Samurai Japanese Armor at LACMA

On Tuesday, October 21st, I roamed through the newly opened exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, "Samauri:  Japenese Armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection."
The exhibit beautifully displays the armor used by Samurai.  The exhibit information states that for nearly seven hundred years, beginning in 1185, Japan was governed by a military government, led by the shogun, ruling in the name of the emperor.  Samurai warriors were loyal to individual daimyo - provincial lords with large hereditary land holdings.  After years of clashes between these rival clans, in 1600 the Tokugawa family won a decisive battle and members of the family established a new shogunate and ruled over Japan during a period of peace lasting 250 years. In 1868, forces supporting the imperial system and the emperor gained control of the government and displaced the shogunate and the samurai class was officially dissolved.

Here are my photos of some of the exhibit:

The Samurai became expects in warfare and served their daimyo who ruled the Japanese provinces.  The Samuai began as servants and became skilled, educated and refined warriors.  Many nobility were also Samurai, many were among Japan's intellectual elite.

Samurai armor consists of a helmet, mask, and chest armor combined with shoulder guards, sleeves, a skirt, thigh protection and shin guards.  The armor was very light when compared to European or Persian armor.  It was made of small, perforated plates that were often lacquered and held together with colored lacing and silk cord.  Many were as beautiful as they were functional.

Horse Mask (bamen), Japan, late 16th century, wood, leather, gold and hemp

"Muneyuki III" Japan, active late 14th century, Hemispherical Ridged Helmet, 1380
Iron, gold, bronze, leather and lacing.

"Bamen Sadao" (helmet), Ridged Helmet and Half Mask, helmet," 14th-16th century.
Iron, copper, shakudo, gold, lacing, wood, leather, and horsehair.

Jacket (hitatare) and Pants, (hakama), Japan, 19th century, silk.
These were traditionally worn under a suit of armor.

16th an 17th century armor

Armor On Display:  On the eleventh day of the last month of the year the daimyo who ruled the province would  have all the armor put on display in order to show off the beauty and demonstrate his power.

19th Century Armor

Elaborately Shaped Helmet, Japan, 17th-18th century

Warrior Dolls, Japan, 19th century

Steep-Sided Helmet, Japan, late 16th-early 17th century

17th century Armor

Armor of the Tengu Type, 1854

The Mori Clan armor

Armor of the Okegawado Type, Japan, late 16th century

Horse Masks, Japan 16th century

Yumi and Archery Equipment.  Arrow Box and Arrows, Japan, 19th century and Quiver, Japan, 17th-18th century 

Kandinsky Circles at Norton Simon

On Friday I revisited the Vasily Kandinsky paintings at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.  I took more time to explore these paintings from the period 1922 to 1934 when he returned to Germany to head the Bauhaus art and design schools painting workshop.  Born in Russia in 1866 Kandinsky changed his career from law to painting when he turned 30.  He moved to Munich to study art and lived in the area until 1914 when WW I began and he went back to Russia.

Before he war, Kandinsky was a part of the Blue Rider Group of painters that included August Macke, Franz Marc and others.  They explored the use of vivid colors and moved toward abstract painting.  Macke and Marc were killed during the war.  The communist revolution in Russia brought restrictions to artists so Kandinsky moved back to Germany where he remained until the Nazis took over and restricted art.  They viewed Kandinsky's art and others and degenerate.  He therefore moved to Paris where he died in 1944.

Kandinsky is called the founder of abstract art.  In addition to exploring the creative use of colors, he explored the use of geometric forms and shapes like circles and triangles.

Here are three paintings at the Norton Simon that show the artists emphasis on colors and shapes:

"Open Green," 1923, oil on canvas.
Kandinsky taught about the character of color saying that "absolute green is the most peaceful color there is:  it does not move in any direction, has no overtones o joy or sorrow or passion, demands nothing, calls out to no one."

"Unequal," April 1932, oil and gouache on canvas.
The description next to the painting states that there is a spiritual quality that always rested at the core of his abstract paintings.  "The floating rectangles and glowing orb of Unequal gives a sense of objects hovering in space."

"Heavy Circles," 1927, oil on canvas.  The description states that Kandinsky wrote in 1930"
"Why does the circle fascinate me?  It is:  1. the most modest form, but asserts itself unconditionally, 2.  a precise, but inexhaustible variable, 3. simultaneously stable and unstable, 4. simultaneously loud and soft, 5. a single tension that carries countless tensions within in."

Next to the Kandinsky paintings is a painting by his fellow Blue Rider Group member, Franz Marc.

"Bathing Girls," 1910 by Franz Marc, German, 1880-1916, oil on canvas.
The description of the painting states that Franz Marc was inspired by Paul Cezanne's painting "Bathers" when he painted this.  He was inspired to create his own image of primitive paradise.  This painting was classified as "degenerate" by the Nazis and confiscated  from a museum in Dusseldorf in 1937.

