Pick a day, any day on this three-day weekend and you will find plenty to see and do at LACMA. First, the exhibitions: this is your last chance to see Ed Ruscha: Standard, which closes on Monday. (And don’t forget: Monday is a Target Free Holiday Monday!) The exhibition features prints, paintings, and even a couple of films from LACMA’s in-depth collection of Ruscha’s oeuvre. If you’re at all a fan of Ruscha, it’s not to be missed.
Ed Ruscha, Standard Station, 1966, Museum Acquisition Fund, © 2012 Ed Ruscha. All rights reserved, photo © 2012 Museum Associates/LACMA
Also closing this weekend is a photography installation in our modern galleries, Imagining the Modern Self: Photographs from the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection—featuring experimental self-portraits by Berenice Abbot, Piet Zwart, Henri-Cartier Bresson, and others.
Anton Stankowski, Simultaneous Enlargement, 1937, the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection, © Stankowski Foundation
Other exhibitions are entering their final weeks: Caravaggio and His Legacy closes February 10,while Lost Line: Contemporary Art from the Collection, Jim Shaw’s Dream Drawings, and Michael Heizer: Actual Size all close February 24. Check our full list of exhibitions for even more on view, including Stanley Kubrick, Robert Mapplethorpe, and others.
You may have also read in the Los Angeles Times about our latest acquisition: Maruyama Okyo’s Cranes, a beautifully detailed pair of screens from 1772, which have hardly ever been shown in public until now. They make their debut in the Pavilion for Japanese Art this weekend.
Maruyama Okyo, Cranes, 1772 (An'ei period, 1772-1780), gift of Camilla Chandler Frost in honor of Robert T. Singer
Artist Liz Glynn, who is also featured in Lost Line, will be on hand Saturday and Sunday afternoons for a free performance in the B. Gerald Cantor Sculpture Garden—“[De]-lusions of Grandeur”. Glynn will work with other sculptors in the garden to replicate and recombine parts of the Rodin sculptures on view in the garden—check out this behind-the-scenes post to learn a little more. The performance is part of a series that will take place at LACMA throughout the year, each dealing with monumental sculptures on the museum’s campus. You can learn more from Glynn’s project blog.
Liz Glynn, Study for Chapter 1: The Myth of Singularity (after Rodin), 2012, © 2012 Liz Glynn
For those coming to see Bodies and Shadows: Caravaggio and His Legacy this weekend, take a look at the films we have lined up tonight, tomorrow night, and Sunday afternoon as part of a film series inspired by Caravaggio. The series begins tonight with Pedro Costa’s 1989 debut film O Sangue (Blood), followed by Italian director Paolo Benvenuti’s Confortorio. On Saturday, see Derek Jarman’s unconventional biopic Caravaggio and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Mama Rosa. Finally, on Sunday afternoon you can see a free screening of Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (see yesterday's Unframed post for more on Scorsese).
As an alternative to Scorsese on Sunday, there is always Andell Family Sunday art-making activities—one of the best free family options in L.A. every weekend. Whichever afternoon option you choose, you can stick around to close out your weekend with a free concert from duo pianists Antoinette Perry and Neal Stulberg, who will perform pieces by Mozart, Schubert, and Grieg at Sundays Live.
Scott Tennent