Friday and Saturday at the Huntington Gardens and Gallery

My friend Bill and I roamed around the Huntington Gardens on this beautiful afternoon and then checked out the American paintings in the Virginia Scott Steele gallery.  Here are a few photos of what I particularly enjoyed.

The children's garden is fun for old guys too.

"Still Life with Green Chair," 1950 by Roger Medearis, 1920-2001, Egg tempera on board.  The artist's teacher was Thomas Hart Benton who taught him to use egg tempera by mixing dry pigment with egg yolk thinned with water on a glass palette until he obtained the desired color and consistency.

"The Breaker Boys," 1925 by George Luks, 1867-1933, oil on canvas.  This new acquisition by Luks who was part of "The Ashcan School" which was known for grimy but uplifting depictions of turn-of-the-century urban life.  The description states that this painting is a bleak picture of unremitting toil.  "Bleaker Boys" were children who removed debris and sorted chunks of coal according to size and grade.  They were poorly paid for their dangerous labor and suffered injuries or even death from falling down coal chutes.  Luks painted this as a message to the world about the conditions in which these boys work.  

"Three Houses," 1913 by Robert Spencer, 1879-1931, oil on canvas.  The description states that Spencer is best known for his paintings of figures against backdrops of factories and apartment houses.

On Saturday, Colleen and I returned to the Huntington for a lecture and slide show by Gil Garcetti on "Japan, A Reverence for Beauty."  Garcetti, our former District Attorney and father of our current mayor,  has been exploring photography and publishing beautiful photography books that include the building of the Disney Hall, water and the impact of the lack of it in Africa (women and girls spending much of their days carrying water rather than going to school until a well and pump are installed in their neighborhood), and dance in Cuba.

Garcetti projected his beautiful photos on a screen and talked about his experience.  He then was available to sign purchased hand bound books at a reception afterwards.  

Here are a few pictures that I took:

Garcetti talking about one of his photos.

Garcetti took a photo of this work done on wood that showed the scene of a Japanese internment camp during WWII. 

This is the cover photo of his book where only the one leaf is in focus falling in the Japanese forest.

Roaming Around Bergamot Station Arts Center on Thursday

I enjoyed visiting many art galleries at Bergamot Station Arts Center in Santa Monica.  The Expo Line light rail station is almost finished so the Station will once again be in operation.

I started by visiting William A. Karges Fine Art gallery on the far West end.  This gallery is new to the Station and brings classic California artists paintings to the area. Here are some of my favorites:

"Southern California Landscape," by Orrin White, 1883-1969 oil on canvas.

"Balloon Woman at Zoo," by Millard Sheets, 1907-1989, water color.

"Half Cut Hay," 1936 by John Mottram, 1903-1956. oil on canvas

"Sierra Lake," by Edgar Payne, 1883-1947, oil on canvas.

"Towboat Longside," by Armin Hansen, 1886-1957, oil on board.

"Autumn," by Paul Lauritz, 1889-1975, oil on canvas

"Spring Breeze," by Dennis Doheny, b. 1956, oil on linen.

"Picnic," 1983 by Roland Petersen, b. 1926 in Denmark active in California.

The Lois Lambert gallery features work from two artist.  The first is Alan Manuel Gonzalez's "Contained Metaphors."  He was born in 1972 in Cuba. The description states that Gonzalez's hyper-realistic and symbolic paintings reflect modern day Cuba...he explores the hardships of life in Cuba by painting landscapes, landmarks and various situations trapped in transparent vessels. Here are a photos of a few:

"Craziness serum," acrylic and mixed media on canvas.

"Agotado"

"Everything Has Its Time. Ecclesiastes 3"

"Sweet Temptation"

"En el estaba la vida, y la vida era la luz de la humanidad. San Juan 1,4."

"Self-portrait at 43"

Darwin Estacio Martinez, "Paintings of their Kind," straight from Cuba is also featured at the Lois Lambert Gallery.  The description states that Martinez explores the fragments and figures that compose a universally understood visual language...he is interested in the multiple associations that can be assigned to the images he constructs...using the figures of headless men and women to abstract the human experience by emphasizing our concerns about how we appear.

"Muchacha con libros" Acrylic on canvas.

The Latin American Masters gallery is featuring the sculpture of ancient Mexico, including twenty-four Pre-Hispanic terracotta figures from the cultures of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Veracruz and the Yucatan.  The description states that among the many pleasures of looking at these sculptures is the freedom, direct and spontaneous, with which these works were made, 

Here are a couple of my photos:

The Andrew Weiss Gallery features the works of Tyler Shields, chromogenic prints, hand signed.

 "The Beatles Break Up," 2015

"Lynching," 2015

The TAG Gallery features works of Gary Polonsky's "New Work From the Food Series."

TAG also shows the works of Tom Wheeler and Katie Crown:

 "Desert Fun," 2015 by Tom Wheeler, Archival pigment print.

The Laura Korman Gallery is showing the works of Katherine Rohrbacher entitled "Mirror Mirror:  Introspective Reflections."

"Lupine Reflections," oil on canvas.

