‘Twilight and Reverie’ in Monterey

Landscape | Granville Redmond

Those who missed the Oakland Museum’s first-rate tonalism exhibit last year have another chance to see “Twilight and Reverie: California Tonalist Paintings, 1890-1930.” The exhibition is now at the Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art in downtown Monterey.

“The Tonalists studied nature and light intently, not to reproduce it in an exact way, but in order to intensify the experience of nature,” the museum says in describing the show. “Rejecting the bright, midday sun so beloved by the Impressionists, they depicted the subtle light of evening and morning, sometimes adding sharp points of gaslight or a glimmer of moon reflected on water. Eliminating hard edges and softening contrasts, they unified the elements of the scene by reducing their palette and using gradations of one dominant color — the ‘tone’ that gave the group its name.”

Oakland senior curator Harvey L. Jones, who organized the show, says it was originally conceived as a companion to the major Arts & Crafts show presented by the Oakland Museum in 1993.