California Art Museum Calendar: Andy Warhol at SFMOMA through September 2, 2019

Andy Warhol From A to B And Back Again at SFMOMA

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) had a strong connection to California: it was in Los Angeles at La Cienega Boulevard’s Ferus Gallery that Warhol had his first solo show in 1962, the 32 painting series, Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans.

Warhol’s art has returned to California, the major retrospective Andy Warhol From A to B and Back Again(organized by New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art) now occupies the fourth floor and several other galleries at the expanded San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).  The exhibition spans Warhol’s lifetime of art making from his humble early roots as an ad illustrator to his now classic pop art phase to repetitive silkscreen portraits of celebrities to his large-scale oil paintings, made close to his untimely death.

Exhibition entrance at SFMOMA

While Warhol’s pop art Brillo boxes and Campbell soup cans may seem ubiquitous and his silk screen style often copied, the exhibition goes beyond his iconic images. Abstractions, skulls, his rarely seen body parts series and a1972 painted wall-sized portrait of Chairman Mao are special revelations. Warhol cannot be understood without his studio, know as the Factory. A short film chronicles Warhol at work with one assistant silk screening Silver Marlon, a portrait of Marlon Brando (taken from The Wild One film publicity still); in later years, he worked with dozens of assistants and few of the pieces presented are signed.

Exit through the Andy Warhol themed gift shop

 Andy Warhol From A to B and Back Again will be at SFMOMA through Sept. 2, 2019. 

Gardens at the Huntington: a brief photo interlude

Japanese garden at the Huntington

 

Chinese garden at the Huntington

Resnick Pavillion at Los Angeles County Museum of Art opens soon

Resnick Pavilion designed by Renzo Piano

Opening to the public on October 2, 2010, Los Angeles County Museum of Art's (LACMA) ultra-contemporary $53 million, 45,000 square foot Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion was unveiled to Los Angeles' media today.

An Olmec basalt rock monument

Three exhibitions fill the space. Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico features monumental prehistoric stone sculptures as well as smaller objects from Mexico's earliest civilization.

An Olmec Colossal Head 1200-900 BC

Fashioning Fashion is a rare chance to look into history's closet and has nearly 160 exquisitely made examples of  clothing and accessories from intricately embroidered silk and muslin dresses to tailored waistcoats to a rather sexy c. 1900 leather corset accessorized with fetish boots.

18th Century-style fashionistas

Eye for the Sensual: Selections from the Resnick Collection has more than 100 fine pieces of furniture, sculpture and decorative art (such as a pair of Art Deco lamps made from bronze cobras) that span centuries and reflect the couple's eclectic taste. The building's numerous skylights face north, so the entire space is flooded with natural light. The palm garden and surrounding landscaping is by Robert Irwin who also designed the Getty Center's landscaping. Check out the impressive new space, BCAM and LACMA's vast holdings for free during the inaugural weekend of October 2-3. Ticket info here.

LACMA's new Resnick Pavilion

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-857-6000

Los Angeles' Natural History Museum 1913 Building restored

Restored facade at L.A.'s Natural History Museum: the Eagle sculpture soars again

I've been to L.A.'s Natural History Museum many times: the 1913 Building was the home of the infamous Discovery Room--a creepy crawly extravaganza known as the bug room at my house.  $100 million dollars later, it's now been redone and houses the new interactive and very modern Age of Mammals exhibition which manages to encompass 65 million years of history in one room.

Age of Mammals at the Natural History Museum

As I wrote in September 2010's Los Feliz Ledger: Among the highlights of the restoration is the return of a picturesque terra cotta eagle sculpture, with 7-foot wingspan, that is dramatically perched above the building’s oft-photographed facade. Guided by 24 pages of original drawings, the architecture and engineering team brought back architectural details, such as the 30 arched windows and glass roof in the wing that holds the Age of Mammals.  The restored windows remarkably brighten the space, giving it a very contemporary feel. Newly opened within the historic structure, the perennially popular Age of Mammals was re-designed, with up-close displays behind glass panels that give visitors a way to connect with the deep past. The room that has numerous interactive touch screens, 38 mammal skeletons and digital shorts that illustrate concepts like planetary geology and human evolution, all designed to make science accessible. More than 130 specimens came from the La Brea Tar pits; the suspended whale skeleton above helps put human size in perspective.

Art glass by Judson Studios tops the domed ceiling of the 1913 Building

 

 

 

Look up to see the original, stunning art glass ceiling, now brilliant and luminescent once again. Created by Highland Park’s Judson Studios, the restoration of the rotunda’s domed opalescent art glass ceiling was overseen by David Judson, great-grandson of the initial artist.

And there's still more to come at the museum: new landscaping and entrance will face Exposition Boulevard and a new Age of Dinosaurs Hall. All scheduled to be redone by museum's 100th anniversary in 2013.

John Baldessari at LACMA Los Angeles

Welcome to conceptual artist John Baldessari's retrospective complete with gift shop at LACMA. The entire second floor of BCAM is now Baldessari-land with 150 works created from 1962 to the present (and a site-specific 60' nose and 60' ear hanging from the building's exterior).    John Baldessari: Pure Beauty runs through September 12th. Inaugurated at the Tate Modern in London, the show will move to the MET in NYC after its Los Angeles dates.

Based in Santa Monica and a well-loved fixture of the LA art scene, Baldessari's relationship with the museum has been fruitful, advised LACMA's CEO Michael Govan today. The artist helped design LACMA's logo and also art directed the stunning Rene Magritte exhibition that memorably included Magritte's signature blue sky above.

I've always thought there was much sly humor in his text and photo pieces; his answers to journalists' questions today were peppered with wry observations and funny comments. A self-professed film addict, Baldessari is a fan of film noir and often uses found film stills in his work. He finds that movie imagery (the dying cowboy, for instance), captures stereotypes and cliches that are embedded in a viewer's mind. He seeks to manipulate and tweak them to mean something else.

"I don't think art should be elitist," he advised. To that end, there's a Baldessari iPhone application coming out Friday and a commissioned mixed-media series, entitled "W/Studio 54," on display at Wolfgang Puck's CUT restaurant at the Beverly Wilshire, Four Seasons too.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art 

12-8 M/T/Th • Closed Wednesday • 12-9 F • 11-8 S/S
5905 Wilshire Blvd • Los Angeles California 90036  

323-857-6000

The master of California light: Wayne Thiebaud at Pasadena Museum of California Art

Vibrant and still painting every day, Wayne Thiebaud is one of California's best painters. A 70-year career retrospective of his drawings and paintings just opened at the Pasadena Museum of California Art that includes early student work to recent beach and seascapes. A professor at U.C. Davis for more than 40 years, Thiebaud was patient when answering questions regarding his techniques and work habits. Some paintings take 10 years, others a day, he revealed. He and his wife divide their time between Davis and a studio on San Francisco's Portrero Hill. His colorful cityscapes are a mix of real and imagined San Francisco--several large canvases that capture the city's crazy angles are included in the exhibition. His more well known works elevate the ordinary--cupcakes, bakery cases, fruit--to almost monumental status. All without irony, contends exhibition organizer Dr. Steven Nash. The exhibition runs through January 31, 2010. Don't miss it!

Wayne Thiebaud, Two Kneeling Figures, 1966, oil on canvas, Collection of Paul LeBaron Thiebaud, © Wayne Thiebaud/
Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY