Today I mapped out about 4 different exhibits I wanted to get to, and they weren’t necessarily that far from each other (Westwood, Hollywood, and Santa Monica); but we got going too late, and had to return to Pasadena too early to be able to fit in more than one of them, especially considering LA traffic (1 hour to get there; 1.5 hours to get back; how do people stand it out there?).

The first (and last) place we made it to was the Armand Hammer Museum, which I am now officially declaring to be my favorite museum in LA. Every show we’ve seen there has been fantastic. OK, well, that may not apply if you’re primarily interested in viewing only Impressionist works or art from previous centuries. But for me and Terry, the shows at the A.H. tickle our art-appreciation bits the most.

Each room in the Oranges and Sardines Exhibit showcased the work by a current artist with accompanying works by artists who influenced them. What a strong show!

The first room contained the work of Mary Heilmann, whose piece, “Blood on the Tracks,” 2005 (above) I found to be quite striking.

I’m afraid my notes are too sketchy to reconstruct the experience, but I do recall (I think) that one of her influences was Francis Bacon, and they had his piece “Figure with Two Owls, Study for Velasquez,” 1963 on display. A gorgeous work. I do love how he applies paint; it’s so scrumptious!

Do click on the link in the title to see more about this show at the Armand Hammer (they do a great job of extending their exhibits online). If you’re in LA, please do yourself a favor and go see this show! The few images here are but a tease.

Here are the pieces I made note of throughout this exhibit:

Amy Sillman
U.S. of Alice, the Goon
2008

(no image)
Willem de Kooning
Untitled XXII
1982

(no image)
Juan Mele
Irregular Frame #2
1946
Oil on Masonite

Eva Hesse
H + H, 1965
(love the colors! green, chartreuse, ochre, ecru, brown, + stripes!)

Alice Neel
Thanksgiving
1965
Oil on Canvas

Philip Guston
Sleeping
1977
Oil on Canvas
(I’m pretty sure I saw this in a Philip Guston show at the Art Institute of Chicago when I was a student there.)

(no image)
Philip Guston
North
1961-1962
Oil on Canvas

Forest Bess
Star of David
1959
Oil on Canvas

(no image)
Dieter Roth
Selbstportrait als Suppe
1969-74
glue and acrylic paint

(no image)
Dieter Roth
Bonbons am Abend
1974
glue and acrylic paint

(no image)
Dieter Roth
Ein Bleicher Kracker
1974
glue and acrylic paint

(no image)
Dieter Roth
Mit Vogelkacke sich ernahrender bleicher Schleimbonbonscmeisser
1969-74
glue and acrylic paint

(no image)
Dieter Roth
2 Kartobbelknaben
1969-74
glue and acrylic paint

(some of the above were in the room of Christopher Wool; no promises that I got the German words correct!)

(no image)
Albert Ohlen
Untitled 1988
Oil on Linen

(no image)
Picasso
Man with Pipe
1969
Oil on Canvas

Charlene von Heyl
Big Nobodaddy
2008
acrylic, oil, pastels on linen

Carla Accardi
Verderosso #6
1914

Wols
Oui, Oui, Oui
1946-47
Oil on Canvas

Wade Guyton’s room:

(no image)
Robert Morris
Horse of the Vetti II
1983
felt, grommets
(do an image search on Robert Morris — great stuff!)

Mark Grotjahn’s room:

Paul Klee
Blossom in the Night
1930

(no image)
Paul Klee,
Two Heads
1932

Clyfford Still
1946

(I think this was the Still painting; he has long been one of my favorite Abstract Expressionists)

(no image)
Joseph Albers
Homage to the Square
1954

Yayoi Kusama
No. T.W. 3
1961
Oil on Canvas
(small swirls of white paint, more or less covering a stained canvas, with holes through which you could see the stain color, similar to the one above — and check out the slideshow on her bio page!)

Sherrie Levine
Untitled, White Knot 9
1986
Casein on Plywood
(similar to the one above)

One of the art exhibits I really wanted to see while in LA, based on my pre-trip research, was the “Cut: Makings of Removal” exhibit at the Vincent Price Museum at East Los Angeles College.

It did not disappoint. In fact, I was quite blown away. All of the work is created with paper cut by the hand of the artist. The variety of work was delightfully surprising.

