LACMA is having a Los Angeles moment. This fall, the museum is host to an array of exciting exhibitions, many in which our diverse city plays a starring role.
Beyond Bling: Jewelry from the Lois Boardman Collection opened yesterday, October 2. The show features a dazzling collection of contemporary studio jewelry from the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, a gift from local collectors Lois and Bob Boardman. Each piece on display is an example of how jewelry is much more than a fashion accessory: when crafted with unconventional techniques from unusual materials, it can communicate messages far more clearly than words.
When living in the entertainment capital of the world during the age of the Internet, remembering the television set as our main provider of images seems almost quaint. TV on Film, opening on October 8, features 10 photographs from renowned artists. It presents television beyond its industry roots: we see it as a potent medium, a conflicting message, and a worthy subject.
Awazu Kiyoshi, Graphic Design: Summoning the Outdated opens one week later on October 15. Kiyoshi created works to promote films, theater, art exhibitions, and literature. The artist was inspired by Japanese visual culture and used his own signature imagery, which he weaved into every piece he created. This show focuses on the posters Kiyoshi created in the late 1960s and 1970s, which are part of LACMA’s initiative to collect and showcase graphic design.
We jump from Japanese graphic design to Chinese high society—Chinese Snuff Bottles from Southern California Collectors opens on October 29. Snuff, which is a form of powdered tobacco, became popular among the upper class of Chinese society in the 17th and 18th centuries. The exhibition features their tiny bottles from nine private collections in Southern California. These bottles are made of all sorts of materials, like rock crystals and bamboo, and use all kinds of decorative techniques, like enameling and carving.
Opening on October 30, L.A. Exuberance: New Gifts by Artists showcases a selection of works that were given to LACMA for its 50th anniversary, as part of a campaign led by artist Catherine Opie. Since the museum opened in 1965, living artists have played a key role in understanding LACMA’s encyclopedic collection through a contemporary lens. The exhibition includes works by artists like Southern Californians John Baldessari, Ken Gonzales-Day, and Brenna Youngblood, among many others.
Southern Californian painter John McLaughlin was one of the most important and under-celebrated artists of the postwar period. The exhibition John McLaughlin Paintings: Total Abstraction opens on November 13, and features the artist’s paintings inspired by the Japanese notion of “the void.” The 52 paintings and selection of collages establish McLaughlin as one of the forebearers of total abstraction in art.
Opening on November 20, Renaissance and Reformation: German Art in the Age of Dürer and Cranach brings some of the greatest works of German Renaissance art to L.A. The show coincides with the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, a time of significant changes in thought, philosophy, science, and religion. Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein, and Mathias Grünwald reflected these new outlooks in the works. The exhibition has over 100 pieces, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, arms and armors, and decorative arts. Many of these works have rarely been shown outside of Europe, and LACMA is the sole venue for this fascinating exhibition.
On December 4, two larger-than-life artists share a single show in Picasso and Rivera: Conversations Across Time. Pablo Picasso and Diego Rivera had similar academic training. Both were early champions of cubism, and both looked to antiquity in their work in the late 1920s. The exhibition looks at the intersections between the two artists and the formation of modernism in Europe and Latin America, and how each painter’s artistic contributions were deeply influenced by ancient cultures of the Mediterranean and the Americas.
Last but not least, An Irruption of the Rainbow: Color in 20th-Century Art opens on December 17. This exhibition explores the ways artists like Wassily Kandinsky and L.A.-based Sister Mary Corita Kent use color in their work. Artists began to experiment with color in the late 1800s; instead of employing it strictly for descriptive purposes, painters started using it scientifically, politically, and symbolically.
Don’t miss the many exciting exhibitions coming soon to LACMA! Check back with Unframed throughout the fall for more in-depth content about these shows.