More Roaming at Bergamot Station Art Galleries

On Thursday, I returned to Bergamot Station in Santa Monica to view new art installations in the galleries.  Here is a bit of the art I enjoyed:

"Palisades North View II," 2014 by Ann Lofquist, oil on canvas, at the Craig Krull Gallery Building B3
October 18 to November 22, 2014

Also by Ann Lofquist at the Craig Krull Gallery

"The Pumpkin," 1984 by Rufino Tomayo, Mexico, 1899-1991
etching, ed. HC 1/15 at the Latin American Masters Gallery, E 2

"Pumm (2nd State)," 2004 by Fransisco Toledo, Mexico, b. 1944
Latin American Masters Gallery

"Artist with Model," 1968,, by Francisco Corzas, Mexico, 1936-1983, oil on canvas

"Ascension," 2013 by John Valadez, United States, b. 1958, pastel on paper 

"Paracas:  La Noche," 2011 by Fernando de Szyszlo, Peru, b. 1925 acrylic on canvas

"The Death and the Maiden," 2013, Mixed Media by Fernando de Szyszlo
Latin American Masters Gallery

Watercolor and pastel on paper, 2013 by Julio Larraz, b. Cuba, 1944
Latin America Masters Gallery

"Big White Car," 2014 by Nancy Baron, Archival prigment print.
"The Good Life > Palm Springs" show at the dnj gallery suite J1 until 11/1/2014

"Camel (from Unsustainable Creatures)," by Cynthia Minet at the Earth We Presents Gallery (EarthWe Gallery)

"Yellow Chevy," 2013 by Cheryl Kelley, Oil on aluminum panel.
Skidmore contemporary Gallery, D2

Weekend Music: Blue Grass to Classical

We enjoyed music over the weekend with a Saturday night concert by Sara Watkins at the Center for the Arts at Pepperdine University, Malibu and Saturday afternoon Los Angeles Philharmic at Disney Hall in L.A.

Sara played an exciting fiddle accompanied by her brother, Sean, on the guitar, plus a bass player and drummer.  Sara also picked up the guitar for a couple of songs.  She has performed for two decades as a singer and fiddle player for the bluegrass-folk hybrid Nickel Creek.  She began performing for them when she was eight-years-old.   She then started her own band for a couple of years and has now returned to play with Nickel Creek.

Here is a photo of the group performing:

On Sunday we enjoyed a matinee concert by the L.A. Phil conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.  The concert began with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 performed the the Norwegian pianist, Leif Ove Andsnes.  Mark Swed from the L.A. Times wrote that Andsnes seeks freshness through clarity and care and that he plays with cool eloquence.

After intermission, the Los Angeles Master Chorale arrive in seats behind the orchestra and together with the orchestra performed John Adams' Harmonium.  Adams wrote this in 1981.  He also wrote the operas "Nixon in China" and "The Death of Klinghoffer."  The chorale sang words from John DoEmily Dickinson's poems "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" and "Wild Nights."  

The closing piece was Beethoven's Choral Fantasy with Andsnes returning to play along with the orchestra and Chorale.  Mark Swed wrote that the strange 20-minute Choral Fantasy is a predecessor for Beethoven's Night Symphony.  Yes, indeed, I walked away humming the Ode To Joy tune.  Swed wrote:  "Nor can you get too much of Dudamel's capacity to convey joy or whip the Master Chorale and L.A. Phil into the high exuberant mode that ultimately made the performance soar."

Here are a couple of pictures of the Andsnes:

Bergamot Station Roaming

Last Thursday, I roamed through the Galleries at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica and this is what I found:

"Fallen Angel," 2014 by Holly Roberts, mixed media, at the Craig Krull Gallery

"Hungry Cat," 2009 by Holly Roberts

"Solution - Deer," 2014 by James Griffith at the Craig Krull Gallery
"From the Infinite to the Particular, La Brea Tar Paintings"
tar on canvas

"Solution - Wild Horse," 2014 by James Griffith

"Miss Thing," 2014 by Steve Hurd at the Rosamund Felsen Gallery

"The Roar #7," 2014 by Steve Hurd

"Spiral Betty," 2006 by Alison Saar in The Frostig Collection.  Proceeds go to the Frostig Center for children with learnig disabilities, autism and Asperger's.
4-color woodblock print with hand coloring; edition of 100

"The Frostig Collection #15," 2010 by David Buckingham
Cut and welded found metal; series if 25

"Orphan," 2006 by Charles Arnoldi
7-color lithograph; edition of 100

Wall paintings by Charles Christopher Hill
Floor sculpture by Tom Waldron, fabricated with steel, wood and concrete.
Leslie Sacks Contemporary Gallery 

Sophia Loren gives Jane Mansfied an interesting look in a photo from the golden age of Hollywood in 1958 by Joe Shere

The Notre-Dame of Paris on the Ile de la Cite on the Seine River
Stephen Wilkes "Day to Night" series of photographs at the Peter Fetterman Gallery are beautiful to observe.
The artist worked from a fixed camera angle, capturing the fleeting moments of humanity and light as time passes.  After 15 hours of photographing and over 1500 images taken, he selected the best moments of the day and night and blended them into a single photography.

Barack Obama Inauguration, 2013

Jerusalem 2012

Yosemite Valley

"Pyramid," 2013 by Gronk Nicandro, "Ruins - New Paintings and Works on Paper."
Lora Schlesinger Gallery

David Furman has created "Figures of Speech" from Midrange porcelain, under glaze, glaze.
Lois Lambert Gallery

Carole Bayer Sager's New Works are at the William Turner Gallery.  Her last exhibit sold out in 2012.
"Carol Bayer Sager doesn't paint food, she paints how we look at and see food," writes art critic Peter Frank.
Bayer Sager is a Grammy-winning pop songwriter.  She began painting in 2006

"Space Elephant" 1980
Andrew Weiss Gallery

"Spanish Peasant," 1970 by Pablo Picasso, signed lithograph

"347," 1968. Original Etching with Aquatint by Pablo Picasso, Signed

"The Villagers," by Marc Chagall, Color Etching with Aquatint," 1975-76

"Agora I," by Joan Miro, Lithograph, 1971, signed

"Bicycle," by Bob Dylan, Giclee, signed, 2013

"The Watchers," by Joan Miro, Original Lithograph, hand signed, 1964

"Seize the Moment," by Andrea Rubin Kichaven, Acrylic on Canvas

"Window # 2,"  by Adrea Rubin Kichaven, Acrylic on Canvas