There are perhaps no better three days to visit LACMA than this weekend starting tonight. We start things off at 6 pm with a free Jazz at LACMA concert featuring Venezuelan jazz pianist Otmaro Ruiz.
Over in the Bing Theater, the first films in our Masterworks of Expressionist Cinema film series (in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name now on view in the Ahmanson Building) get underway, starting at 7:30 with Robert Wiene’s iconic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, followed by the fantastic and strange Waxworks, directed by Paul Leni, which also features a live music accompaniment by Robert Israel.
Unknown German Artist, Untitled (The somnambulist Cesare [Conrad Veidt]), 1919, set photograph from the film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The cabinet of Dr. Caligari), The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies
The series bounds headlong into Saturday with Faust, F. W. Murnau’s epic interpretation of the German folk legend, and The Complete Metropolis, Fritz Lang’s dystopian masterpiece that remains one of the most influential films of all time. This version incorporates twenty-five minutes of footage was presumed lost for eighty-five years.
There are three exhibitions closing this weekend, including Stitching Worlds: Mola Art of the Kuna (last day is Saturday), which displays several examples of molas, colorful Panamanian garments made and worn by the Kuna women of Panama.
San Blas, Kuna People, Felix the Cat, Panama, last quarter of 20th century
This weekend is also your last chance to see two contemporary photography exhibitions in BCAM before they close on Sunday: The Sun and Other Stars: Katy Grannan and Charlie White and Figure and Form in Contemporary Photography. The perfect send off for these exhibitions is a conversation with the artists themselves. Katy Grannan and Charlie White will be on hand on Saturday (2 pm) to discuss their work with Britt Salvesen, LACMA curator and department head of the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department.
Katy Grannan, Anonymous, Los Angeles, 2008/printed 2009, courtesy of the artist; Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco; Salon 94, New York
Another artist conversation takes place on Sunday in the Pavilion for Japanese Art, where Ohie Toshio will chat with visitors about the art of decorative bookbinding. Also on Sunday, Dr. Martin Polkinghorne, director of the University of Sydney Robert Christie Research Centre, discusses new research that offers new insight into the creation of the Gods of Angkor.
We have many, many exhibitions on view. Walter De Maria’s seminal The 2000 Sculpture is in the center of the Resnick Pavilion, right next to Ken Price Sculpture: A Retrospective, which continues to garner rave reviews. While you’re on that side of campus, head over to BCAM to see iconic works by Los Angeles artist Ed Ruscha and Michael Heizer’s Actual Size, which will be closing at the end of this month.
Ken Price, 100% Pure, fired and painted clay, collection of Frank and Berta Gehry, © 2012 Ken Price, photo © 2012 Fredrik Nilsen
Form, function, and beauty unite in Daily Pleasures: French Ceramics from the MaryLou Boone Collection. With more than 130 pieces on view, Daily Pleasures highlights some of the finest pieces of French Faience and soft-paste porcelain on the West Coast.
Bring the kids to Andell Family Sundays, starting at 12:30 pm, to explore the art of glass and to create your own studio glass–inspired art. Finally, the weekend wraps up with a free Sundays Live concert featuring violinist Axel Strauss and pianist Eric Le Van.
Have a great weekend!
Jenny Miyasaki