What had really drawn me to the exhibit was an installation of hanging paper by Chris Natrop. Delicate vines of cut white paper hung from the ceiling in a small space of maybe 8′x8′ and gave one the sensation of entering a magical paper garden.

Artist Adam Fowler assembled what seemed to be dozens of thin layers of geometrically cut out circular shapes in this piece and another, much larger piece.

These “plastic” chairs may look like a crazy stack of actual chairs, but they are in fact photographs of chairs attached to foam core and then arranged, by Dana Maiden.

I stepped around this beautiful work by Deb Whistler.

Desi Minchillo had at least two large works of tiny cut paper bits assembled into thought-provoking pieces. This one is called “Embattled Icons and Faded Ideals.”

Artist Jane South had several large pieces, such as this one, that reminded me of the infrastructure under amusement park rides.

The works of Justin Pearce combined cosmic drawings, like tatoos, on the bodies of cut-out figures.

I have to say the work of Leigh Salgado was probably my favorite. These huge pieces hang away from the wall a bit, and are very intricately cut — yes, Virginia, everything there that looks like a hole in lace is indeed a hole, hand-cut by the artist. The subtle coloration is scrumptious, and the way the light shining through the holes creates shadows on the wall behind makes for an even more complex and compelling image.

“Church Lady’s Rapturous Veiled Hat” by Leigh Salgado

“Mirror, Mirror” by Leigh Salgado

These three pieces by Noriko Ambe will probably end up effecting my work the most. I really love the stratification she creates through the layers of cuts in the paper and the book.

Teresa Redden had three tiny pieces — one cube, one cylinder, and one cone, created from itty bitty teensy tinsy circles of cut paper interwoven together like chainmail. I really do not see how she did it, unless she has hands the size of a fairie’s. Quite remarkable, and the photos I took do not do these pieces justice. At all!

This was another amazing work, by Yuken Teruya, made from a shopping bag. The artist cut and folded inward the tree shapes from the bag.

Here’s a shot of the top of the bag:

There was actually a lot more gorgeous and amazing work at that show. Terry and I were both quite impressed with all the work, and thrilled that we were able to see it.

Painting by Helen Frankenthaler
“Adriatic”
1968

Just a week after the East Austin Studio Tour ended (my last big art event for the year), we took another vacation out to LA to visit my husband’s elderly parents.

On our first day there, we met up with my friend Patri, and proceeded to the Norton Simon Museum. Well, we did a kind of a whirlwind tour there. We had gone for the Marcel Duchamp Redux show, which was quite a tiny show. It was literally a copy of a show they had had there decades earlier. They had mostly prints of about 14 pieces from the earlier 1963 show, all in one small room.

More exciting to me were a few pieces from the post painterly abstract painters Sam Francis and Helen Frankenthaler; especially the Frankenthaler piece (pictured here), which was a huge, all orange stain painting (orange — my favorite color! So exciting!!!).  Here is a snippet of a quote I copied from the gallery card for this painting: “What concerns me is — did I make a beautiful picture?” Well, I’d have to say emphatically, YES! I think (I’m afraid) I have similar sensibilities, whether that be good or not so good these days. What can I say?

There were some other great pieces in the room, “Tall Figure IV” by Giacometti; “Three Standing Figures,” 1953, by Henry Moore; “Untitled,” 1962-63 by Robert Irwin; 1947, “Horseman,” by Marino Marini; and “Bottles,” 1960, by Diebenkorn (pictured on the right). And more, but I didn’t have a chance to take any more names or notes.

We spent a few minutes looking at some of their Impressionist collection — admiring the perfect yellow Van Gogh had used to paint a straw hat and a tree (2 different works), a couple of pieces of Cezanne’s, including one of his fantastic tulips paintings, and at least one Monet.

We also peered at the “On the Enlightened Path: Jain Art from India”; “Ruth Weisberg: Guido Cagnacci and the Resonant Image”; “Under the Influence: Art-Inspired Art”; and “The Art of War: American Posters from World War I and World War II” — the poster art exhibit in particular which was really quite fascinating.

