Art Talk

By KCRWArts Visual Arts

Art Talk episodes

March 11, 2008 The Color of Life
We are lucky to have here, in southern California, some of the best
art schools in the country. But when several years ago, I went to one
of them to see an exhibition of works by students graduating from the
Master of Fine Arts program, I left the galleries feeling rather
depressed. Most of the art was inept, and I felt sorry for the parents
who had been duped into investing thousands of dollars in their kids'
education, with such a dismal return...
6 min
March 05, 2008 Artists as Magicians and Holy Fools
In the heady art scene of the 1980's, with New York as its
epicenter, there were several brash, young artists who ruled the day.
Their paintings were big, their personalities even bigger. Julian
Schnabel, David Salle, Eric Fischl, Robert Longo -- they all had become
part of the fashionable crowd, their names constantly in the news. Now,
a quarter of a century later, their presence on the contemporary art
scene is, to put it mildly, rather modest. Today only Julian Schnabel,
whose reputation was made by painting over shards of broken plates,
continues to evolve as an artist...
5 min
February 27, 2008 To Love It All
There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that artists cannot make good art
from, including such strange substances as bodily fluids and excrement,
both animal and human. You may remember the controversy surrounding the
paintings by Chris Ofili, the British artist whose trademark material
is elephant dung. Bull's urine was used in the past to produce a
particular yellow paint, famous for its warm, golden glow. Andy Warhol
made a series of so-called 'piss paintings,' where he and his
assistants literally urinated on canvas treated with copper; the
resulting 'Oxidations' elevated a lowly process into high art. Anselm
Kiefer, a celebrated German artist, deals with apocalyptic subjects and
uses for his art everything from hay to semen...
5 min
February 20, 2008 Idiots Retreat
Last week I talked about the theft of four priceless artworks from the
Bührle Museum in Zurich and wondered what the hell the idiot burglars
were planning to do with the stolen French paintings, so famous as to
be virtually unsellable. Here is the latest about the idiots and their
heist...
5 min
February 13, 2008 What a Shame
Every time I see an artwork appear on the front page of the newspapers,
my heart sinks, because I know: the news, most of the time, is not
good. Today's headlines announce the brazen theft of four priceless
works from a private museum in Zurich, Switzerland...
6 min
January 23, 2008 The Oscars, Hollywood and Art
This morning, when the Academy announced the Oscar nominations, all
other front-page news -– the stock prices plunging, the gas prices
rising –- seemed less important to me. Hey, after all, I live in LA, in
close proximity to the gods and goddesses of Hollywood who, for almost
a hundred years, have kept us enthralled in dark theaters across the
world. They are the objects of our worship, inspiration, gossip, and
ridicule. I can't resist quoting Frank Sinatra: "Call me
irresponsible... tell me I'm impractical... throw in undependable too..."
But today, I feel it would be appropriate to mention their less
celebrated role as patrons of art who in the past have generously
donated numerous artworks to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art...
5 min
January 16, 2008 Who Calls the Shots at LACMA?
It's been a week since the New York Times broke the story about Eli
Broad's decision to retain permanent control of his foundation's art
collection instead of gradually transferring its governance to the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art. The arrangement between Mr. Broad and
LACMA has always been rather vague...
6 min
December 26, 2007 I Wanna Wish You an 'Artsy' Christmas
What would A Christmas Day Art Talk be without Mr. Scrooge? His
latest misdeed is a royal screw-up of a major cultural exchange between
Russia and Great Britain. A few weeks before the opening in London of a
blockbuster exhibition from the Hermitage and three other major
museums, the Russians called it off...
5 min
December 19, 2007 Photos to Intimidate and Fall in Love With
There are a number of reasons why the remarkable photographs by Graciela Iturbide probably would not be used in an advertising campaign to lure tourists to Mexico. She works primarily in black and white, and neither the landscapes nor the people in her work appear to be particularly genteel. On the contrary, her powerful images tend to rattle and put you on guard, as if you had stumbled into a not yet explored physical and emotional territory connected to the ancient past...
5 min
December 12, 2007 The Very Good and Irresistably Kitschy
Surrender was the only option I had upon entering the festive photo
installation by Jenny Okun at Craig Krull Gallery in Bergamot Station.
Close to two hundred photographs cover the walls salon-style, from
floor to ceiling, creating an enchanting visual equivalent of a
merry-go-round. Most of the compositions are comprised of overlapping
images of architectural and sculptural monuments, which the artist
reassembles into dynamic and whimsical narratives. For my money, this
is the jolliest exhibition of the holiday season, and one would be a
Scrooge not to appreciate its charm and generosity of spirit...
5 min