Monday at LACMA

Monday was a good day to roam around the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as it was a lower attendance day and just nice to set and enjoy my lunch and then take off in a direction of my choosing to see favorite art and some that I had perhaps neglected on my previous visits.

Here is what caught my eye on Monday:

"Armchair," 1944 by Charles Eames, U.S. 1907-1978 and Ray Eames, U.S. 1912-1988 both active Los Angeles, Molded Plywood, maple and ash.

"Double Circle," 1950 by Charles Howard, U.S. 1899-1978, oil on canvas.

"The Herwigs," 1928 by Edouard Antonin Vysekal, Bohenia, 1890-1939, active U.S., oil on canvas.

"Projection No. 3 ( Eye in the Sky)," 1936 by Emil Bisttram, Hungary, 1895-1976, active U.S., oil on canvas.

"The Embrace," 1942 by Charles White, U.S., 1918-1979, egg tempera on masonite.

"Broadway  (Longest Street)," 1966 by Gen'ichiro Inokuma, Japan, 1902-1993, active U.S., acrylic on canvas.

"Cliff Dwellers," 1913 by George Bellows, U.S. 1882-1925, oil on canvas.  "George Bellows was the best of the Ashcan school, a group of artists who painted unidealized views of New York."

"Watts Towers I," 1960's by Gloria Stuart, U.S. 1910-2010, oil on canvas.

"Carmel Valley Pumpkins," 1907 by Evelyn McCormick, U.S. 1862-1948, oil on canvas.

"Barracks - Tule Lake," 1945 by Taneyuki (Dan) Harada, U. S. b. 1923 oil on canvas.  "Tule Lake, in northermost California, was the site of the largest (in terms of population) Japanese American internment camp."

"Laughing Child," 1620-25 by Frans Hals, Northern Netherlands, 1582/83-1666, oil on wood.

"Landscape with Peasants Playing Bowls outside and Inn," 1660 by David Teniers the Younger, Southern Netherlands, 1610-1690, oil on canvas.

 I then attended a docent presentation on the Assyrian Reliefs from Nimrud.  "This splendid series of five reliefs once decorated the interior walls of the palace of Ashurnasirpal II (reigned 883-859 BC).  This area now in Iraq is currently under control of the ISIS forces.

 "This relief represents and eagle-headed demon engaged in a ritual to expel sickness and evil spirits from the house."

These reliefs were "designed as corner panels, forming a stylized sacred tree."  

This panel "shows a winged human-headed genie wearing a double bull horn miter that may be a supernatural projection of the king; he holds a conical fruit that he presumable has dipped into the bucket of pollen held in preparation for fertilization of the Tree of Life.

This panel "depicts the king holding his libation bowl and his bow; he is accompanied by a winged human-headed genie carrying a bucket."

Big Band Swing! with Michael Feinstein conducting the Pasadena Pops

It was a beautiful warm evening at the L.A. County Arboretum in Arcadia last Saturday when our group arrived for a great dinner and wonderful concert.  It was the first concert of the summer Pasadena Pops series with Michael Feinstein conducting the Pasadena Pops in music from the Big Band Swinging era.  We enjoyed sounds of Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and others.  A few even got up and danced on the lawn.

The first guest singer was Michael Andrew who charmed the audience.

Michael Andrew

After the intermission, Des Moines own Marilyn Maye (she graduated from Des Moines East High School) made her entrance with much glitter and belted out some old favorites.

Marilyn Maye, yes, she is 87 years old and she still has it.

Michael Feinstein

The evening ended with an encore with all three singing "Birth of the Blues."  It was a WOW evening!

Here are a few of my photos:

The Friend Sisters Dancing

The Singers on the Encore

Beautiful Places visited on Thursday and Friday

The Getty Villa in Malibu was still under the morning Marine Layer when we arrived on Thursday.  This added to the mystic of this replica of a villa buried under Mt. Vesuvius volcanic mud over 2000 years ago.  Thanks to J.P. Getty and his billions spent on museums and art collections, we get to go and view with awe this amazing scene.  

The Getty Villa is home to collections of antiquities from the Roman, Greek, Etruscan, and other ancient cultures.  Here are photos of some of my favorites that I saw on Thursday:

The Iris were a bloom on this late Spring morning, but no water in the pool due the drought. 

"Jug with a Man and Deer," Early Cypriot, 230-1650 B.C., Terracotta

We viewed beautiful silver objects found by chance in rural Normandy in 1830, and dedicated the the Gallo-Roman god Mercury about 2,000 years old.  These were studied and cleaned at the Getty and viewed for the first time outside Paris.  No photos were allowed.

"Gravestone of a Woman with Her Attendant," Greek, about 100 B.C., Marble.

"Faustina the Elder," Roman, A.D. 140-160

"Gravestone of Apollonia," Greek about 100 B.C., Marble and pigment 

"Bust of a Boy Named Martial," Roman, A.D. 98-117. Marble.
The inscription on this bust reads:  "Dearest Martial, a slave child, who lived two years, ten months, and eight days."

"Statuette of a Boy Riding Piggyback," Greek, 500-475 B. C., Terracotta and pigment.
"Doll," Greek 500-400 B.C. 

"Bust of a Woman," Roman, 25 B.C.-A.D. 25, Bronze and glass paste (eyes).

