Art Talk

Last month, at the opening of the Irving Penn exhibition at the Getty

Do you remember the olden days when everyone had a Polaroid camera, and the small color photos our parents took on vacation could be found in virtually every household?  These days, Polaroid technology is almost obsolete, and one can hardly find the film for those instant cameras.  A few people, however, are still continuing their love affair with this medium...

Anyone who had the good fortune to know Henry Hopkins (1928-2009), a seminal figure on the California art scene for the last fifty years, would probably agree that he was the epitome of what we call a gentleman scholar.  Even at crowded museum openings, one could always spot Henry – tall, imposing, impeccably dressed – charming everyone with his courtly manners...

I'm not a morning person, so, fortified with plenty of coffee, I usually start the day off slowly by paging through the newspapers to catch up on the latest. Sometimes, a headline jumps off the page with such a good vibe that it instantly snaps me out of the morning doldrums.  Today is one of those days: the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times reported on this year's recipients of the MacArthur Grants, each of whom will receive $500,000, no strings attached.  Among the winners are scientists, journalists, performers, and, of special interest to me, visual artists...

If you have the slightest interest in the art of photography or

So, how was your Labor Day? Myself, I'm never sure what's the

Five flights, four cities, two countries – not too bad for a one-week trip, eh?  It was my first trip to Canada, where I spent three days in Toronto and two in Ottawa, followed by even shorter visits to Detroit and Toledo, where I hadn't been before either...

Truth be told, I haven't yet seen any of the five exhibitions that I want to tell you about today – though I'm still hoping to catch one of them in New York, and another, if luck is on my side, in Florence.  Two more exhibitions are coming this fall to Los Angeles, so that makes four.  And the last one, the controversial installation of Jeff Koons' sculptures at Versailles, has already closed...

Summertime, and the livin' is easy...You are probably packing for a trip and looking for a book to read, so here's my suggestion: the recently published collection of essays by Los Angeles art insiders who spill their guts in conversation with Richard Hertz – himself a consummate insider of the LA art world, with experience teaching at Caltech and CalArts as well as heading the Department of Graduate Studies at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena...

There were four of us on this warm Friday night; blankets under our arms, plastic bags full of snacks; we were walking down a nondescript stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard after a seemingly endless search for a parking spot. And we were not alone. One could see a few more people on the sidewalk, like us schlepping bags and lawn chairs and headed in the same direction...