The Irvine Museum was founded in 1992 by Athalie Richardson Irvine Clarke, Joan Irvine Smith and James Irvine Swinden. Its collection consists of over 1,300 works of California Impressionism. The collection chronicles the history of California’s art and natural landscape from the early nineteenth century to the present day. It consists of seminal works by California artists including William Ritschel, William Wendt, Anna Hills, Franz Bischoff, Alson Clark, Frank Cuprien, Arthur Mathews, Granville Redmond, Guy Rose, Donna Schuster and many others. The collection has attracted museum-goers to The Irvine Museum location for more than 20 years.
Meanwhile, Gerald Buck – an Orange County developer and art collector who passed away in 2013 – created one of the most comprehensive private collections of California modern art in the world, according to dealers and curators. The encyclopedic collection is a representation of Buck’s enduring investment in the rich history of artists of the region from early modern pioneers to contemporary luminaries such as Larry Bell, Joan Brown, Mary Corse, Richard Diebenkorn, Sam Francis, Robert Irwin, Ed Kienholz, Gilbert “Magu” Luján, David Park and others. Few of the artworks in the collection have been shown; IMCA hosted the inaugural public exhibition of selected works last fall with First Glimpse: Introducing the Buck Collection.