How the Stones rolled through L.A.

Music · Visual arts
Found: Photographs of the Rolling Stones, a month-long exhibition of twenty-six rare and candid photographs that document the Rolling Stones on their first American tour in 1964 opens soon at Dilettante, a creative theatre and gallery located in Compton.  The Stones photo-booty was discovered in an unmarked box at a Central California estate sale  — ...

Hey, L.A. bohemians! Learn about L.A.’s original bohemians.

Ideas & Opinion · Visual arts
Beth Gates Warren, prominent historian and curator of photography, will discuss her book “Artful Lives: Edward Weston, Margrethe Mather, and the Bohemians of Los Angeles” in that maelstrom of bohemianism — Glendale California! This biography reveals the previously untold love story of Edward Weston and Margrethe Mather. Both were photographic artists at the center of the ...

Vintage Hollywood photos of Bison Archives move to Academy 1

Film · Visual arts
Since we launched arts·meme nearly four years ago, we have enjoyed the privilege of sharing with our readers several photos of early Hollywood from the collection of film historian, Marc Wanamaker. Marc has shared unstintingly from his Bison Archives collection, letting us eyeball wonderful images of: Anna Pavlova‘s first and only foray as a Universal ...

Taylor-made

Dance · Visual arts
Read our story about Paul Taylor Dance Company’s premiere season at Lincoln Center. Read it in The Huffington Post.

Ahmad Jamal, child pianist, photographed by “Teenie” Harris

Music · Visual arts
He’s propped up on a trumpet case! It’s the young Ahmad Jamal (born Frederick Russell ‘Fritz’ Jones), a Pittsburgh native whose photo by renegade photog, Charles “Teenie” Harris, is featured in an exhibit at the city’s Carnegie Museum of Art. Jamal’s is only one of 80,000 photographs Harris snapped of daily African-American life in the ...

Meeting Art Laboe, L.A.’s pioneering rock ‘n roll deejay

Music · Visual arts
We enjoyed meeting the amazing Los Angeles radio legend, Art Laboe, Wednesday night at the Grammy Museum downtown. Laboe’s a pioneer in many ways — issuing the first-ever record compilations and coining the expression “Oldies But Goodies.” The deejay is very much alive and kicking; though in his eighties, he was in great shape cruising ...

Sculpture meets photography in Peter Schlesinger’s L.A. homecoming show

Visual arts
Days after seeing Peter Schlesinger’s wonderful photograph, France 1968 (above), part of the L.A.-born artist’s sculpture and photography show at Duke & Duke Gallery, I figured out why I love  it. It reminds me of a David Hockney painting. The hot color clash, cool depiction of the leisure class, and disparate figures all hearken the ...

Where industry meets the arts

Dance · Visual arts
E.O. Hoppé, Large Alternator, Siemens-Schuckert werk, Gartenfeld, Germany, 1928 Unknown photographer, GE Plant in Schenectady, 1934. Features Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers (Shawn at center) Hoppe photo credit: E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection, courtesy Graham HoweShawn photo courtesy, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Archive, courtesy Norton Owen Like this? Read more: Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival wins ...

Julius Shulman’s 1936 shot of Griffith Observatory — and beyond

Architecture & Design · Visual arts
The other evening, touring the Pacific Standard show at the L.A. Municipal Gallery on Olive Hill, I was caught off guard by a four-inch square print of this precious, heroic Julius Shulman photograph dating from 1936. It almost made me cry: the two caps, shape of building [it was then only years old], hills and ...

WeeGee shoots “Newark with palm trees” — Los Angeles

Visual arts
arts·meme visual arts correspondent, Liz Goldner, contributes this review.  “Naked Hollywood: Weegee in Los Angeles,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art (part of the Pacific Standard Time initiative), brings out of near oblivion 200 photographic artworks and a few films, from the late 1940s through the 60s, by and of tabloid photographer, “Weegee” (real name, ...