Two contemplative exhibitions open on Sunday—one a practice in portraiture and the other an exercise in surrealism. Edward Steichen became well known for his photographic work in Vanity Fair and Vogue in the early part of the 20th century. Talk of the Town: Portraits by Edward Steichen from the Hollander Collection demonstrates how his work set a new standard for portrait photographers and includes celebrity images, fashion photography, and commercial advertising work. In Kitasono Katue: Surrealist Poet, the first solo exhibit of the poet outside Japan, viewers are enticed to discover avant-garde visual poetry, with its clean articulations and finely conceived pairings.
Kitasono Katue, La Disparition d’Honoré Subrac (オノレ・シュウブラック氏の減形), 1960, Collection of John Solt, © Hashimoto Sumiko, used with permission.
In nearby San Bernardino, the San Bernardino Art + Film Lab enters its second week at Perris Hill Park. This weekend, explore the art of documentary films and composition in free workshops, realize your story-telling abilities in oral history drop-ins, and enjoy free outdoor screenings of Charlie Chaplin’s classic The Gold Rush (see one of his most famous scenes from the film below) and the Japanese comedy Ohayō (Good Morning), about two boys and their campaign of silence aimed at getting a television set. The San Bernardino Art + Film Lab is in residence in San Bernardino `til August 25.
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On campus, even more events are taking place. LACMA Muse members are invited this Friday night to a walkthrough of the forward-looking exhibition The Presence of the Past: Peter Zumthor Reconsiders LACMA, led by assistant curator Staci Steinberger. Reservations are required for this free event. Also, don’t forget, the west side of LACMA stays open late—until 11 pm—on Friday nights throughout the summer, and, if you reside in L.A. County, it’s free. (Note: paid admission is required for James Turrell.)
Andell Family Sundays this month features projects inspired by Shaping Power: Luba Masterworks from the Royal Museum for Central Africa, including the chance to design personal memory boards and kingship staffs. Andell Family Sundays are free with admission to the museum.
And, our weekly free concerts are sure to please. Jazz at LACMA presents Bob Sheppard, a veteran performer who has worked with names such as James Taylor, Natalie Cole, and Joni Mitchell, at 6 pm on Friday. Latin Sounds has the Susie Hansen Latin Band and their one-of-a-kind charanga sound on Saturday at 5 pm. And Sundays Live features oboist Kimaree Gilad and Friends, known for her “lyrical melodies and velvety sounds” (Orange County Register).
Installation view: Stephen Prina, As He Remembered It (detail), 2011, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, © Stephen Prina; courtesy Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne, and Petzel Gallery, New York, photo © 2013 Museum Associates/LACMA
Lastly, we bid farewell to a few shows this Sunday at LACMA: Donald Judd, an exhibition that bares geometric forms as complex expressions of an aesthetic of wholeness from the Minimalism pioneer; Stephen Prina: As He Remembered It, L.A.-based Stephen Prina’s Pantone Honeysuckle 2011 Color of the Year grid of extracted furniture from houses by R. M. Schindler as part of Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A.; and Ends and Exits: Contemporary Art from the Collections of LACMA and The Broad Art Foundation, a display rife with pop-culture and political references from the Pictures Generation of three decades past. Indeed, all’s well that ends well.
Roberto Ayala