Charles White, at our city’s artistic center LACMA
Charles White in his Los Angeles studio, 1970 photo: Robert A. Nakamura The Pacific Standard Time art extravaganza that blanketed Southern California in 2011 brought much-needed, new focus to the art currents that circulated in post-World War II Los Angeles. Those surveys, as fine as they were (there were some glorious shows), implored further explorations. ...
Merce & Co. beautiful museum pieces @LACMA
They don’t make ’em like Merce Cunningham (1919 – 2009) anymore. And the dance world is the poorer for it. For those who did not have the distinct honor of face time with the great dancer/choreographer (I studied modern dance with ‘Merce’ as he was ubiquitously known in the dance world, and attended concerts by ...
Walk around LACMA … with Robert Rauschenberg
Oct
26
2018
No one walks in Los Angeles. Everyone knows that. Video artist and New Yorker Charles Atlas noted it in a chat at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) the day of a duel-exhibition opening. Atlas, who installed the museum’s video-rich Merce Cunningham exhibit, explained, “I’ve been here a few weeks. I walked to ...
Our town and its city dwellers, by David Hockney @ LACMA 2
Apr
24
2018
Friend of arts·meme, the arts publicist Caroline Graham, poses with her portrait painted by her long-time friend, the British-born artist David Hockney. Caroline’s likeness occupies a prominent corner of “82 Portraits and 1 Still Life,” the new Hockney exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). In the photo, Graham wears the elegant ...
Mike & movie mavens amass for LACMA poster exhibition 3
Among the mavens who came out to celebrate “The Art of the Movie Poster: HIghlights from the Mike Kaplan Collection,” newly opened at LACMA, were several prominent ones cheering on their friend, Kaplan (at left). At right, the estimable Malcolm McDowell, whose association and friendship with Kaplan has Stanley Kubrick at its heart. (As a ...
LACMA ‘Found in Translation’ documents Mexi-Cali design dialogue 1
From Sacramento to San Diego, California’s Mexican and Spanish underpinnings are as historic as they are pervasive. We often take those connections for granted, but LACMA’s exhibition “Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915-1985” offers a fascinating view of the influence and confluence between the two cultures in the 20th Century. It’s part ...
Pond·ering sixty years of art history
Sep
19
2017
Sixty years, more or less one generation, brought us from Monet to Almaraz. To my eye, two works aligned in hot harmony. Above, the majestic vision of Los Angeles painter Carlos Almaraz, in his reconstituted four-panel Echo Park Lake (1982) — now on rare display at LACMA, as part of Pacific Standard Time LA/LA. (Our ...
Parks & wrecks: Carlos Almaraz @ LACMA
The ‘Los Four’ exhibition at Los Angeles County Art Museum in 1974 put the local art establishment on notice that a thriving scene was taking place in East Los Angeles and elsewhere in the Southland. The Chicano art renaissance was represented by four artists — Carlos Almaraz, Beto de la Rocha, Frank Romero and Gilbert ...
Fascinating: Tino Sehgal mid-August @ LACMA
Highlights of the intriguing menu of performance happenings that comprise the European Union-sponsored “Getting to Know European Dance” are two outings by conceptual dance artist Tino Sehgal. Both are being staged at LACMA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in mid August. Born in London in 1976, the Berlin-based Sehgal constructs situations that challenge ...
Get to know European dance, courtesy of the EU Delegation to the U.S.
A fascinating trio of works of avant-garde German choreography and performance is being presented around town, soon, sponsored by the Getting To Know Europe program, awarded by the Delegation of the European Union to the United States and hosted by the Goethe Institut of Los Angeles, and its savvy director Fareed Majari. This virtual mini festival ...