LACMA EXHIBIT DOCUMENTS ART'S TURN WEST.

Byline: Bradford Mar Daily News Staff Writer

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art's new show, ``American Paintings in Southern California Collections,'' explores the heritage of American art and at the same time seeks to establish a heritage of Southern California art collecting.

Organized thematically and chronologically, the rooms are connected by a linear logic that tells the story of the struggle of American art before its rise to international dominance in the '50s. The 80 paintings on display, culled from private collections across the Southland, tackle this broad, ambitious project with impressive resourcefulness.

The story is a simple one in its concept, comparing the growth of America with the growth of its artistic culture, but it belies an inferiority complex that is its emotional key.

Bound by convention to Puritanical mores, early subject matter was limited. Portraiture and, later, landscapes were the only sanctioned means of expression an artist had. At first, technique was crude; but as refinements were made, delicacy and sensitivity shine through in works such as Raphaelle Peale's ``A Dessert.''

As the pragmatic borders of the nation opened out to the West, so the wide, open plains broadened the painter's palette to emotional and even spiritual horizons. Thomas Moran's ``The Green River, Wyoming'' is a breathtaking example of a group of paintings whose very color proclaims Manifest Destiny.

Drawing near the 20th century, European culture, once considered decadent, now tantalized American art patrons. The more ambitious artists became expatriates, traveling to Europe to study in its academies or to paint as contemporaries of their European counterparts.

Back home, realism pushed the content of the painting into ever more diverse areas. Artists of the Ashcan School attacked social themes, while others pursued trompe l'oeil (``fool the eye'') effects that challenged the viewer to break the picture plane.

The growth of the various movements and the active European influence culminated in America's final recognition of art as a pursuit in itself. Highlighted by Georgia O'Keefe, the exhibit's last room heralds the dawn of the New York School, which would replace Paris as the center of the art world.

In this exhibit, American art history is invigorated with the drama of the underdog. American artists become the illegitimate children of European culture, enduring technical, social and aesthetic difficulties until destiny is fulfilled and the European shadow is outgrown. How appropriate a position for LACMA to take, considering that this show is meant to assert Los Angeles' prominence alongside the New York juggernaut. One can almost hear the theme song from ``Rocky.''

Despite the box-office-formula story line, the exhibition poses its argument carefully, each painting acting in concert to support the dramatic conclusion. Its success is sweetened by the fact that the curators never had to leave Southern California to achieve it. With this fine show, the tale of the underdog begins anew as Southern California art collectors announce that they have come of age.

THE FACTS The show: ``American Paintings in Southern California Collections: From Gilbert Stuart to Georgia O'Keeffe.''

Where: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: Through May 26. Open every day except Monday. For information, call [phone].

Tickets: $6 for adults; $4 for students and senior citizens; $1 for children 6 and older.

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Photo: (1--3) The ``American Paintings in Southern Calif ornia Collections'' exhibit at LACMA includes Severin Roesen's ``Still Life,'' left; Raymond Jonson's ``Abstraction No. 4,'' middle; and Robert Henri's ``Spanish Dancer-Seviliana (Dancer With Castanet),'' right.