Art Talk

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Happy Dog Days of Summer Are Here Again Jul 21, 2010

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So, at last, the happy dog days of summer are here again. Yes, I know I am mixing metaphors, but it's been hot - almost 90 degrees, even here in Santa Monica, so I do have an excuse. Last weekend, seemingly everyone wanted to come to the beach to cool off, but I had better plans: with a group of friends, I went in the opposite direction - toward downtown - to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Cool idea, don't you think? Actually, it was freezing cool inside...yes, I know, I am mixing metaphors again...

MOCA's Double Standard Jul 14, 2010

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A little more than a year ago, MOCA, LA's Museum of Contemporary Art, was on its deathbed. After years of living beyond its means by illegally dipping into its endowment, the museum finally came to a breaking point: the director had to resign, the museum board was revamped, and at the eleventh hour, Los Angeles mega-philanthropist Eli Broad came to the rescue, to the tune of $30 million. Thus, the museum was saved, and one could hear sighs of relief all across our City of Angels and well beyond...

Creative Juices Peaking after Decades of Work Jul 07, 2010

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Mother Nature, in cahoots with the Gods and Muses, often treats architects and artists very differently. While architects tend to reach creative maturity and develop their unique style later in life, their artistic cousins - painters, sculptors, and photographers - reach a creative peak, most of the time, much earlier in their careers...

Pangs of Jealousy toward San Francisco Jun 30, 2010

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I just returned from San Francisco, and let me tell you, I am jealous - very jealous. I went there for the opening of the new exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art... In an unprecedented act of generosity, Doris and the late Don Fisher, renowned collectors of contemporary art, gave their outstanding collection to SFMOMA, and in celebration of this occasion, the museum mounted a superb exhibition called Calder to Warhol....

They Hated Him, But He Hated Them Back Jun 23, 2010

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When the late Hollywood comedian Rodney Dangerfield was ranting that he didn't “get no respect,” he was actually building a solid foundation for his career. But when 19th century French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) complained that he could get no respect from either his colleagues at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts or the leading critics of the day, it was definitely not a joke, but the bitter truth of his otherwise successful career...

Gone Are Two Major Players in LA's Cultural Life Jun 16, 2010

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A few days apart, we Angelenos lost two major players in the cultural life of our city. First came the shocking news of the untimely death at age 69 of James Wood, the President and CEO of the Getty Trust. And then we learned about Ernest Fleischmann, former managing director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, who, after a long illness, passed away at age 85...

Bitter Life of a 'Bitter' Artist Jun 09, 2010

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The life of Arshile Gorky, one of the most famous mid-century American artists, was marked by tragedy from the very beginning. Born around 1902 in an Armenian province of Ottoman Turkey, he and his family experienced the horror of the 1915 Genocide, during which more than a million Armenians were massacred. Somehow, he, his mother and three sisters escaped, though a few short years later, his mother died of starvation. At the age of 16, he managed to find his way to America, eventually settling in New York in 1924. In the following twenty plus years, this self-taught painter absorbed the lessons of a number of great artists, from Cezanne to Picasso to Miro....

What a Difference a Day Makes Jun 02, 2010

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This past Memorial Day weekend turned out to have yet another sad dimension. Yes, we honored the memory of untold thousands of American soldiers who lost their lives on the battlefield in service of our country. But in addition to that, those of us caring deeply about art had an extra reason to mourn over the last few days. Saturday brought the news of the death - at age 74 - of Dennis Hopper, the famous Hollywood actor and distinguished artist...

The Naked Truth May 26, 2010

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When I think about artists who excel at the art of portraiture, I am thinking about those whom I admire not just for capturing the likeness of a sitter, but those who, courageously and in the most uncompromising way, swore to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth: about the people who model for them, then about us viewers, and ultimately, about themselves...

Making the Most of It... May 19, 2010

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When I went to Christopher Grimes Gallery for the opening of the exhibition of paintings by Scott Short, I didn't detect any signs of crisis. There were only two large, abstract, black and white paintings in the front room, which made for a very elegant, spare installation. The last time I saw this artist's work was a couple of months ago in New York, at the Whitney Biennial, so I was looking forward to seeing his new exhibition here in Los Angeles and meeting the artist himself. Scott Short's paintings put me in a rather contemplative mood, offering an interesting dilemma: should they be perceived as a proliferation of white shapes painted on a black ground, or black shapes painted on a white ground? Am I seeing a night sky through flakes of falling snow, or, a vast snow-covered landscape dotted with hundreds of tiny dark splotches – skiers, perhaps?

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