Bay Area Figurative painting flourished from about 1950 to 1965, a movement that was both influenced by the dominant Abstract Expressionism of the time and consciously revolting against its influence. The Oakland Museum has one of the finest public collections of this local school of painting, including works in this gallery by Joan Brown, David Park, Nathan Oliveira and Manuel Neri.
When I first arrived in Berkeley in the early 1970s I learned about this movement from a big show at the University Art Museum, and have harbored a proprietary fondness for it ever since.