Roamings of a Leo: The Broad Museum on Thursday

I met my friend Chris at the new Broad Museum and we lined up for the 11:30 am line with our advanced reserved tickets. We entered the busy museum and rode the escalator to the third floor gallery. The museum is called the Vault and the Veil referring to the central vault of about 2000 pieces of art and the white 2500 veil like fiberglass reinforced concrete panels on the exterior that lets in natural light along with the 318 sky lights on the 35,000 square feet of third floor galleries. There is also 15,000 square feet of galleries on the first floor.

The Eli and Edythe Broad collection is of postwar and contemporary art that grows by approximately one new artwork per week. They are know for their in depth collection of their favorite artists. Here are my photos of some of my favorites:

"Tulips," 1996-2004 by Jeff Koons, U.S., b. 1955, Mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent color coating.

"Wall Weeping," 2009 by Marlene Dumas, South Africa/Netherlands, b. 1953, oil on linen. "Wall Weeping is derived from a photograph that depicts Israeli soldiers searching Palestinians men in front of a stone wall."

"Kara Walker's work examines the horrors of slavery before, during and after the Civil War." The artist uses the technique of silhouetting and explores subjugation, depravity, and desire.

"African't," 1996 by Kara Walker, U.S., b. 1969, cut paper on wall. The cutouts are nearly life size "becoming a theater of remembrance and forgetting." (This full wall length work was photographed using panorama view."

"Infinite Expansion," 1983 by Mike Kelley, U.S., 1954-2012, six parts superimposed, acrylic on paper.

"Red Room," 1988 by Keith Haring, U.S., 1958-1990, acrylic on canvas.

"Untitled," 1984 by Keith Haring, acrylic on canvas. "Haring's works often aggressively address sociopolitical themes. "Untitled" presents a critique of the excess of capitalism."

"Untitled," 1981 by Jean-Michel Basquiat, U.S., 1960-1988. "Many of Basquiat's paintings are in some way autobiographical, and "Untitled" may be consider a form of self-portraiture."

"Raymond and Toby," 1989 by John Ahearn, U.S. b. 1951, oil on fiberglass.

Three Basket Balls in water by Jeff Koons.

"Achilles and the Tortise," by Mark Tansey

"Balloon Dog (Blue)," 1994-2000 by Jeff Koons, Mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent color coating.

"Michael Jackson and Bubbles," 1988 by Jeff Koons, Porcelain.

"Rabbit," 1986 by Jeff Koons, Stainless steel

"Interior with African Mask," 1991 by Roy Lichtenstein, U.S., 1923-1997, oil and magna on canvas.

"Like You," 1995 by Lari Pittman, U.S., b. 1952, oil and enamel on five mahogany panels (photo taken in panorama mode).

"Party Hat," 1995-7, oil on canvas.

"Black Flowers," 1961 by Roy Lichtenstein, oil on canvas.

"I...I'm Sorry!," 1965-66 by Roy LIchtenstein, oil and Magna on canvas.

"Femme d'Alger," 1963 by Roy Lichtenstein, oil on canvas. "At the same time as he was borrowing images from comic strips and commercials,k Roy Lichtenstein was also borrowing from his heroes...Pablo Picasso...Piet Mondrain."

"Goldfish Bowl," 1977 by Roy Lichtenstein, panted and patinated bronze.

"Live Ammo (Bang)," 1962 by Roy Lichtenstein, oil and Magna on canvas.

"Deutschlands Geisteshelden," 1973 by Anselm Kiefer, b. 1945 Ger;many/France, oil and charcoal on burlap mounted on canvas. "Deutschlands Geisteshelden positions the viewer at the mouth of a great hall, an amalgam of Kiefer's former studio and Carinhall, a German hunting lodge used to store looted art during the Nazi era."

"Leaving Paphos Ringed with Waves (III)," 2009 by Cy Twombly, U.S., 1928-2011, acrylic on canvas. "Cy Twombly conjures moments of genesis and creative hedonism that exist before ideas attain full expression in conventional images or language. He painting show the struggle through which meaning is achieved, the instinctual impulses that lie beneath rational thought.."

