Art Talk

By KCRWArts Visual Arts

Art Talk episodes

September 05, 2007 In Holland, Drunk on Art
Three months have passed since my trip to Holland, but I'm still slightly foggy from – let's be honest – being overdosed. When I tell people that I stayed in Amsterdam, they knowingly smile and then, with a wink ask, "Did you try the stuff?" You bet I did. That's what I went to Holland for...and there was plenty of it. Rembrandt! Frans Hals!! Vermeer!!! And not only in Amsterdam, in the stately Rijksmuseum, but in the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague and the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem as well...
5 min
August 29, 2007 An LA Take on Brazilian and Dutch Design
When I met Michael and Gabrielle Boyd for the first time at a museum function a few months ago, I knew immediately who they were, thanks to a recently published article about their collection in the LA Times magazine and a profile on them in Vanity Fair. They live in Santa Monica Canyon, in a house built by the famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer -- the only structure he has ever built in the United States...
5 min
August 22, 2007 Treasures from Russia under the California Sun
Now that the Getty Museum has wisely chosen to undertake the painful but inevitable step of placating the Italian authorities by sending back to Italy forty antiquities from the museum's collection, it's a good time to reflect on this controversy and try to make sense of it all. I couldn't agree more with the editorial page of the Los Angeles Times (August 6, 2007) stating that "Legally, the return of the artworks is the right thing to do...International treaties left Getty executives with little choice. Whether it's fair is another matter."
5 min
August 08, 2007 Summer Sign-Up 2007
3 min
August 01, 2007 Story of Two Exhibitions: One Friendly, The Other Not
One of the best kept secrets of LA's downtown art scene is REDCAT, a
cutting-edge performance and exhibition space run by CalArts. Don't
feel guilty if you haven't been there yet; it's not easy to find, as
it's tucked away on the ground floor of Disney Hall, far from the main
entrance of this famous building. Since its opening a few years ago,
REDCAT has hosted a number of ambitious exhibitions, often presenting
challenging conceptual and performance art not necessarily intended for
a general audience...
5 min
July 25, 2007 Controversy over Monument to Reverend King
When it comes to the official monuments decorating city squares in
China, Libya, Iraq, and the former Soviet Union, one thing that all
these oversized statues of local dictators have in common is the
laughably low quality of the art. The infamous bronze statue of Saddam
Hussein, toppled in Baghdad after US troops seized the Iraqi capital,
is a perfect example of this brand of official art: the inevitable
stiffness of pose, obligatory right arm thrust upward toward a bright
future, and total disregard for or lack of awareness of modern and
contemporary art. Needless to say, all these monuments were produced by
local artisans loyal to the political regime of the country...
6 min
July 18, 2007 The Sensual Art of Drawing
On any given day, Los Angeles teems with well-toned, fresh-faced
hopefuls waiting for their big break. You can find them on the beach or
if you get lucky, bump into one of them at Schwab's Drugstore on Sunset
Blvd. At least that's where, according to legend, a Hollywood agent
discovered the divine Lana Turner in the 1930's. If that same agent
lived in Paris in the 1880s, I wonder what he would think about the
beautiful barmaid at the Folies-Bergère, the one that Édouard Manet
immortalized in his famous painting. Though the girls there were known
for their easy virtues, this melancholic beauty seems lost in her own
thoughts and not the least bit interested in responding to us viewers
or the customer standing in front of her...
5 min
July 11, 2007 An Exhibition Overdosed on Love
Until I found in my mailbox the eye-catching catalog of Mary Heilmann's exhibition at the Orange County Museum of Art, I had never heard of her. The handsomely printed hardcover book, with its elegant layout and numerous color
reproductions, is clearly a labor of love. For this California born and raised artist, who now resides in New York, this is the first retrospective covering four decades of her career...
6 min
July 04, 2007 LA Art through a European Prism
Last month, I traveled through about a dozen European cities in just three weeks; it was all art, all the time, but don't feel sorry for me, it was not exactly heavy lifting. The invitation to visit Holland came from two Dutch organizations: the Mondriaan Foundation and the Service Centre for International Cultural
Activities (SICA). My hosts gave me carte blanche: staying in Amsterdam I could travel to other cities and see as many museums and meet as many curators and directors as my heart desired...
5 min
June 27, 2007 The Art of El Anatsui and the Critic's Comeuppance
Intrigued by an artwork that is new to me, I like to get very close and examine its texture. It's not unlike having a handshake with a new acquaintance that hopefully confirms a first, favorable impression. A couple of months ago, at the Seattle Art Museum, when I saw for the first time a large, colorful wall hanging by Nigerian artist El Anatsui, I mistook it for a traditional African textile...

6 min