Last Friday I hit the art museum for a little inspiration. LACMA-LA County Museum of Art just keeps getting better and better. I feel that since moving here in 1998, I have seen Los Angeles awake and grow up in art and theatre since it always was a film town-not only have I discovered more but I think LA has discovered some things too.
After finding a great discount deal in a tweet, I am now a member of LACMA and it feels as valuable as my library card. Just like my visits to the Art Institute in Chicago, I have my favorite rooms and I stop by for a visit to my favorite art and painting and say “hi!”. I noticed that the Jasper Johns studies I like to see were off the wall for now, but there was plenty to take a look at I wanted to peek into the new exhibits that were in ‘member preview’ only.
I was more interested in how my eye kept looking at shadow and play with shadow. This was more interesting to me--that my brain and eye were focused on that than the new work. It was a different way of triggering ideas and I was blown away by it! It started with Richard Stankiewicz's work which took me back to the artist's loft I stayed in last November for my sound seminar put on the Association of Independents in Radio. I found the place cheap at the site roomorama and I saw how the woman I rented from put things in a place of honor as well as reminding herself of how to make art through art. She told me that people look at artists in a different light and she called herself a creative. Since I was just starting to embrace after all these years that I have to make art, I felt like this was a great time to hear this from this creative. This discovery of shadow kept popping up in my walks through the gallery and I was enjoying these surprises saying hello back to me, it was my own treasure hunt!
This was a good thing since I was somewhat disappointed in the new exhibits that were in 'member preview'. Edward Kienholz, Five Car Stud 1969–1972 but the work didn’t really grab me. The gallery is dark and quiet with a bed of sand covering the floor. I didn’t expect to wear my sandals to the art museum and get sand in them! The viewer is only allowed to enter one way and leave through another exit. Part theatre, mostly social commentary and part sculpture the work depicts a group of home grown terrorists that are castrating a black man after coming upon a scene of an inter racial couple “parking” in a truck. The literature to explain and comment on the work reminds us that scenes like this happened throughout the southern United States. That type of writing always turns me off in others trying to say this never happened in our backyard but those in the northern states were segregated in other ways, not to mention the fact that Indiana in the early 20th century had the most KKK members per capita of any state or the area in LA County I live in had cross burnings and problems up into the 1980s. Since the work hasn’t been seen in many years, it seems as if LAMA is as proud of the fact that this work is out of storage and is on display again as the content and discussion itself.
I then went out into the Rodin sculpture garden since the writing of how sensual it was to work in clay, always made me a fan of the works and yet again, I saw more shadow on the staircase up above and in the garden itself. Yes this was probably nearing movie "magic hour" as far as light was concerned but I still saw so much as far as play with shadow and how it will probably find its way into my work in the near future. I even found it among the Giacometti collection. I have never been a fan of the work (it's no Rodin) but even with my eye and brain playing this game, I found something to love/like about the work on this visit!
It's my hope that the idea of Pacific Standard Time (Five Car Stud and the curation of Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972–1987 are a part of this) has work that grabs me more at other participating institutions. And so onto look at other works in other museums- this included a visit to Downtown Artwalk Thursday as well as MOCA, where there wasn't enough Warhol and Cy Twombly but company and dinner after kept me happy.
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