Jeffrey Deitch, gallerist, performance artist
Oct
29
2011
Assuming the “presidential” posture, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Director Jeffrey Deitch, 57, displays a little known skill; his uncanny ability to anthropomorphize paintings, recreating them in real time and space. Aiming high and giving new meaning to the expression “gallerist,” Director Deitch’s subtle stab at performance art took place at the last Basel ...
PST: Guy Dill’s seventies art at Leslie Sacks Contemporary
Oct
27
2011
I’m intrigued by the images of beautiful work by Los Angeles artist, Guy Dill, part of the “Pacific Standard Time” celebration of mid-century Los Angeles art. According to the gallery materials, Dill worked raw, natural materials, highlighting their inherent structural and aesthetic qualities. Preserving these elements in their original state, the artist combined material purity ...
A potpourri of PST
Oct
26
2011
arts·meme visual arts correspondent, Liz Goldner, contributes this overview of Pacific Standard Time events around the southern California region: Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981 at MOCA‘s Geffen Contemporary, Little Tokyo, features works that are dark in theme and execution with a strong undercurrent of self-absorption. Underneath this veneer, the show’s honesty, integrity ...
Golden State murals, endangered treasures, on view Saturday 2
A rare opportunity comes this Saturday afternoon when two extraordinary murals that grace the lobby of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Building in the Historic West Adams neighborhood of Central Los Angeles go on view. The West Adams Heritage Association, California African American Museum, Los Angeles Conservancy and Mural Conservancy LA are collaborating on ...
Hans Burkhardt, master artist of Los Angeles @ Jack Rutberg Fine Arts
Oct
17
2011
The expansive and influential career of Hans Burkhardt (1904–1994), who constantly updated and reinvented as a painter in Los Angeles is the focus of a survey exhibition of paintings and drawings, “Hans Burkhardt: Within & Beyond the Mainstream.” In the video, gallerist Rutberg notes, with certain contained astonishment, that Burkhardt, who transferred to L.A. after ...
Alluring mix of mid-century jazz & photography comes to Northridge
October 23 is as good a day as any, no better, to trek to the deep San Fernando Valley. On that Sunday, the campus of Cal State University, Northridge, will be super alive in an extraordinary double-bill highlighting the best of African-American art. [slideshow id=38] Featured photographers: Roland Charles, Willie Middlebrook, Jack Davis, Calvin Hick ...
LA Filmforum contributes “Alternative Projections” to Pacific Standard Time
Los Angeles Filmforum screens a wonderful line-up of short experimental films under the rubric of Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles, 1945-1980. The next chapter of the multipart series happens on October 16 with “Industry Town: The Avant-Garde and Hollywood.” Alternative Projections is part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945 – 1980, ...
Oy. Harry. Would you please lighten up? Harry Houdini goes for a dip.
European financial system on the brink … Steve Jobs dead at 56 …. distraction and dissolution everywhere. It all feels so dire. Not sure whether this photo of major meshuggenah, Harry Houdini, will lighten your mood or not. Something in this shot of Mr. Ball-and-Chain spoke to me. Seems to suit the zeitgeist. World, could’ja ...
The back side of HOLLYWOOD, viewed from Palermo
Oct
2
2011
Maurizio Cattelan, “Hollywood,” 2001 color photography, plexiglas, 180 x 400 x 15 cm Weserburg Museum of Art, Bremen, Germany Yes, Palermo. Palermo, capitol city of Sicily, the tip of the boot of Italia, home of the Spaghetti Western. Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s restaging/replica of the Hollywood sign, erected among palm trees and olive plantations, sits on ...
What art looks like 1
The snapshot at left captures a moment that is precious, ephemeral, and intimate. Three artists, each immersed in private thought, prepare to perform. [Click for detailed view.] It’s a backstage photo of Ballet Alicia Alonso, now the Cuban National Ballet, dating from the 1948-49 season. Then, a spirited young American ballerina, Edith Brozak McMann, danced ...