Art Talk

When a few years ago, two Los Angeles museums, MOCA and the Hammer, jointly organized a sprawling exhibition devoted to the history of the American comic strip and comic book, I felt underwhelmed and slightly excluded from all the excitement that surrounded the exhibition...

So, ladies and gentlemen, if you, like me, have been procrastinating on filing your taxes until the very last moment, then today – April 15 – is your Atonement Day. Why this Christian reference? Probably it has something to do with the deep impression left on me by the spectacular works by Anselm Kiefer and their religious symbology that I talked about last week. Or, maybe I was swayed by the purity and beauty of the Madonna, not the one on the cover of Vanity Fair, but the 500 year-old vision of her that I saw last Sunday...

For me, last weekend turned out to be anything but usual. It's Saturday: I am drinking my morning coffee and, all of a sudden, I am in the presence of...Madonna, staring at me from the cover of Vanity Fair. Still in great shape, still eager to provoke. Behind her, the globe that she holds -– or should I say, clutches –- with rather frightening determination. Then, another sip of coffee, and a quick look at another cover story: Moses and his famously thunderous voice is no more; Charlton Heston is dead...

My fellow Angelenos, judging by the numerous exhibitions of contemporary art currently on display in various Los Angeles museums, I want to assure you that the state of art in our city is strong...

The news about the recent acquisition by the Getty Museum of a rare painting by Paul Gauguin came as a welcome surprise. Though this work is known to specialists, it has rarely been seen, as its Swiss owner was very reluctant to loan it out for exhibitions. Even in reproduction, it is absolutely striking, not only because of the beautifully preserved colors, but also because of the strangeness of its subject. Painted by Gauguin during his first trip to Tahiti, it shows what appears to be the severed head of a man placed on a white pillow in the center of the composition...

As far as the Los Angeles art scene is concerned, last week was a winner. Consider this: in celebration of its tenth anniversary, the Getty Center held two special conferences. The first was focused on new acquisitions made by Weston Naef, Curator of Photographs, Lee Hendrix, Curator of Drawings, and Thomas Kren, Curator of Medieval Manuscripts. All three curators are old pros who have been with the Getty for decades and have virtually built these collections from the ground up. Each drew from a treasure trove of entertaining, poignant stories about their many triumphs and occasional defeats in the never-ending hunt for rare, beautiful artwork...

We are lucky to have here, in southern California, some of the best art schools in the country. But when several years ago, I went to one of them to see an exhibition of works by students graduating from the Master of Fine Arts program, I left the galleries feeling rather depressed. Most of the art was inept, and I felt sorry for the parents who had been duped into investing thousands of dollars in their kids' education, with such a dismal return...

In the heady art scene of the 1980's, with New York as its epicenter, there were several brash, young artists who ruled the day. Their paintings were big, their personalities even bigger. Julian Schnabel, David Salle, Eric Fischl, Robert Longo -- they all had become part of the fashionable crowd, their names constantly in the news. Now, a quarter of a century later, their presence on the contemporary art scene is, to put it mildly, rather modest. Today only Julian Schnabel, whose reputation was made by painting over shards of broken plates, continues to evolve as an artist...

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that artists cannot make good art from, including such strange substances as bodily fluids and excrement, both animal and human. You may remember the controversy surrounding the paintings by Chris Ofili, the British artist whose trademark material is elephant dung. Bull's urine was used in the past to produce a particular yellow paint, famous for its warm, golden glow. Andy Warhol made a series of so-called 'piss paintings,' where he and his assistants literally urinated on canvas treated with copper; the resulting 'Oxidations' elevated a lowly process into high art. Anselm Kiefer, a celebrated German artist, deals with apocalyptic subjects and uses for his art everything from hay to semen...

Last week I talked about the theft of four priceless artworks from the Bührle Museum in Zurich and wondered what the hell the idiot burglars were planning to do with the stolen French paintings, so famous as to be virtually unsellable. Here is the latest about the idiots and their heist...

Every time I see an artwork appear on the front page of the newspapers, my heart sinks, because I know: the news, most of the time, is not good. Today's headlines announce the brazen theft of four priceless works from a private museum in Zurich, Switzerland...

This morning, when the Academy announced the Oscar nominations, all other front-page news -– the stock prices plunging, the gas prices rising –- seemed less important to me. Hey, after all, I live in LA, in close proximity to the gods and goddesses of Hollywood who, for almost a hundred years, have kept us enthralled in dark theaters across the world. They are the objects of our worship, inspiration, gossip, and ridicule. I can't resist quoting Frank Sinatra: "Call me irresponsible... tell me I'm impractical... throw in undependable too..." But today, I feel it would be appropriate to mention their less celebrated role as patrons of art who in the past have generously donated numerous artworks to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art...

It's been a week since the New York Times broke the story about Eli Broad's decision to retain permanent control of his foundation's art collection instead of gradually transferring its governance to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The arrangement between Mr. Broad and LACMA has always been rather vague...

What would A Christmas Day Art Talk be without Mr. Scrooge? His latest misdeed is a royal screw-up of a major cultural exchange between Russia and Great Britain. A few weeks before the opening in London of a blockbuster exhibition from the Hermitage and three other major museums, the Russians called it off...

There are a number of reasons why the remarkable photographs by Graciela Iturbide probably would not be used in an advertising campaign to lure tourists to Mexico. She works primarily in black and white, and neither the landscapes nor the people in her work appear to be particularly genteel.  On the contrary, her powerful images tend to rattle and put you on guard, as if you had stumbled into a not yet explored physical and emotional territory connected to the ancient past...

Surrender was the only option I had upon entering the festive photo installation by Jenny Okun at Craig Krull Gallery in Bergamot Station. Close to two hundred photographs cover the walls salon-style, from floor to ceiling, creating an enchanting visual equivalent of a merry-go-round. Most of the compositions are comprised of overlapping images of architectural and sculptural monuments, which the artist reassembles into dynamic and whimsical narratives. For my money, this is the jolliest exhibition of the holiday season, and one would be a Scrooge not to appreciate its charm and generosity of spirit...

It's been more than three weeks since I returned from Beijing, but thoughts and impressions of it resurface on a daily basis. Friends and colleagues keep asking all sorts of questions about China, as if I had become an expert on the subject after being there for only nine days; but certainly, I did my best to keep my eyes, ears, and mind open as wide as possible. These days, the coverage of the Chinese contemporary art scene has spilled over from the pages of art magazines to such mainstream publications as Vanity Fair (December issue)...

If you've seen Gordon Matta-Clark's artwork -– even once -– you will remember the rush of adrenaline it sends through your veins. After all, this is an artist who loved to display the results of violence he perpetrated habitually against the objects of his desire. Think of all the gory scenes from Hollywood movies: knives plunging, bodies falling in slow motion... That's exactly what Gordon Matta-Clark did to abandoned buildings -– carving huge holes in their walls or slashing them with mind-boggling vertical cuts that plunge from top to bottom...

Though the invitation to travel to Beijing came up only a couple of months ago, I was preparing myself for this trip – without even realizing it – for almost a year...

Eight days in Beijing. Never been in Asia before. It's my first trip to China. Always felt slightly intimidated by the huge span of its history, by the intricacy and "otherness" of its culture. But here I am, among several dozen journalists from around the world, invited for the opening of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, an ambitious and impressive undertaking, privately funded by Belgian collectors Guy and Myriam Ullens....