Jane Fonda Gathers Art World to Fight Big Oil in California, Raising More Than $10 Million

Ryma Chikhoune
·5 min read
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It was a call to action Tuesday night inside the Gagosian in Beverly Hills. And Jane Fonda was the leading voice.

“This is an issue that has been confronting California for decades,” Fonda told WWD. “There’s Ed!” she suddenly exclaimed. Edward Ruscha had just entered the room. “I have to go hug Ed.”

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The two embraced in a warm hug. “He was the first artist that I asked,” she said, returning with a smile. “And because the great Edward Ruscha said ‘yes,’ I had the courage to keep going.”

Fonda, the activist and film icon, turned to the art world — and specifically Larry Gagosian, a California native — to help raise funds and awareness on a critical issue. Ruscha, whose blockbuster “Now/Then” show just opened at LACMA, is among 30 artists who donated art works.

It’s a fight against Big Oil, which has been campaigning with hundreds of millions of dollars to repeal Senate Bill 1137 — a law that puts regulations on the oil and gas industry in California, requiring its production facilities and wells not to drill within 3,200 feet of residences, education facilities, day care centers, colleges, universities, community resource centers, health care operations and any building housing a business open to the public. The referendum will be on the ballot this coming election in November.

“I found out the oil companies are planning to spend $200 million,” Fonda went on. “How do you raise big bucks? Well, you can sell art.”

Five works have been sold so far by Ruscha, Francesca Gabbiani, Mark Grotjahn, Marilyn Minter and Cathy Opie, with more than $10 million raised Tuesday night, $300,000 coming from ticket sales to the fundraiser, called “Art for a Safe and Healthy California.” Supporters included L.A. mayor Karen Bass, Aileen Getty, Edythe Broad, Frank Gehry, Sean Penn, Susie and Mark Buell, Wendy and Eric Schmidt, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend — the evening’s performer. The funds benefit the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California, which has gathered $17 million to date and is supported by Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“We need to raise $90 million,” said Gagosian’s senior director Deborah McLeod. “That’s what the campaign thinks they need to counter Big Oil’s $200 million that they have raised to put ads out there that will be untrue. They’re going to say, ‘Do you want oil prices to come down?’ You’ll think, ‘Oh yes,’ but you won’t realize that your ‘yes’ is a repealing of these laws and setbacks…Oil companies want to be able to drill anywhere they want next to schools, homes, churches, recreation centers, you name it. And they don’t want any laws restricting the way they drill. This is very basically an environmental issue. It’s a clear air issue.”

In partnership with Christie’s, the auction house will present a selection at its Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale during their marquee sale week in May; a second group of works will be for sale in an exhibition this summer at the Gagosian in Beverly Hills.

Speakers at the event were Gagosian; Fonda; Dr. Lorenzo Gonzalez, a physician working on the frontline of impacted communities and unhoused Californians; Chris Lehman and Wendy Schmidt, leaders of the initiative (with Schmidt committing $10 million in matching funds with her husband, Eric Schmidt); Greg Sarris, chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, which donated $5 million, and Nalleli Cobo, a survivor who turned her personal experience with the matter into political action.

“I am living proof of the intersectionality of climate and health,” said Cobo. “I grew up 30 feet from an active oil and gas well.” She was diagnosed with stage two reproductive cancer at the age of 19, she explained, and has been three years in remission after surgeries and chemo. “Clean air is a basic human right.”

“I grew up actually right next to this hidden oil well,” said L.A.-born Christina Quarles, who’s among the participating artists. She was raised in Mid City. “I’m always thinking about the landscape of the city. This one has a particularly moody, polluted landscape in a way, while also being beautiful with a sunset — or possibly one intensified because of smog in the air,” she said of the donated work.

She gifted a painting on paper: “It’s actually the newest piece I made in a new studio that I have. I was making it specifically for raising money for this important cause. So, it’s a fresh piece. It was a great motivator to get back in the studio and start working again.”

Participating artists include Frank Gehry, Marilyn Minter, Christina Quarles, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Kenny Scharf and Charles Gaines.

“I contributed what I call my palm tree series,” said Gaines. The conceptual artist also turned to the natural world, in a work that reimagines the palm tree layered within a gridded format. “There are four works in this particular set.”

Opie, too, gave a piece with the environment in mind.

“It was really important to donate a piece that was about what we’re trying to preserve, especially with what Big Oil continues to do and with Trump being up again for reelection, saying things like, ‘Drain the swamp,’ when actually swamps are a really important part of the environment,” said Opie. The work, depicting a swamp, is from her “Rhetorical Landscapes” exhibition.

“And they are going to not be drained but actually overwhelmed by rising water and ocean,” Opie continued. “So, that’s why I gave that piece. I’m really happy to be here to work on this initiative. I’ve been in California since 1974 now. It’s been my home state since I moved here from Ohio. And I think we can do a lot more here even though we’re such a great state; there’s still more to be done.”

Launch Gallery: Inside the Art for a Safe and Healthy California Event Presented by Jane Fonda, Gagosian & Christie's

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