Julius Shulman’s iconic archictectural photographs capture California’s new sense of architecture, space and lifestyle. ______ Returning to my coverage of the Pacific Standard Time art exhibit/extravaganza in Los Angeles: LACMA’s sprawling multi-building expanse is a stop I make every time I am in LA. Their flagship PST show, California Design, 1930–1965: “Living in a Modern […]
Lanierisms
I have more to report on Pacific Standard Time but a channel change seems like a good idea right about now. So here are a few highlights from The Visionary, a portrait of Jaron Lanier by Jennifer Kahn in the New Yorker, July 11 & 18, 2011. (I am particularly fond of Lanier and have […]
Pacific Standard Time: Proof at the Norton Simon Museum
June Wayne, founder, at Tamarind in the 1960s, photograph by Helen Miljakovich, courtesy June Wayne More on the exhilarating Pacific Standard Time art extravaganza in Los Angeles: The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena has assembled its PST exhibit around the intriguing story of printmaking in Los Angeles—Proof: The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California. At […]
Pacific Standard Time Sidebar: Theaster Gates at the Geffen
Civil Tapestries, by Theaster Gates, 2011. Decomissioned fire hoses and wood. Concomitant with Under the Big Black Sun at Geffen Contemporary (which I wrote about here) is an exhibit by Theaster Gates called An Epitaph for Civil Rights. Tethering this installation to events during the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s campaign in Birmingham in 1963 where […]
Pacific Standard Time: A Time Out of Joint, at the Geffen
More on the exhilarating Pacific Standard Time show (extravaganza?) in Los Angeles: Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA, has its main location downtown near Disney Hall (and, until they were expelled last weekend, OccupyLA.) The MOCA’s “we could play football in here”-sized spillover exhibit space, the Geffen Contemporary, is in Little Tokyo. A former […]
Pacific Standard Time: Light and Space
Untitled, by Douglas Wheeler, 1969. Acrylic on canvas with neon tubing ______ More on Pacific Standard Time, currently on view in Los Angeles: The Southern California artists who congregated together into a loosely defined group called Light and Space in the late 1960s have gone on to be some of my favorites. The list is […]
Pacific Standard Time: Begin the Rewrite
Ocean Park No. 67, 1973, Richard Diebenkorn. The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection courtesy of The Estate of Richard Diebenkorn Ocean Park No. 26, 1970, Richard Diebenkorn. Nerman Family Collection courtesy of The Estate of Richard Diebenkorn Pacific Standard Time, the sprawling art exposition that includes encampments at 60 different venues in the Los Angeles […]
The Other Coast, Reconsidered
Buster, by Billy Al Bengston (Courtesy of the artist) When I was coming of age as an artist in California in the late 60s and early 70s, the culture of contemporary art was centered unquestionably in New York City. Art Forum, Art in America et al gave small and occasional nods to what was happening […]
Timeless Resnickisms
David Reed recently published a piece in Art in America about his encounter with Milton Resnick as a teacher and mentor. I’ve been a long time fan of Resnick’s work but have never taken the time to learn more about his influence on other gifted artists. Reed’s piece has been on my mind for several […]
Still On His Own Terms (But Not Mine)
I have tried to be rational, objective and evenhanded in thinking about the Clyfford Still Museum that finally opened this week in Denver. But it isn’t easy to stay in that place and here’s why. The problem with Still is that many of us are holding a split deck on him and his work. On […]