Art Talk

By KCRWArts Visual Arts

Art Talk episodes

May 20, 2008 Rauschenberg: Forever Curious
Among the artists whose art I like and admire, there are a few whom
I feel as if I've known personally. Rembrandt would be one of them.
With dozens upon dozens of self-portraits, we are able to follow him
from youth to old age. Also we know his mother and father, son, wife
and mistress – all painted in a deeply personal way that reveals his
feelings about them...
5 min
May 13, 2008 Racing against the Clock
It's always the same; with so many museum and gallery exhibitions to
see and talk about, I'm constantly racing against the clock. Definitely
want to be sure that you will see MOCA's captivating exhibition,
Collecting Collections, before it closes this Monday, May 19. This
sprawling exhibition is a celebration of the generosity and vision of
private collectors – most of them Angelenos – who have enabled this
relatively young institution to become a major player on the
international art scene...
5 min
May 06, 2008 The Germans Are Here
If I were the cultural commissioner of this city, I would have
declared the past few weeks a 'mini festival' of German culture in Los
Angeles. Judge for yourself: a week ago I went to a screening of the
new documentary, Shadows in Paradise, a fascinating story of German
émigré musicians, writers, and filmmakers who fled the Nazis and
settled here in LA. Some of them flourished; others merely managed; a
few committed suicide. Never before have so many of the best and
brightest creative minds of one country either left on their own or
been forced to emigrate, and what's especially unusual is that most of
these people ended up here in LA. The impact of this German-exile
community on the cultural life of our city was profound...
5 min
April 29, 2008 Profound? Yes. Sacred? No.
I love LA for being an inexhaustible field of discovery for art,
architecture, and music – not only in museums, galleries, and concert
halls – but also in less expected venues...
6 min
April 22, 2008 Under Cover and Behind Closed Gates
When a few years ago, two Los Angeles museums, MOCA and the Hammer,
jointly organized a sprawling exhibition devoted to the history of the
American comic strip and comic book, I felt underwhelmed and slightly
excluded from all the excitement that surrounded the exhibition...
5 min
April 15, 2008 A New Madonna for Our City of Angels
So, ladies and gentlemen, if you, like me, have been procrastinating
on filing your taxes until the very last moment, then today – April 15
– is your Atonement Day. Why this Christian reference? Probably it has
something to do with the deep impression left on me by the spectacular
works by Anselm Kiefer and their religious symbology that I talked
about last week. Or, maybe I was swayed by the purity and beauty of the
Madonna, not the one on the cover of Vanity Fair, but the 500 year-old
vision of her that I saw last Sunday...
6 min
April 08, 2008 My Thoughts on Madonna, Moses, and...Anselm Kiefer
For me, last weekend turned out to be anything but usual. It's
Saturday: I am drinking my morning coffee and, all of a sudden, I am in
the presence of...Madonna, staring at me from the cover of Vanity Fair.
Still in great shape, still eager to provoke. Behind her, the globe
that she holds -– or should I say, clutches –- with rather frightening
determination. Then, another sip of coffee, and a quick look at another
cover story: Moses and his famously thunderous voice is no more;
Charlton Heston is dead...
5 min
April 01, 2008 Museums and Private Collectors: It Takes Two to Tango
My fellow Angelenos, judging by the numerous exhibitions of
contemporary art currently on display in various Los Angeles museums, I
want to assure you that the state of art in our city is strong...
6 min
March 25, 2008 Great Art, Fake Art... Who Knows?
The news about the recent acquisition by the Getty Museum of a rare
painting by Paul Gauguin came as a welcome surprise. Though this work
is known to specialists, it has rarely been seen, as its Swiss owner
was very reluctant to loan it out for exhibitions. Even in
reproduction, it is absolutely striking, not only because of the
beautifully preserved colors, but also because of the strangeness of
its subject. Painted by Gauguin during his first trip to Tahiti, it
shows what appears to be the severed head of a man placed on a white
pillow in the center of the composition...
5 min
March 18, 2008 Art, Sex and Videotape
As far as the Los Angeles art scene is concerned, last week was a
winner. Consider this: in celebration of its tenth anniversary, the
Getty Center held two special conferences. The first was focused on new
acquisitions made by Weston Naef, Curator of Photographs, Lee Hendrix,
Curator of Drawings, and Thomas Kren, Curator of Medieval Manuscripts.
All three curators are old pros who have been with the Getty for
decades and have virtually built these collections from the ground up.
Each drew from a treasure trove of entertaining, poignant stories about
their many triumphs and occasional defeats in the never-ending hunt for
rare, beautiful artwork...
6 min