Jack Rutberg Fine Arts Gallery

Jack Rutberg

"The Pasadena Bridge," a 1948 painting by Hans Burkhardt, anchors the unprecedented exhibition "Pasadena: L.A.'s Art Legacy" opening Sunday, June 7 and extending through August 29, 2026.

While typically portrayed in a realist style, Burkhardt's expressionist, surrealist, rendering of this Pasadena icon confronts its complicated history.

All seventy works in "Pasadena: L.A.'s Art Legacy" are by artists who have exhibited in Pasadena's institutions, and Burkhardt is no exception, having had his works exhibited at the Pasadena Art Museum, the Pasadena Museum of California Art, and ArtCenter College of Design.

"The Pasadena Bridge," a 1948 painting by Hans Burkhardt, anchors the unprecedented exhibition "Pasadena: L.A.'s Art Legacy" opening Sunday, June 7 and extending through August 29, 2026.

While typically portrayed in a realist style, Burkhardt's expressionist, surrealist, rendering of this Pasadena icon confronts its complicated history.

All seventy works in "Pasadena: L.A.'s Art Legacy" are by artists who have exhibited in Pasadena's institutions, and Burkhardt is no exception, having had his works exhibited at the Pasadena Art Museum, the Pasadena Museum of California Art, and ArtCenter College of Design.

Opening Sunday, June 7, from 3:00 to 6:00 pm, the L.A. art scene takes center stage in “Pasadena: L.A.’s Art Legacy,” at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Pasadena exhibition and extending through August 29, 2026.

Bringing into focus Pasadena’s outsized and yet seldom addressed role in L.A.’s recognition as a major international art center, the exhibition offers 70 paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture by 60 artists from the gallery’s holdings all for sale. Each work is accompanied with a label noting the year and in which Pasadena museums presented the artist.

Artists featured in “Pasadena: L.A.’s Art Legacy” include Karel Appel, Alexander Archipenko, Emil Bisttram, Pierre Bonnard, Morris Broderson, Hans Burkhardt, Alexander Calder, Jacques Callot, Marc Chagall, Jean Charlot, Jose Luis Cuevas, Honore Daumier, Edgar Degas, Jules Engel, Claire Falkenstein, Henri Fantin-Latour, Lorser Feitelson, Oskar Fischinger, Llyn Foulkes, Sam Francis, Patrick Graham, Mark Steven Greenfield, Francisco Goya, George Grosz, Frederick Hammersley, Stanley William Hayter, George Herms, Paul Klee, Max Klinger, Käthe Kollwitz, Peter Krasnow, Rico Lebrun, Rene Magritte, Aristide Maillol, Alfredo Ramos Martinez, Andre Masson, Henry Moore, Jim Morphesis, Robert Motherwell, Louise Nevelson, G.B. Piranesi, Man Ray, Diego Rivera, Auguste Rodin, Georges Rouault, Ed Ruscha, Morgan Russell, Alison Saar, James Strombotne, Mark Tobey, Jacques Villon, Eduard Vuillard, Gordon Wagner, Ruth Weisberg, James McNeil Whistler, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, & others.

Jack Rutberg Fine Arts is a singular West Coast presence offering contemporary art in such historic context. The historic relevance of Contemporary, Modern, and earlier art doesn't necessarily correspond to dollar value, and that too will surprise visitors in “Pasadena: L.A.'s Art Legacy.”