Dijkstras and The Huntington: A Wonderful Romance

Rico Lebrun (1900–1964), Vertical Composition, 1945, oil on canvas, 70 × 32 in., frame: 75 1/4 × 37 7/8 in., The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of Sandra and Bram Dijkstra. © Estate of Rico Lebrun.

Once again, the Dijkstras have bestowed their generosity upon The Huntington with the recent gift of Rico Lebrun’s Vertical Composition (1945), which is among the 19 striking works on view in the upcoming exhibition “Art for the People: WPA-Era Paintings from the Dijkstra Collection,” opening Dec. 2, 2023.

Drawn from the collection of Sandra and Bram Dijkstra, “Art for the People: WPA-Era Paintings from the Dijkstra Collection” and its accompanying catalog explore representational paintings created in the United States between the 1929 stock market crash and World War II. The exhibition focuses on Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) artists of the 1930s and early 1940s who were employed by the government to help stimulate the post-Depression economy. More than 10,000 artists participated, creating works that represented the nation and its people and seeking to express fundamental human concerns, basic democratic principles, and the plight of the dispossessed.

“What distinguishes this exhibition, whose relevance to today’s problems cannot be overstated, is that it redefines the art of the WPA, making it more inclusive of art produced in California, too often omitted, as well as art made by a much more diverse group of artists, whose styles and genres go way beyond the stereotypical idea of the period,” Sandra says. The exhibition “presents works characteristic of both American Scene and American Expressionism, as well as more timeless landscapes and figures.”

Bram is a cultural historian and Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at the University of California, San Diego, and the author of many books, including a 2003 book on American Expressionism and its social relevance. Sandra is a powerhouse literary agent whose client roster boasts novelists Amy Tan and Lisa See, and Pulitzer Prize–winning historians Eric Foner and Stephen Hahn. She is especially proud to have been the agent and friend to Kevin Starr, the premier historian of California.

Sandra and Bram recently sat down with us to discuss what compelled them to make their recent gift, the upcoming exhibition, and their ongoing support of The Huntington.