Applegate’s Exceptional Print Collection on Display at the Turner

Attend the Reception on September 14 at 5:30 p.m.

Reed Applegate grew up blocks from Chico State and regularly walked through campus, chatting with folks lucky enough to cross paths with him or be on his regular route. He was taught by legendary Chico State professor and print artist Janet Turner and volunteered as a researcher at the Janet Turner Print Museum. Applegate passed away on August 21, 2022, and thanks to his generosity, his campus impact endures.

Applegate has shared 47 works by 17 groundbreaking Northern California artists with the Turner, a donation that Curator Rachel Skokowski describes as: “among the most significant we’ve had to the museum since Janet Turner’s.” The collection, which is titled, Northern California Horizons: The Reed Applegate Collection, features work by Wayne Thiebaud, Nathan Oliveira, Robert Arneson, David Gilhooly, and more, and is on display August 22 through October 14.

Members of the public are invited to the opening reception and Skokowski’s talk about the collection on September 14 at 5:30 p.m. in the ARTS Building (next door to Madison Bear Garden) on the Chico State campus.

“The University was a big part of Reed’s life,” said his cousin, Richard Applegate. “Showing his collection at the Turner is a tremendous honor to him. I hope people come and celebrate his life and his collection with us.”

“I hope people come and celebrate his life and his collection with us.”

Richard Applegate

Attending art openings was one of Applegate’s great joys. He showed up to support everyone, from renowned artists to students.

“He was very aware of what was happening regionally. He followed different artists and different movements,” said Turner Museum Collections Manager Adria Davis. “But he didn’t just buy prints. He made personal connections with these artists. He knew them on a personal level. They were friends.”

Northern California Horizons: The Reed Applegate Collection covers a wide range of themes, moods, and styles. The pieces are sometimes playful and satirical, sometimes searing, and always stirring. Gilhooly’s Covering the World in Frogs is sure to be a favorite among the younger set (and the young at heart). Thiebaud’s San Francisco cityscape, Diagonal Ridge, is stunning.

“This is a collection everyone in Chico should be proud to have on display right here in their community. It marks Chico as a center for the arts,” Skokowski said. “You don’t have to be an art expert to see how special this collection is. Everyone should come experience it.”

College students might get the biggest kick out of Kathy Aoki’s lithographs (She)Twerkin’ and Gangnam Style (At the Moulin Rouge). The dance moves are depicted in surprising and delightful ways.

“Reed loved the Janet Turner Print Museum. He would pass through campus like clockwork and the Turner was one of the regular stops. He would be thrilled to see his collection in there,” Chico State Art Department Chair Cameron Crawford said. “It gives people a chance to see his taste and what he thought was important and to honor and remember him and just to have a good time. There’s some beautiful work in there.”

“Gifts like this are transformative for our collection. They raise the bar of what we have for the good of the public,” said Skokowski. “They are something we can also show Chico State students who are learning how to make prints, so this is a tremendous gift for them as well.”

About the Janet Turner Print Museum

The Janet Turner Print Museum at California State University, Chico advances the art of printmaking by making its international collection accessible to the people of Northern California and beyond. We engage a diverse public through stimulating exhibitions, programming, and study to inspire reflection, collaboration, and action.