[contextly_auto_sidebar id="HXcsgRY1unTSSqSHfianPWxQXh7bVS8E"] RECENTLY I visited the LACMA and saw a number of shows, including the exhibit devoted to Noah Purifoy's work. Purifoy, who art critic Christopher Knight recently said "may be the least well-known pivotal American artist of the last 50 years," was a black Southerner who became a crucial part of the art movement that rose after the … [Read more...]
Nature Painting and Weimar Film at LACMA
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="6xLprSnZT28agTDtPzklXpRf7UUnEW1W"] SOME days all the planets line up and a visit to a museum really can offer "fun for the whole family." That's what happened at the LACMA a few days ago, where the ups and downs of exhibit schedules meant a show of samurai armor, another of Hudson River school 19th c. painting, and another of German Expressionist Cinema. I spent … [Read more...]
LA Artists of the ’60s at LACMA
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="pFkvNxQ3v2mm1VEKfWCa48kouHd3cwqj"] FOR the next few weeks, we have an unusual and probably accidental correspondence: Two important but often unseen artists of Los Angeles' great 60s flowering are up at the LACMA. For admirers of John Altoon -- one of the original Ferus Gallery bad boys -- and Helen Pashgian, a pioneer of the Light and Space movement -- it's a rare … [Read more...]
Calder, Bookstores and the Death of Cool
TODAY I’ve got a few smallish items to catch up on. First, it’s hardly news that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been on a roll recently. Over the weekend, I caught the Calder exhibit – “Calder and Abstraction” – and parts of it blew me away. I’ve seen my share of Alexander Calder sculptures over the years – there is a “stabile,” the stationary version of a mobile, outside the train … [Read more...]
Pacific Standard Time: The Gallery Scene
ANOTHER bit of catching up here: My latest article concerns the art galleries that made Los Angeles an important center for contemporary art in the years before the LACMA opened. I looked primarily at three gallery owners -- Irving Blum of Ferus, Virginia Dwan and Riko Mizuno.The late, great Wallace BermanHERE is the story, which due to the Times' layout looks like it is almost entirely a … [Read more...]
Comics From India
THIS is the kind of high/low, east/west, pop/myth collision i love: a new exhibit at the LACMA called "heroes and villains: the battle for good in india's comics." though the title evokes the beach boys, the show is more about devi, vishnu and other hindu gods and the way they return, through the magic of pop culture, in indian comic books.here is my story from this sunday's LATimes. i spoke to … [Read more...]
Salman Rushdie vs. Los Angeles
WHEN i agreed to hang out with novelist salman rushdie in and around hollywood for a few hours, i would not have been surprised to find myself embroiled in a discussion about george harrison's facility for the sitar, or to be shown the very drugstore where an acid-tripping aldous huxley encountered "the doors of perception." but i did not expect to get into a hilarious story about "starsky and … [Read more...]
Postwar German Art, Mexican Printmaking and LACMA
The other day i made my first concentrated trip to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in a very long time. in the last year or two i'd walked along the campus with architect renzo piano as he talked about upcoming renovations, and i attended the blowout opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, but this was my first visit as as civilian in quite a while. it also may be that only time i've … [Read more...]