"Gravestone of Tatianos and Tation," Roman, made in Phrygia (present-day Turkey), A.D. 175

"Bust of Emperor Commodus," Roman, A.D. 180-185, Marble

"Statuette of Mars Cobannus," Gallo-Roman, A.D. 125-175, Bronze

The fog is clearing as can be seen in the balcony view looking toward the Pacific Ocean.

The side garden with fountains with water to preserve the plants.

"Vessels and Jewelry from a Burial.  The gold coin minted in present-day Turkey by the Roman general Marc Antony in 34 B.C.

"Applique with ceres," Roman, A.D. 100-200, silver,
"Statuette of a Goddess," Roman, A.D. 50-75, bronze
"Statuette of a Fertility Goddess," Greek, made in Boiotia, 600-575 B.C. Terracotta
"Mixing Vessel with Triptolemos,"  Greek, made in Athens, about 470 B.C., Terracotta

"Young Boy, Possibly Cupid," Roman, A.D. 1-50, Bronze, silver and copper

"Aphrodite," Greek, 200-150 B.C., Bronze

On Friday, I enjoyed the blooming Lotus blossoms on the pond in the Chinese Pavilion at the Huntington Gardens in San Marino. These Chinese gardens are called the Lotus Gardens with images of the Lotus blossom carved on the top of the bridges.

Lotus with Lois

  

Noah Purifoy Exhibit at LACMA

I roamed through the Noah Purifoy exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of art yesterday.  The exhibit is entitled "Junk Dada," so I expected to see arranged junk statues.  Instead, I saw beautiful art created from recycled materials (yes, junk, but beautiful).
I learned the following about Noah Purifoy:

He was born on August 17, 1917 in Snow Hill, Alabama to sharecropper cotton picking parents, the son and daughter of slaves, where he learned to make something out of nothing.  He attended the Snow Hill Institute, a school for the African American community that was modeled on the nearby Tuskegee Institute.  He later lived in Birmingham until moving to Los Angeles in 1950 at age 33 to attend Chouinard Art Institute, now a part of CalArts. Here he was introduced to Marcel Duchamp and others and their assemblage art that was part of the Surrealist and Dadist art movement.  He also saw Simon Rodia's towers in Watts and later became founding director of the Watts Towers Art Center where art was taught to the community.

Purifoy received his Masters in Social Work and believed in the power of art to effect change.  "On August 11, 1965, the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts erupted in one of the most violent race rebellions in American history.  A reaction to decades of oppression, economic disenfranchisement, and racial profiling endured by the African American community, the revolt left thirty-four people dead and devastated Watts, which was engulfed by fire for a week.  In the riot's wake, Purifoy, the founding director of the Watts Towers Art Center, gathered a group of artists...together, they created '66 Signs of Neon,' an exhibition of works constructed from the debris they had collected...'66 Signs of Neon' traveled to nine venues across the country between 1966 and 1969" (quoted from the exhibit description).

In 1972, Purifoy became director of community services at Central City Mental Health, a facility started in 1968 to address the psychological issues affecting L.A.'s African American community. In 1976 Purifoy was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the California Arts Council where he served for 12 years. In 1989, at the age of seventy-two, Purifoy moved to Joshua Tree, CA where he transformed a ten-acre parcel of desert with 120 large-scale sculptures composed entirely of junk.  Six of these large-scale works are installed in this exhibit, two outside.

Noah Purifoy died on March 5, 2004 in Joshua Tree.

Here are my photos of some of the art work that I enjoyed:

"Wooden Tile," 1988, Construction

"Untitled," n.d. Assemblage sculpture

"Black, Brown, and Beige (After Duke Ellington)," 1989, Combine

"Snow Hill," 1989, Construction.
This works depicts Purifoy's birthplace of Snow Hill Alabama, from the air.

"Joshua Tree," 1989, Mixed-media construction

"Untitled (Bed Headboard)," 1958, Construction.  This headboard, Purifoy's earliest surviving work, was made during his eleven-year career as a designer of modernist furniture.

"Urban Sprawl," 1989

"Office Chair," 1988

"The Last Supper II," 1988, Assemblage

"Charisma," 1989

"Zulu," 1989, Construction

"Rags and Old Iron I (After Nina Simone)," 1989 Assemblage
Purifoy referenced jazz in numerous works from the late 1980's.  Simone wails in the song "Rags and Old Iron." 

"Hanging Tree," 1990, Mixed media.

"Earl Fatha Hines," 1990, Mixed media.

"Untitled," 1992

"The Summer of 1965," 1996

Close up showing photos of the Watts riots.

"Untitled," 1993, Mixed media

"Strange Fruit," 2002, Assemblage
Referring to both the Billie Holiday song abut the history of lynching in this country and to the history of tar-and-feather attacks on African Americans...works that confront our nation's history of social injustice and violence. (description by museum)

"Spaceman," 1993, Assemblage sculpture

"Untitled," 2000, Mixed Media

"No Contest (Bicycles)," 1991, Assemblage sculpture

"From the Point of View of the Little People," 1994, Mixed-media construction.

"Law and Order," 1965, Plexiglas assemblage.

"Untitled," 1967, Mixed media

"Ode to Frank Gehry," 2000, Assemblage sculpture.
"A large abstract form built out of discarded shipping containers...pays homage to the renowned ...architect and to Purifoy's own architectural aspirations."

"65 Aluminum Trays," 2002, Assemblage sculpture.