Painting (right) by Richard Diebenkorn
“Bottles”
1960

Painting by Song Kun
It’s My Life 05-08-31
2005
Oil on canvas. 10 5/8 x 13 3/4 in. (27 x 35 cm)
Courtesy of UniversalStudios-Beijing, Beijing, China

Several great exhibits at the Hammer Museum

Today, our final day in LA, we headed over to the Hammer Museum to see Eden’s Edge: Fifteen LA Artists: Ginny Bishton, Mark Bradford, Liz Craft, Sharon Ellis, Matt Greene, Elliott Hundley, Stanya Kahn & Harry Dodge, Monica Majoli, Matthew Monahan, Rebecca Morales, Lari Pittman, Ken Price, Jason Rhoades, Anna Sew Hoy, and Jim Shaw.

“Death Rider (Virgo)” by Liz Craft

On our way out, we almost missed a small show by emerging Chinese painter Song Kun, who filled a small gallery with 97 daily paintings of her life…fabulous! Her work ranges from part drawn, part painted canvases to fully realized and very well-done representational works to a number of blank canvases. At first, I took one quick pass through the gallery, intending that to be it; then went back and looked at each painting more closely, then went back again, by this time fully drawn into her mesmerizing paintings. This was my favorite art of all that I’ve seen on this coastal trip!

“New Moon and Palm Trees” by Sharon Ellis.

We spent a couple of days in San Diego; one whole day at Balboa Park. The first museum we came to was the Museum of Living Artists, so of course, we had to check that out. They had a show of local artists responding to the Dead Sea Scrolls (which are currently showing at the Museum of Natural History).

Good show, similar in some ways to an AVAA show. For a local show, I was impressed by the number of strong and thoughtful pieces. There were many interesting responses to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

There was a beautiful abstract called Mosaic #6 by Jane Fletcher, the prettiest piece in the show, and a very funny piece called “The Dead Sea Squirrels” by Hank Gross. There was a very interesting torah-photo sculpture by Art Ferber, and a thoughtful piece called “What Every Household Needs” by Nanette Newbry that printed the entire Patriot Act in something like 1pt. type on a metal plate.

Cheryl Sorg, in a piece titled “Bodies I Have in Mind, and How They Can Change to Assume New Shapes,” created a piece that encompassed I think all of the text of Ovid’s Metamorphosis, each line of tiny text cut out and arranged in concentric shapes morphing from a circle of text to a butterfly, each shaped piece about 24” in diameter and encased between sheets of plastic. Another notable piece was called “Scroll and Palimpsest” by Bob Simpson – a 13 panel long mixed media piece on plywood that beautifully incorporated marks that resembled writings with drawing and painting.

There was a pretty groovy mixed media piece called “Sheep” by Wendy Kwasny-Bowen and a beautiful large oriental style scroll piece called “Waves in Conversation” by Rosemary Kimball, a nice small piece called “Fish Legend” by Meredith Cummings, and several other very nice or very thoughtful pieces, like “The Scroll That Never Ends” by Robert Collie, a digital piece about all the soldiers we’ve lost in Iraq.

There were also two featured artists with many works on display: Jo-Lind Eckstein and Claire-Lise Matthey Anderegg. They both did work that ranged from small to medium-large, and the work was layered and very richly textured. I loved both of their styles very much.

Next we went to the Museum of Art, and saw a few small rooms of paintings from Ingres to Frantisek Kupka and the surrealists. I really loved the Kupka piece! His work was apparently so avant-garde at the time, even the avant-garde didn’t get it. When asked what his work represented, he responded “Must then a work of art represent something?”

There was also a nice, elaborate show of Impressionist Artists of Giverny – lots of beautiful paintings by some of the apparently 350 artists painting around there at that time, including of course Monet, and also Frieseke, plus many I have never before heard of.

Finally, the cafe had some wonderful sculptures within, and outside was a great sculpture garden. The sculptures shown here are all from the cafe and sculpture garden. Link to the Balboa Park Gardens and Museums.

Today we went to the Getty Museum to see the Uberorgan by Tim Hawkinson. We arrived just in time for the hourly musical performance. It is very cool — pipes, bladders, tubes and horns made out of industrial materials, a 250-foot-long scroll with black dots and dashes that create the score, and a device that electronically reads the marks and turns them into sounds.

Then we went to see his other pieces – Zoopsia.  There was a huge octopus made with photographs of the artist’s mouth as suckers; a flying bat made from used black plastic bags; a huge calligraphic dragon painted in the Chinese style on a large brown kraft paper; but my favorite was a display of what seemed to be the skeletal remains of the vertabrae of a dinosaur, but each vertebral “bone” was formed out of a tiny man with ribs as oars. The whole thing was made out of sculpey!  Brilliant.

