California Art Club
The California Art Club (CAC) is one of California’s oldest and still active art groups. It started in December 1909 after The Painters’ Club of Los Angeles (1906–1909) dissolved. The new club was more welcoming: it included women, sculptors, and artists living outside California. Early members included Franz Bischoff, Carl Oscar Borg, Edgar Payne, Julia Bracken Wendt, and William Wendt. Over time, younger painters joined, such as Millard Sheets, Mabel Alvarez, Emil Kosa Jr., and Rex Brandt, along with other artists and amateurs. Notable members have included Sir Winston Churchill, Dean Cornwell, Nicolai Fechin, Sam Hyde Harris, Alfredo Ramos Martinez, and Richard Neutra. Today, the CAC welcomes representational artists and sculptors, including many women and artists who moved to the U.S. from Europe and Asia.
The CAC puts on the annual Gold Medal Exhibition each spring, plus other public and museum exhibitions. Its headquarters are in a set of bungalows on the historic Vista del Arroyo Hotel site in Pasadena, and the club has chapters throughout California.
A brief look at the club’s history shows its roots in the Painters’ Club of Los Angeles. In 1906 a group of Los Angeles painters formed a club to organize exhibitions and support the fine arts in Southern California. Eleven charter members met at William Swift Daniell’s studio in 1906, and the Painters’ Club grew to about 42 members. By 1909 the group decided it was too limited to be just male painters in Los Angeles, so it dissolved and a broader organization—the California Art Club—took its place. A core group from the old club, including Charles Percy Austin, Franz Bischoff, Carl Oscar Borg, Benjamin Chambers Brown, Frank Liddell, Hanson Puthuff, and William Wendt, helped found the CAC and served as its first leaders.
The CAC opened its membership to women, sculptors, and artists from far away places. By 1911 its second Annual Exhibition already had nine women among about thirty new members. Early members studied in European ateliers and were influenced by French Impressionism, helping California Impressionism become popular. The club’s work and exhibitions also connected with the nearby Museum of History, Science and Art in Exposition Park.
In the 1920s the CAC sought a permanent home. In 1926 Aline Barnsdall gifted her Hollyhock House on Olive Hill to the club for a 15-year lease, and the CAC moved there in 1927. The 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression hit the club hard, reducing membership and activity. The Hollyhock lease ended in 1942, and the CAC moved between temporary spaces and smaller venues for years.
The club began publishing a monthly Bulletin in 1925 to keep members informed. It later became the California Art Club Newsletter in 1994, expanding to include scholarly art history and profiles of contemporary CAC artists.
The CAC revived in the 1990s. In 1993 Peter Seitz Adams became president, and his wife, Elaine Adams, took on leadership roles and started editing the CAC Bulletin, renaming it the California Art Club Newsletter and adding more art history content. A new wave of painters joined in the mid-1990s, renewing the club’s activities and exhibitions. The Gold Medal Exhibition continues, though the awarding of medals was discontinued in 2016.
The CAC has organized numerous exhibitions over the years, including large traveling shows and collaborations with museums. Examples include California Wetlands (1996) at the Natural History Museum, Treasures of the Sierra Nevada (1998) at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and a 1994 show at the Carnegie Museum in Oxnard. The organization also recognizes members with various honors and maintains a membership structure that includes Signature Members, Artist Members, Out-of-State Members, Patron Members, and a Collector’s Circle.
Overall, the California Art Club remains a key force in California’s traditional art scene, supporting representational painting and sculpture and continuing to connect artists with the public through exhibitions and memberships.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 05:32 (CET).