Art Talk by Jean Stern
Listen to an art lecture by the expert on California Impressionism, Jean Stern.
Part of the Inspired by History Art Exhibition
About Jean Stern
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).
The Irvine Museum was founded by Joan Irvine Smith (1933-2019) and her mother Athalie Richardson Irvine Clarke (1903-1993) in 1992, and with James Irvine Swinden as president. 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. In his career, he has presented over 250 lectures and judged and juried more than 125 local, national and international art competitions. 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.
Mr. Stern has presented tours and lectures on California Art in numerous museums including the International Cultural Center, Krakow, Poland; Mona Bismarck Foundation in Paris, France; El Centro Cultural del Conde Duque, Madrid, Spain; National Academy Museum in New York; Terra Museum in Chicago; San Diego Museum of Art; Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Gibbes Museum in Charleston; Brigham Young University Museum; Autry National Western Heritage Center; The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum and many others. He appears in IMPRESSIONS OF CALIFORNIA, a PBS documentary video series on art in California, and on PLEIN AIR: PAINTING THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE, (PBS 2007).
He was a consultant to the Fleischer Museum in Scottsdale, Arizona, the first museum anywhere dedicated to California Impressionist art. He also is an adviser to the Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University, in Orange, California. 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. Since its inception in 2012, he has presented lectures at every annual Plein Air Convention, organized by B. Eric Rhoads and Plein Air Magazine.
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 Magazine in 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.
