Modern works from a 1950s bohemian clan displayed.

Erik Nelson Contemporary Fine Art is putting up an extended family album of an art show comprised of work by a close-knit group of bohemian artists who lived and worked in Del Monte Park, bordering Pebble Beach and Pacific Grove, in the 1950s.

They include Joan Savo, Paul McReynolds, Russ Eddy, Jay Chaffin, Duane Matterson, Bill Nelson, Sam Wiia and Janet Digesu, among others.

The show is called From the Ground Up, and it’s curated by the grown-up children of some of those artists: Amanda Chaffin, Erik Nelson and Terence McReynolds.

Erik says their parents came from different walks of life, none had formal art training, and converged in Del Monte Park when lots were going for $150.

“The sheriff’s department patrolled the area infrequently, there were no building codes, the roads were unpaved and the sewer and power lines were just being installed,” Erik says.

They built homes in the Bauhaus and Frank Lloyd Wright style, made art, partied, debated politics, eked out a living and made families. They were progressives. They listened to KPFA and KPFB radio out of Berkeley, and read Ramparts underground newspaper. They tried to live in balance with the land. Their neighborhood was integrated at a time when racial restrictions kept minorities out of much of the Monterey Peninsula.

“Our parents were not swayed by convention,” Erik says.

It seems the 1950s was a heady time of optimism under looming threats like the Cold War and McCarthyism. Maybe now is a good time to revisit how that works.

FROM THE GROUND UP opens 11am-8pm Friday-Saturday, Nov. 18-19, at Erik Nelson Contemporary Fine Art, Dolores between Fifth and Sixth, Carmel. Free. 917-7276.