Summary of roamings during the last week:
Monday, 4/2, I visited my "home" museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LACMA. I discovered two exhibits I have not seen.
Robert Adams: The Place We Live and Ellsworth Kelly: Prints and Paintings.
Robert Adams photography over nearly 50 years records history of development in the West through 300 black-and-white photos plus photo books. The changing landscape through development includes the evolution of land from native to new tracks to evolved tracks with mature trees and neighborhood. These photos are of his home in Colorado and the L.A. area. The message I received is that development has scarred our land. An example is what we have done to the trees...cut them and undermined them until they die. Or we leave them alone...develop...enjoy...then move on...leaving the trees and landscape like it was. Is it possible to possess and develop the Earth without destroying it? I hope so.
Artist Talk Tuesday May 8th at 7:00 PM.
Ellsworth Kelly colorful images surprised me because I enjoyed and appreciated his seemingly simple shapes.
Tuesday, 4/3/12, I visited galleries recommended by the LA Times "Guide". I went to LAX-ART at 2640 S. La Cienega Blvd and saw works by Phil Chang described as an enigmatic show...and whether we recognize it as art at all.
In addition I visited Blum & Poe at 2727 La Cienega and somewhere came upon this:
Yes...that is fresh MUD.
The other gallery I visited is just about a mile from my home: Jack Rutberg Fine Arts at 357 N. La Brea Ave. They featured two artists: Claire Falkenstein and Ruth Weisberg. I was moved by both of their works. Claire used wire, rocks, paint, and other media to create her work. The review said "the sense of discovery is palpable....fearless experimentation...as she hopscotched among media." Here is one of her works:
Claire lived from 1908 to 1997. This was done in 1949 as a part of her Barcelona Series. Note her other pieces of art that she created.
Ruth Weisberg is a living artist who paints on various medium including unstretched canvas. This gives her works great texture. She grew up visiting the Art Institute of Chicago and has incorporated master paintings into hers. The figure painted by Carot is in the background....her daughter is in the foreground.
On Wednesday, I visited the Skirball Museum and the exhibit entitle "Women Hold Up Half the Sky" and draws attention to the abuse of women through bad maternal health, domestic violence and slavery/prostitution. It encourages visitors to advocate and speak out publicly about this problem. The exhibit shows photos and videos from Central Africa primarily.
I met a wonderful docent named Florence. She rescued me as I stepped into the museum and pointed me on the right way to go. Later as I was getting a sandwich for lunch, she invited me to sit with her. Of course she is a retired social worker and we had a friend in common that we talked about....Cheryl, who lives on the beach in Malibu. She hired Cheryl at UCLA NPI. She is a gift to all.
Thursday my day was at the Getty in Brentwood. I arrived before opening and had coffee and a Danish on the veranda...beautiful day and views. I visited mostly their photography exhibits of famous people from Robert E. Lee and Lincoln to FDR and other. The most striking exhibit was the Herb Ritts photo exhibit....amazing work of models for magazine covers, movie stars, and nudes. Beautiful work. He died 10 years ago at the age of 50 from AIDS related illnesses.
The other amazing exhibit there was the Renaissance drawings and a few paintings including the one of the little girl seen in the Getty blog.
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