"Ocean Park #90," 1976 by Richard Diebenkorn, U.S., 1922-1993, oil on canvas. "The paintings demonstrate a sense of topography or mapping combined with subtle changes of atmosphere and light, achieved through gentle gradients of color and shifts in composition." Completed in Santa Monica, CA where the artist maintained a studio from 1967 to 1988.

"Grey," 1954-55 by Sam Francis, U.S. 1923-1994, oil on canvas.

"Big Orange," 1954-55 by Sam Francis, oil on canvas. "Sam Francis moved to Paris from the California Bay Area in the early 1950's. Francis was inspired by the city, by Claude MOnet's water lilies and Pierre Bonnard's windblown leaves and outdoor table tops, and he transmuted many of the interests of the impressionists into contemporary vocabulary, aiming to capture the fleeting work of pigment.

"Norm's, La Cienega, on Fire," 1954 by Edward Ruscha, U.S. b. 1937, oil and pencil on canvas

"Angry Because It's Plaster, Not Milk," 1965 by Edward Ruscha, oil on canvas.

"Desire," 1969 by Edward Ruscha, oil on canvas.

Green Blue Red," 1963 by Ellsworth Kelly, U.S., b. 1923, oil on canvas

"Untitled," 1954 by Robert Rauschenberg, u.S. 1925-2008, oil, fabric, and newspaper on canvas.

Watchman," 1964 by Jasper Johns

"Flag," 1967 by Jasper Johns, U.S. b. 1930, Encaustic and collage on canvas three panels

"Two Marilyns," 1962 by Andy Warhol, U.S., 1928-1987, acrylic, silkscreenink and pencil on linen.

"Big Electric Chair," 1967-68 by Andy Warhol, acrylic and silkscreen in on linen.

"Scorched Earth," 2006 by Mark Bradford, U.S. 1961, mixed media collage. "The layers in Scorched Earth create a topography that represents the deep psychological and physical ruins of a disappeared people and another time and place."

"Death of Marxism, Women of All Lands Unite," 2013 by Goshka Macuga, Poland/England, b. 1967, wool tapestry. "...Tapestry of Karl Marx;s grave collaged with voyeuristic images of women from twentieth-century Czech artist Miroslav Tichy,..Macuga shifts the slogan from a communist call to action to end class struggle to the feminist one calling for the end of sexists expression."

"Old Couple," 1993 by John Currin, U.S. b. 1962, oil on canvas. "John Currin's paintings frequently conflate opposing sensibilities - valuted taste with vulgarity, sentimentality with iron, beauty with banality."

"Untitled (Circus No. 2 Face 44.19)," 2013 by Mark Grotjahn, U.S. 1968, oil on cardboard mounted on linen.

"Bateau de Guerre," 2001 by Chris Burden, U.S. 1946-2915. "172 metal gasoline cans, three cannons on wooden swivels, eight plastic torpedoes, 18 plastic submarine bombers, four plastic rescue submarines, two metal lamps, five plastic castle towers (two on each side, on on top) with attached weaponry, one straw Chinese radar hat, four plastic crates, and metal framework."

"Oval Buddha Silver, 2008 by Takashi Murakami, Japan, b. 1963, sterling silver.

"The 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, followed by the Fukushima nuclear disaster, marked a turning point in Murakami's work. The successive cataclysms seemed to cry out for Japan's history to come to bear for a suffering people, and Buddhist traditions an d folk tales, long an interest for the artist, found expression again in expansive new work that focused directly on the aftermath of the disasters."

"DOB in the Strange Forest (Blue DOB)," 1999 by Takashi Murakami, fiber-reinforced plastic, resin, fiberglass, acrylic and iron."

"End of Line, 2011.

These two photos show the 82 foot-long painting entitled " In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow," 2014 by Takashi Murakami, acrylic on canvas. "The painting is unmistakably Murakami's reminiscent of contemporary Japanese cartooning and culture though rooted in centuries-old traditions.