Lady, Meet Annie
In the Guardian, Jonathan Jones nominates “my personal wonders of 2011,” the five artworks that most impressed him. The short list includes Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine, now on view in London, and...
View ArticleNorton Simon and Contemporary Art
Larry Bell, Untitled, 1962. On view at the Pacific Asia Museum in "46 N. Los Robles" (CONTINUED FROM “46 N. Los Robles” at the Pacific Asia Museum) In 1980 some Pasadena Museum trustees were flipping...
View Article“Levitated Mass”: First Reactions
1. Ed Ruscha said that good art should provoke a response of “Huh? Wow!” rather than “Wow! Huh?” By that criterion, Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass is on the right track. It’s nothing like you’ve...
View ArticleEli Broad Goes Shopping in Miami
Bloomberg is reporting that, on the first day of Art Basel Miami, Eli Broad bought an early Ed Ruscha, Honk (1962), and Jeff Koons’ Buster Keaton (1988). Both purchases came from Gagosian, and the...
View ArticleWords That Hurt
The Huntington’s Virginia Steele Scott Gallery of American Art is showing Ed Ruscha’s Hurting the Word Radio 2 (1964), a loan from the collection of Joan and Jack Quinn. It’s from a little-known group...
View ArticleInsider-Outsiders at CAAM
The California African American Museum’s “Soul-Stirring: African American Self-Taught Artists from the South” features artists usually categorized as “folk” or “outsider.” Several also qualify as...
View ArticleArtists on Vergne
MOCA’s press release announcing Philippe Vergne’s appointment as director has quotes from all four of the artist-trustees who resigned in protest of Jeffrey Deitch’s leadership. Catherine Opie is...
View ArticleWhy Isn’t Every Museum an Artist’s Museum?
John Baldessari, Barbara Kruger, and Catherine Opie have rejoined the MOCA board, along with Mark Grotjahn. That brings the number of artist-trustees back to four. I’ve never understood why the...
View ArticleEnsor and “The Burning of Los Angeles”
“My response was sadness,” wrote New York Times critic Michael Brenson. He was speaking of the news that the J. Paul Getty Museum had bought James Ensor’s Christ’s Entry Into Brussels in 1889 (detail...
View ArticleU.K. Curbs Its Enthusiasm for L.A. Art
The Spectator (U.K.)’s weekly e-mail promises a feature on “the greatest American painter you’ve never heard of.” Turns out that’s… Richard Diebenkorn. Martin Gayford’s review of the Diebenkorn show...
View ArticleJeff Koons’ Favorite Ed Ruscha Is an H.C. Westermann Portrait
Ed Ruscha, “Bloated Empire,” 1996-7 The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Collection In the Wall Street Journal, Kelly Crow has a profile of Eli and Edythe Broad and their museum-to-be. Sample line: “He speaks...
View ArticleThe Unknown Purifoy
Who is Noah Purifoy? Earlier this year, a major East Coast curator admitted drawing a blank. LACMA’s “Noah Purifoy: Junk Dada” ought to put an end to that. It will also come as a revelation to almost...
View ArticleThe Whitney Discovers L.A.
Imagine a museum that surveyed Los Angeles art from John McLaughlin to Asco to Mike Kelley. Suppose it owned first-rate pieces by Betye Saar, Ed Ruscha, Charles Ray, Catherine Opie, and Mark Bradford...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....