“Borein & His Circle of Friends” Exhibit Open- In Person

 With the opening of Borein and His Circle of Friends, the Santa Barbara Historical Museum honors one of Santa Barbara’s most celebrated citizens and artists, Edward Borein, and his many artist friends, with a special exhibition on view now through January 22, 2022.

 Borein counted many talented artists as friends and colleagues, over 25 of whom are represented in this major exhibition. It is guest curated by Marlene R. Miller, an acknowledged authority on Borein’s work.

 Borein, acclaimed for his accurate depictions of the American West, is one of Santa Barbara’s most important artists,” she writes in the exhibit catalog introduction. “By settling here in 1921 he only added to the city’s reputation as a significant art colony, a reputation which had been developing since the 1870s.”

 On view for the first time are more than twenty recently conserved and reframed watercolors by Borein, on loan from the collection of a Santa Barbara family who wishes to remain anonymous. They are displayed adjacent to the Museum’s permanent Edward Borein Gallery, which Miller curated in 2017, and depict scenes of cowboys herding cattle, Native Americans on horseback, stagecoaches, bucking broncos, and other Western scenes.

 The Sala contains works by some of his closest friends who worked mainly in the western genre, including Carl Oscar Borg, Joe De Yong, Maynard Dixon, Clyde Forsythe, Frank Tenney Johnson, Fernand Lungren, Charles Marion Russell, and James Swinnerton.

The Corner Gallery presents works by his many friends from the Santa Barbara years, among them Colin Campbell Cooper, Frank Morley Fletcher, John Gamble, Alexander Harmer, Childe Hassam, Albert Herter, Clarence Mattei, Thomas Moran, William Louis Otte, DeWitt, and Douglass Parshall, and Alexis Podchernikoff.

An exhibit catalog is available for purchase, as is a new book Edward Borein: Etched by the West by B. Byron Price. Published by the Museum, it describes Borein’s path from itinerant vaquero to successful illustrator to revered recorder and interpreter of the vanishing West. The author speaks and signs books at the Museum on October 20, one of several public programs scheduled in conjunction with the exhibit.

Borein and His Circle of Friends are on view through January 22, 2022. The Historical Museum is located at 136 East De la Guerra Street. Admission is free. Visit www.sbhistorical.org for more information.