The newly relocated Lora Schlesinger Gallery is featuring Ann Chamberlin's "Vaiven, New Paintings from Mexico."

"Airport," 2014 oil on canvas

 "Las Campanas," 2014 oil on canvas

"Money Counters in Panama," 2015, oil on canvas.

The last gallery I visited was the Skidmore Contemporary Art.  Here are a couple of my favorites:

 "Talk, Talk #2," by Jennifer Bain, acrylic on panel

"Cherry Bliss," by Daryl Gortner, 2015 oil on canvas.

Roamings the Last Week of May 2015

I began the week roaming on the super crowded Santa Monica Pier on the holiday weekend.  I was able to find peace among the maddening crowds with the help of a pier beer and beautiful music from one of the performers....also an entertaining seal and beautiful sea.

On Thursday I met my friend Chris at the Geffen Contemporary museum of MOCA and viewed the new and recent works by William Pope.L. He is a Chicago-based artist who creates performance and body art.  The centerpiece of the show is "Trinket," a custom-made American flag (54 by 16 feet) hanging on a pole in the middle of the museum.  The flag is continuously blown by four large industrial fans and illuminated from below.  Over time the flag is fraying at its ends due to the constant whipping of the forced air.  The description states that this a metaphor for the rigors and complexities of democratic engagement and participation.

Here are photos of what we saw. 

"Polis or the Garden or Human Nature in Action," 1998/2015

Yes, these are painted onions, some still growing.  The description states that onions are symbols of emotional fluidity, catharsis, and complexity...to peel their layered skins makes the eyes water and burn.

"Circa," 2015, oil on linen.  The description states that Pope.L has produced a series of language-based drawings he called "Skin Set Drawings" that used highly poetic wordplay to satirize discourses and stereotypes of race.

In front of the museum is a memorial to the Japanese soldiers who served in the second world war even though many of their families were sent to internment camps.  It is a moving tribute and remembrance to their sacrifice and to the terrible injustice by the U.S. during this period.  A quote from President Reagan in 1988 is on the memorial:  "My fellow Americans, we gather here today to right a grave wrong..."  He signed a bill making a formal apology and reparations to the families. 

On Saturday I viewed a small photo exhibit at the Annenberg beach property in Santa Monica entitled "Unseen."  The exhibit show cases the photographic work of five emerging Los Angeles-based artist.  The description states that the liminal quality shared by these works invokes an enhanced appreciation and awareness of unnoticed glances, gestures, spaces and time.

Here is a photo of my favorite by  Bonnie Ebner:

Thursday at The Getty Center plus the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall

After a scone and tea with the L.A. Times on the terrace of the Getty Center, I roamed slowly through the Turner exhibit one more time, enjoying the paintings of Joseph Mallord William Turner.  I appreciated his mastery and creativity.  I was first introduced to his works in 1964 while visiting the Tate Museum in London for the first time.  It was wonderful seeing some of these paintings once again 51 years later.

"Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, October 16, 1934," exhibited 1835

"Peace Burial at Sea," 1842z 

"Snow Storm Steam Boat of a Harbour's Mouth," 1842

I then strolled through the museum visiting old favorites and seeing some I hadn't noticed before. Here are photos of some of my Thursday favorites:

"Starry Night," 1893 by Edvard Munch, Norwegian, 1863-1944

"The Rue Mosnier with Flags," 1878, Edouard Manet. French, 1832-1883.  During a national holiday with patriotic decorations a disabled veteran struggles down the street.

"An Old Woman with a Cat," 1878 by Max Liebermann, German, 1847-1935

"Te Centennial of Independence,," 1892 by Henri Rousseau, French 1844-1910

"Russian Dancers," 1899 by Edgar Degas, French, 1834-1917, pastel on tracing paper.

These are pastels like the ones used by Degas.

"A Panoramic Landscape," 1665 by Philips Koninck, Dutch, 1619-1688.

"Saint John the Evangelist," 1625-28 by Frans Hals, Dutch, 1582-1666.

In the evening, I was off to the Disney Hall for a "LA Philharmonic concert conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.  The performance featured two works by Manuel De Falla born in 1876 in Spain and died in 1946 in Argentina.  They were "Suite NO. 2 from "The Three-Cornered Hat," and "El amor Brujo."  The other piece was "Concierto de Aranjuez," by Joaquin Rodrigo, born in 1901 and died in 1999 in Madrid Spain.

During the pre-concert program, Asadour Santourian interviewed Angel Romero, the guitarist who played the solo with the orchestra for the Rodrigo piece.  He talked about knowing Rodrigo, staying in his home and how the blind composer created his works on a piano.  He said that with a piano one uses all 10 fingers and with the guitar he uses just four and that he has to work hard to hit all the fast notes.  

 These photos by Laurence K. Ho of the L.A. Times show some of the action performance of the Falla, "El amor brujo."  The bottom photo shows dancers George Akram and Siudy Garrido (choreographer) on the stage above the orchestra.  The top photo shows the orchestra with more dancers from the Siudy Garrido Dance Company.   The performance also included the flamenco singer Argentina.  The audience was wowed and gave the performance a standing ovation.