Most artists, before developing their own unique voice and signature style, go through lengthy and often difficult rites of passage. The amazing exhibition of Arshile Gorky currently on view at LA's Museum of Contemporary Art has numerous examples of his earlier works, where we see the young artist gradually absorbing the ideas and energy of Modern Art – a kind of art he knew next to nothing about before emigrating from Armenia to the United States in 1920...

Monday's announcement that Los Angeles art collector and philanthropist Eli Broad had finally chosen downtown as the location for his new museum did not necessarily come as a big

So, ladies and gentlemen, here is the Art Gospel, according to Edward Goldman: The Top Ten reasons – no, Ten Commandments - urging your support for KCRW, the radio station par excellence...

If you've never been to the Pacific Design Center, it might be a

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

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...