Then we checked out the exhibition of Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère — I’ve always loved this piece, but hadn’t given thought to the strangeness of the reflection in the mirror behind the bar before.  Read up about it at this link to the Getty’s exhibit of this.

We also looked at the European Drawings on view.

There was a nice large show of Weston photos, and some very large current photos by Luc Delahaye.

And there were some very nice sculptures outside, such as the one pictured here by Magritte.  See more photos from the Getty Museum below.

Rene Magritte (Belgian) 1898-1967
Delusions of Grandeur (Bronze) 1967
Gift of Fran and Ray Stark

Pictured: Nancy Rubins’s Chas’ Stainless Steel
Mark Thompson’s Airplane Parts
About 1000 Pounds of Stainless Steel Wire
Gagosian’s Beverly Hills Space
at MOCA (2001/2002)

Whenever we vacation in LA (to visit my husband’s father and his wife) I always try to see as much art as possible.

I had researched in advance to find some compelling exhibits, but once here, I sadly discovered that the painter I so much wanted to see at the ACE Gallery, David Amico, was not in fact showing there.

So we made a new plan to go to the MOCA downtown. As it happened, they were installing a new show, so they only had a couple of rooms of art to view. The sculpture above, made of crashed airplane parts (if I remember right), and the figure on the right (with live birds) were in the courtyard outside the museum.

Inside were fabulous sculptures and drawings by LA artist Matthew Monahan. His sculptures are conglomerations of all sorts of materials, including sheetrock and wax, but we really enjoyed the heads he so beautifully drew and then folded into head shapes, sort of like origami — very beautifully done!

Showing at the Art Museum of Art

Pictured: America Starts Here, 1988,
Broken glass, fiberglass replacement windows, and etched plexiglas panels in frames
two framed photographs, 126 x 552 inches overall,
Courtesy of Mel Ziegler, Austin, Texas,
From the exhibition: America Starts Here: Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler.

I went see the exhibit “America Starts Here: Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler at AMOA downtown.  I also went to the gallery talk today. I love the work, and the ideas behind it. I highly recommend that you make it to this exhibit, if you get a chance.

The show runs February 10 – May 6, 2007; Mel Zeigler will be having a gallery talk on his work on Thursday, February 22, 7 pm. I hope I can make it.

This work is multi-layered and very thought-provoking. Very inspirational!  I loved this wall of window glass from a factory in Philadelphia.

Here are some notes from the catalog:

Originally conceived for an exhibition in Philadelphia, America Starts Here displays Ericson and Ziegler’s interest in American history and use of mapping as a method of approaching their work. The title is a direct quotation of a tourist slogan used by the state of Pennsylvania during the 1980s, recalling the origins of the United States and the utopian ideals of the country’s founding fathers. Yet the piece itself encourages a view of American history more complex than the optimistic boosterism of the slogan.

To make America Starts Here, the artists removed broken windows and fiberglass replacement panels from the former National Licorice Company factory at 1301-19 Washington Avenue, Philadelphia, and replaced them with new windows. All of the broken panels are framed between sheets of glass sandblasted with the paths of well-known trails, canals, rivers, and railroads, or tracings of cracks found in architectural elements in the former and current national capital cities of Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, DC. The removed windows are displayed in the configuration found at the factory. Their lines echo the cracked features of two of Philadelphia’s most beloved tourist attractions, the Liberty Bell and the broken glass of Marcel Duchamp’s The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass).

You can find out more about this exhibit online at the Tang Gallery.

Painting by Scott Barber
title, medium, size, date unknown

I stumbled on an exhibit by Scott Barber while taking a few days off in Galveston for our anniversary. Very keen abstract work, a lot of which had a very topographical look, was manipulated from photographs using PhotoShop into unrecognizable beautiful forms which then make their way onto the canvas (or aluminum or polyfiber, as the case may be). I found this nice review of a show Barber was in Artlies.

Barber’s works were the best thing in Galveston on this trip, and the rest of the trip was pretty good!  Sadly, this was a posthumous show; Barber died in 2005 of complications following a bone marrow transplant. (you can read his resume here).