Frederick Wight
Title: Stranded Islands
Medium: Oil on Canvas. 1982
Location:

Frederick Wight painted throughout his life and frequently showed his work, but his career as an artist took off with surprising force after he retired from UCLA in 1973. His late works, such as this one, consist of highly expressive, luminous landscapes.
In 1953, Wight came to UCLA to teach in the art department and direct the university’s art gallery. He was responsible for shaping a stellar exhibition program in a period when Los Angeles had relatively few museums. In 1974, the gallery was named the Wight Art Gallery in his honor.

Other works by the artist

 
Frederick Wight
Water’s Edge
1984. Oil on canvas

During Wight’s 20-year tenure, UCLA presented exhibitions of major figures, including Jean Arp, Morris Graves, Hans Hofmann, Arthur Dove, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. The exhibition for Picasso was in honor of the artist’s 80th birthday in 1961. For the occasion, Picasso created a lithograph, Flowers for UCLA, in a limited edition of 100 signed and numbered prints. Print number one is in UCLA’s Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, which is part of the Hammer Museum in nearby Westwood.