Oil and Water: Photographs by
Carleton Watkins
November 20, 2011 – February 12, 2012
Mammoth and whole-plate photographs by the pioneering
American photographer.
The California Oil Museum is excited to debut its most
ambitious and significant exhibit of photography in over
sixty years. Featuring fourteen mammoth and whole-plate
photographs, Oil and Water: Photographs by Carleton
Watkins offers extraordinary views of the California
frontier captured by the famous nineteenth-century
photographer. In addition to his breathtaking images of
Yosemite, Watkins (1829-1916) documented early
Californians’ desperate quest for oil and water which
provides the focus for the exhibit. The Museum will host
an opening reception and book signing on November 20th
from 1 to 3 pm to which the public is invited.
Oil and Water was inspired and supported by
curating consultant Weston Naef, curator emeritus in the
Department of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum
and co-author of Carleton Watkins: The Complete
Mammoth Photographs. Naef will be the guest of honor
at the exhibit’s opening reception and will sign copies
of his incredible new catalogue and discuss “the
extraordinary body of work produced by Watkins between
1858 and 1891 which constitutes one of the longest and
most productive careers in nineteenth-century American
photography.”
Recently published by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the
catalogue includes “nearly thirteen hundred “mammoth”
(18 x 22 inch) glass plate negatives, the majority of
which exist in only one surviving print. Of these, fewer
than three hundred have been previously reproduced or
exhibited.” Four of these rare mammoth-plate photographs
will be on display at the California Oil Museum.
Watkins’ mammoth-plate photograph entitled California
Star Oil Works is the centerpiece of the exhibit.
The 1877 photograph depicts Well No. 4 in Pico Canyon
oilfield near Newhall, CA which in 1876 produced a
gusher for California Star Oil Works and effectively
began the commercial oil industry in California. The
success of that well gave birth to countless new oil
companies at the end of the nineteenth-century,
including Union Oil Company of California. The original
headquarters of Union Oil Company is now home to the
California Oil Museum and is, as Assistant Museum
Educator Julie Cluster described, “the perfect context
for such an exhibit.”
For more information about the museum call 805-933-0076.
