Rusha career retrospective coming to MoMA, then LACMA

Visual arts
The Oklahoma-born, Los Angeles-based artist Ed Ruscha (b. 1937) will enjoy his largest retrospective and his first solo exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York in the fall and winter of next year. Appropriately enough, the exhibit, ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN, co-curated by MoMA and LACMA, will travel thereafter to the ...

A rose is a Jacqueline Bisset, in new movie ‘Loren and Rose’

Film · Reviews
It’s not Jacqueline Bisset. That’s the first thing you need to know. It seems to be; it’s tempting to think it is, but no. Even though we see Ms. Bisset at her most vulnerable and fierce, the new movie starring this enduring lady of the cinema is neither autobiographical nor a documentary. She’s playing a ...

Body size, the final frontier, subject of ‘The Whale’

Film
From Darren Aronofsky comes The Whale, the story of a reclusive English teacher living with severe obesity who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption. Starring Brendan Fraser and based on the acclaimed play by Samuel D. Hunter, the film opens December 9. I am hoping for compassion ...

Dance film ‘RISE’ at American French Film Festival

Dance · Film
Film director Cédric Klapisch, seen above in action mode directing Paris Opera Ballet premiere danseuse Marion Barbeau and contemporary choreographer Hofesh Shechter, continues his balletmania in rendering his latest dance film, RISE. The movie, augured to include marvelous footage of life behind the curtain at the Palais Garnier, is slated for its West Coast premiere ...

The American French Film Festival 2022 on fire!

Film
It stumbled, but prevailed, through COVID. It’s been on line, it had a date change (it used to happen in April). Then it got a name change that no one overly loves. But nothing will put us off. We’re going to join the 26th annual joyous gathering of French-movie-loving film geeks in the generous lobby ...

Cubanísimo! at The Soraya

Dance · Music
malpaso dancers / arturo o’farrill Ed. note: This story by dance critic Debra Levine, commissioned and originally published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is reprinted with permission. The havoc Hurricane Ian wreaked on the Caribbean and Florida, in an indirect way, nearly extended all the way to The Soraya’s stage. ...

The people’s Peabo, at Pepperdine

Music
He’s right up there — one of the big seventies crooners– along with Al Green, Barry White, Teddy Pendergrass, and Luther Vandross. These heartthrob-inducing balladeers sent soulful glissandos down our spines in densely produced R&B recordings of the 1970s. So I am delighted that Peabo Bryson (“Feel The Fire, “I’m So Into You”) will appear ...

Happy string-pulling: Bob Baker Marionette Theater

Theater · Visual arts
Bob Baker, Wizard of Fantasy, c. 1970. Hand-crafted marionette (vac-u-form plastic, felt, and string),50 x 20 x 10 inches. Courtesy of Bob Baker Marionette Theater Bob Baker Marionette Theater: 60 Years of Joy & Wonder is a retrospective exhibition that examines the beauty and history of a beloved Los Angeles institution. Approximately 100 artifacts belonging ...

‘People-wearing-color’ honor composer Allee Willis @ ‘Night of Wonders’ 1

Fashion · Music
It was all kinds of people, of all kinds of colors, wearing all kinds of colors — notably hot pink, fiery orange, neon chartreuse, and Princely purple — mixed into the same outfit. This passel of arty party people wended their way to Valentine in the Los Angeles arts district on September 21, for a ...

Back to Jefferson High School for Central Avenue jazz, with MUSE/ique

Music · Reviews
They got their high school diplomas and hit the ground running. By living adjacent to the rich cultural offerings of Central Avenue in South Los Angeles in its heyday, the kids of Jefferson High School discovered the arts in the classroom and in the neighborhood. They made careers, big ones. A recent thrilling Sunday-afternoon showcase ...