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.  

"Me," 2011 by Luc Tuymans, Belgium, b. 1958, oil on canvas. 

"Morning Sun," 2013 by Luc Turymans, oil on canvas.  

Wednesday at the Skirball Cultural Center and Ansel Adams Photography

I enjoyed a return visit to the Skirball Cultural Center at the top of the Sepulveda Pass on Wednesday. The Jewish cultural center's mission  is "exploring the connections between 4000 years of Jewish heritage and the vitality of American democratic ideals."  "Manzanar:  The Wartime Photographs of Ansel Adams features fifty photographs that depict the treatment of Japanese Americans at the incarceration camp in Manzanar, California, during World War II."  Adams is best known for his black and white photos of Yosemite and the beautiful nature scenes in the West.  He was invited in 1943 to visit the Manzanar camp and to document the life of the Japanese-Americans who were forced to leave their homes on the West coast and to move to this high desert and the base of the Sierra Mountains.

Upon entering the exhibit, a movie made in the early 1940's attempts to justify the arrest and interment of the 120,000 Japanese-Americans and makes a positive spin on the "wonderful opportunity" that this experience provided.  Adams published a book of his photos entitled "Born Free and Equal," (1944), protesting the injustices brought upon these people.  Other photos by Dorothea Lang and Toyo Miyatake are also on view.

Photography was not allowed.  Here are photos on the Skirball web site:

The Japanese-Americans were given only a few days notice before they were rounded up and taken to temporary camps at Santa Anita Race Track and the Fair Grounds in Pomona.  They were allowed to bring one suit case and forced to leave everything else behind.   They set up schools and churches in the camp.

 Some worked in near by beet fields.

 Standing in line for meals.

 Adams was told not to photograph the barbed wire and watch towers, however, this photo made it.

Many young men signed up to served in the war where they were assigned to Europe. 

The Paintings of Lawren Harris at the Hammer

On Saturday I visited the Hammer Museum in the Westwood neighborhood of L.A to see the paintings of Lawren Harris.  The exhibit is entitled " The Idea of North" which refers to the Canadian artists paintings of Northern Ontario Province of Canada.  Harris founded the Group of Seven in Toronto.  The group was made up of Canadian artists that worked together from the 1920's to the 1930's.  Harris had a bit of money so not only created work space for the artists but also paid for the rail fare from Ontario each fall to view the beautiful north woods country and to paint what they saw. They traveled and painted scenes from the north country in other Provinces as well.

The museum description states that Harris was the leading figure in defining Canadian art in the 20th Century that became deeply rooted in Canadian national identity.  The exhibit presents over 20 of Harris's idealized northern landscapes including small panels, painted on beaverboard, and major canvases.  His art has been described as a skillful balance between abstraction and representation.

The exhibit was curated by Steve Martin who is a collector of Harris's works.  However, none of his collection is included in this exhibit.

Here are photos of my favorites:

"Mount Robson from the Northeast," 1930, oil on beaverboard which is a commercially produced pressed paperboard.

"North Shore, Lake Superior," 1926, oil on canvas.  The is one of the most iconic of Harris's paintings of a wind-blasted, weathered tree stump.

"Ice House, Coldwell, Lake Superior," 1923, oil on canvas.

"Mountains in Snow: Rocky Mountain Paintings VII," 1929, oil on canvas.

"Lake Superior Sketch XXXIX," 1923, oil on illustration board.

"North Shore, Baffin Island," 1930, oil on beaverboard.  This island is located in the eastern Arctic.

"Mountain Forms," 1926, oil on canvas.  

"Eskimo Tent, Pangnirtung, Baffin Island," 1930, oil on beaverboard.

"North Shore, Baffin Island," 1930, oil on beaverboard.

"Isolation Peak above Yoho Valley, Rocky Mts." 1929, oil on beaverboard. Some of Harris's paintings have combined elements of several sites.

"Mount Lefroy," 1926, oil on paperboard.  This is a preparatory study for a monumental canvas, "Mt. Lefroy."

"In Buchanan Bay, Ellesmere Island," 1930, oil on beaverboard.

"Lake Superior," 1924, oil on canvas.

"Lake Harbour, South Shore, Baffin Island, Morning," 1930, oil on beaverboard.

"Lake Superior," 1923, oil on canvas.

"Ellesmere Island," 1930, oil on board.

"Mr. Lefroy," 1930, oil on canvas

"Above Lake Superior," 1922, oil on canvas.

"New Objectivity" exhibit at LACMA on Thursday

I visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Thursday October 29th to experience the exhibit entitled "New Objectivity: Modern German Art in the Weimar Republic, 1919-1933."  The large exhibit covering the second floor of the Broad building does a good job of bringing the viewer to the period of time when Germany reeled from the terrible losses in the first World War.  The color and joy shown by the artists before the war that extended the expressionism of Van Gogh, Matisse, and others is gone.  What remains is the bleak, controlled, relatively pale art in this 14 year period leading up to the control of the Hitler government.  People escaped to night clubs, prostitution, and other behavior to avoid the realities of their bleak lives.  The period after the fall of the monarchy and the experiment in democracy had high inflation, and general low morale.

Here are a few pictures from the LACMA web site.  No photography was allowed.

"Dance in Baden-Baden," 1923, oil on canvas by Max Beckmann.

"Self Portrait with Model," 1927 by Christain Schad

"The Yellow Boiler," 1933 by Carl Grossberg.

Upper image:  Otto Dix, "To Beauty," 1922, oil and collage on canvas.  Lower Image:  Aenne Biermann, "Woman with Monocle," 1928 gelatin silver print.