SHOWS FEATURE PHOTOS, KLEE, REMBRANDT WORKS

Three new exhibitions are at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena: 20th-Century photography, works by Paul Klee and portrait etchings by Rembrandt.

The photography show presents works by 18 of the most influential artists of this century, including Edward Weston, Barbara Morgan, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Lewis Hines, Minor White and Diane Arbus.

The Klee exhibition, from the Galka Scheyer Blue Four collection, features more than 50 paintings, watercolors, collages, drawings and prints by the 20th-Century master. The show includes all of the artist’s works in the museum collection and correspondence between Scheyer and Klee, along with photographic memorabilia and other documents.

When Scheyer arrived in the United States more than 60 years ago as the representative of the painters who formed the Blue Four group--Lyonel Feininger, Alexei Jawlensky, Wassily Kandinsky and Klee--these artists were little known here. Today their works help form the foundation of modern art collections throughout the world.

Rembrandt’s prints offer an overview of his etching style and the results of his work with models. Rapid informal sketches and highly finished studies reveal the artist’s acute powers of observation and the emotional charge he infused into all his portraits.

The California/International Arts Foundation has launched its third Wednesday noon art/film series at Crocker Center Auditorium.

Lively and informative documentaries on art and artists from all disciplines are shown every Wednesday from 12:10 to 1 p.m. through July 2.

This week the series, funded by Atlantic Richfield Foundation and the Capitol Group, features “The Spiral Jetty,” which documents the construction of Robert Smithson’s largest earthwork, and “Sort of a Commercial for an Icebag by Claes Oldenburg,” which considers the genesis and evolution of one of the artist’s kinetic sculptures.

June 18’s offering is “Metropolitan Cats,” a tribute to the cat seen through 4,000 years of sculpture in the Met’s collections, and “Monet in London.”

On June 25 is “Sam Francis,” a profile of the California Abstract Expressionist painter, his travels and their influence on his work. The July 2 program presents “Frederick Remington: Cowboys, Indians, Cavalry,” a look at one of the foremost artists who documented the American West in its wilder years, and “Indian Artists of The Southwest,” featuring the arts of three Pueblo Indian tribes: the Zuni, Hopi and Navajo. Admission is $2.50 at Crocker Center Auditorium, plaza level, 330 S. Hope St.

New exhibitions and other events: At USC’s Fisher Gallery, nine Los Angeles sculptors’ and painters’ works have been gathered in an exhibition titled “The Column Show: Motif and Metaphor,” Tuesday through July 10. The artists--Michael Davis, Barbara Edelstein, Edward Forde, Michael Hurson, Peter Saari, Christopher Schumaker, Richard Sedivy, Richard Turner and Jay Willis-- all use columns as imagery in their work.

“Only L.A.: Contemporary Variations,” a show of works in various media by 27 Los Angeles artists, opens Tuesday and continues through July 20 at the Municipal Art Gallery in Barnsdall Park. Organized by curator Marie de Alcuaz, the exhibition consists of works chosen to reflect the native cultures of Los Angeles artists, some of whom were born in El Salvador, Chile, China, Japan, Korea and Mexico.

More than 200 photographic works and several portfolios go on exhibition Friday through June 26 at the Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies, 814 S. Spring St., in a preview show of work donated by artists for an LACPS benefit.

A preview reception will be held June 20, 5 to 9 p.m., at LACPS. The works will be auctioned June 28, at 7 p.m. at the Berwin Entertainment Complex, 6525 Sunset Blvd.

“Fiberworks,” a Bay Area center for textile arts, is moving from its downtown Berkeley location to San Francisco to join its affiliate, John F. Kennedy University, in a new facility. The building will also house the university’s Center for Museum Studies, offering graduate preparation for museum-related occupations, and the Western Design Institute.