merce misha mashup 2
“Farewell Merce Cunningham Dance Company” weekend in Los Angeles was capped by a bonus performance in which Mikhail Baryshnikov appeared with the company. It was a fundraiser for the Cunningham Dance Foundation’s “Legacy Project” and REDCAT. Charles Atlas, with whom the choreographer collaborated on multiple video projects over thirty years, presented his film homage to Merce — ...
Patrick Graham’s patch of earth 1
May
28
2010
Patrick Graham SOMEWHERE JERUSALEM, 1996 oil and mixed media on canvas, 72 x 140 inches “My first memory of drawing was as a child and I remember people talking about me,” said Irish artist Patrick Graham at a crowded art talk hosted by his long time representative, Jack Rutberg, at Rutberg’s La Brea Avenue gallery. ...
George Segal @ Skirball Cultural Center 1
May
19
2010
Now on view at the Skirball Cultural Center, where they run top-notch exhibitions, is “The Expulsion,” an installed tableau of Adam and Eve driven from Garden of Eden created in 1986 by George Segal. The artist, a major player in early pop art, passed away in 2000. A recent gift to Skirball, the mise-en-scene features two ...
The Reischtag burns in our collective memory 1
May
4
2010
“It wasn’t really about finding something.” So claim German artists Ulrike Mohr and Susanne Weck recounting their cross-continental trek in search of a lost panorama, “Die Schlacht um den Reichstag,” (“The Battle of Berlin”). The two artist-partners voyaged from Berlin to Moscow at great effort to maybe find the gone-missing circular art work — but ...
Renoir show still on view
May
2
2010
It’s the last week to catch LACMA’s “Renoir in the 20th Century” focused on the last three decades of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s career prior to his death in 1919. Of the 80 paintings, sculptures and drawings, in the portrait-laden show, this beautiful Riviera landscape was my favorite (click for better view). Also heartbreaking and inspiring were ...
Own a masterpiece. Buy a stamp.
Apr
29
2010
Please don’t say the U.S. government does not support the arts. We have art stamps. Or is it stamp art? The postal service launched the Abstract Expressionist postage stamp series in March. See them here. I just got mine. They’re very groovy. Just the thing to smack on my late tax return. The vibrant stamps feature ...
“The Art of the Steal” @ LACMA
The Barnes Foundation, established in 1921 by collector Dr. Albert C. Barnes, holds one of the world’s largest collections of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, valued at 25 billion dollars. The documentary, “The Art of the Steal,” raises provocative questions about money, culture, and ethics as it chronicles the legal and political efforts used to break ...
Lawrence K. Ho’s dance photo
This superlative dance photograph, taken by Los Angeles Times photog, Lawrence K. Ho, was published in tandem with my review of the Beijing Dance Academy at the Ahmanson Theatre this weekend. Here are more of his photos in a slideshow. Researching Mr. Ho, I was impressed but not surprised to learn that he has won ...
bobrauschenbergamerica at [inside] the ford
"Art was not a part of our lives," states a figure representing the famous artist's mother in bobrauschenbergamerica, now on view at [Inside] the Ford, the friendly cavernous indoor space tucked below the Ford amphitheater on the Cahuenga Pass. It's the first-ever Los Angeles staging of the 2001 play written by Charles Mee. Describing her ...
Panorama-kan at Velaslavasay 1
The ever-charming Velaslavasay Panorama, located in L.A.’s Pico-Union neighborhood, was the site of media art scholar Machiko Kusahara’s talk, “Panorama-kan of Meiji Japan,” on a recent scholarly Saturday night. Dr. Kusahara discussed the popular entertainment halls — called panorama-kan in Japanese. They were a “craze,” to borrow the lecturer’s expression, from 1890-1910. Dozens of the rotundas sprang up all ...