peter Shire, Toby Klayman, Irv Tepper, Julia Nee Chu and many other artists. 

This Julia Nee Chu painting hangs in my living room. It measures 32” x 44” 

Then, in 2001, while serving as Laguna Art Museum's development consultant, I dreamed up the idea of placing personalized tiles in the lobby of the museum. Each one sold for $1,000.  We had a public unveiling of 108 tiles. It was a thrill helping donors find their tiles.     

Last year, I publicly admonished Wells Fargo for its "wrongheaded decision" to suddenly remove an entire quilt exhibition by Allyson Allen.  

Today, I have two artful ideas in mind.  The first is a bronze plaque with the likeness of Laguna’s Arnold and Bonnie Hano and the second is painting the city's sidewalk maintenance covers (formerly known as manhole covers).  

Arnold and Bonnie broke the mold when it comes to civic involvement.  Because they both passed away last year, I hope a plaque will be permanently placed somewhere in town in their honor.

As for the maintenance covers, cities like Miami, Seattle, Germany's Berlin, Ecuador's San Cristobal and Spain's Toledo, have decorated many of theirs, so why not Laguna?  Think of them like the banners that typically fly during the summer, only these would be on permanent display for people to admire while walking around town.

If you are interested in helping move the plaque or maintenance cover ideas forward, please send me an email at dennyfreidenrich@gmail.com. Thanks.

One footnote: This is the first piece of art I ever purchased (back in 1974). It’s by Toby Klayman. It doesn’t look square in this photo, but the 39”x 39” print hangs in my living room.