8th of February
The art: David Hockney, Cubist (American) Boy With Colourful Tree, 1964. The news: A panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected California’s Proposition 8, ruling it unconstitutional. Los Angeles Times coverage is here. The source: Collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington. The Hirshhorn installed this painting earlier this week. According to this exhibition history, this is the first time the museum has ever exhibited it. Nota bene: Hockney likely based the figure in this painting on a physique magazine picture. (It’s probably the only time in art history that Fernand Leger was mashed up with a physique-magazine pictorial.) Yesterday on Modern Art Notes, I featured Pacific Standard Time-related scholarship that details the art-historical link between Hockney and the American physique magazines, which were founded in and first published in Los Angeles. In a related story, the British-born Hockney eventually moved from London… to Los Angeles.

The art: David Hockney, Cubist (American) Boy With Colourful Tree, 1964.

The news: A panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected California’s Proposition 8, ruling it unconstitutional. Los Angeles Times coverage is here.

The source: Collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington. The Hirshhorn installed this painting earlier this week. According to this exhibition history, this is the first time the museum has ever exhibited it.

Nota bene: Hockney likely based the figure in this painting on a physique magazine picture. (It’s probably the only time in art history that Fernand Leger was mashed up with a physique-magazine pictorial.) Yesterday on Modern Art Notes, I featured Pacific Standard Time-related scholarship that details the art-historical link between Hockney and the American physique magazines, which were founded in and first published in Los Angeles. In a related story, the British-born Hockney eventually moved from London… to Los Angeles.

Posted by modernartnotes
February 8, 2012 11:27am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZK7Y6yG5DdN6
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(Notes: 25)
  
Filed under: LA Times LGBTQ Los Angeles Times art landscape news politics history 
10th of January
The art: Chris Burden, Metropolis II, 2011. The news: “In Long Beach exhibit, urban planning is art and play,” by Bob Pool in the Los Angeles Times. The source: Metropolis II officially opens at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art this Saturday, Jan. 14. (It’s up now, but…) The museum has posted the times during which the sculpture will be “in action” here. Burden and I discussed Metropolis II on the inaugural Modern Art Notes Podcast, which is available for download/streaming here and via iTunes here. 

The art: Chris Burden, Metropolis II, 2011.

The news: “In Long Beach exhibit, urban planning is art and play,” by Bob Pool in the Los Angeles Times.

The source: Metropolis II officially opens at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art this Saturday, Jan. 14. (It’s up now, but…) The museum has posted the times during which the sculpture will be “in action” here. Burden and I discussed Metropolis II on the inaugural Modern Art Notes Podcast, which is available for download/streaming here and via iTunes here. 

Posted by modernartnotes
January 10, 2012 10:33am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZK7Y6yEZ3pYr
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(Notes: 32)
  
Filed under: art architecture Los Angeles Times LACMA sculpture news 
12th of May
The art: Wayne Thiebaud, Electric Chair, 1957. With this painting, and three or four others similar to it, Thiebaud expressed his opposition to the death penalty. The news: “Former California prisons leader joins fight against the death penalty,” by Carol J. Williams in the Los Angeles Times. The source: Collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The art: Wayne Thiebaud, Electric Chair, 1957. With this painting, and three or four others similar to it, Thiebaud expressed his opposition to the death penalty.

The news: “Former California prisons leader joins fight against the death penalty,” by Carol J. Williams in the Los Angeles Times.

The source: Collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Posted by modernartnotes
May 12, 2011 12:36pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZK7Y6y53G_lF
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(Notes: 10)
  
Filed under: art death penalty Los Angeles Times 
2nd of May
The art: Christopher Wool, Untitled, 1990. The news: A United States special forces team has killed Osama bin Laden. ABC News has the first look inside bin Laden’s compound. The New Yorker’s coverage. The Atlantic doesn’t have a single page set up, but has a ton of coverage here, as does National Public Radio.  The source: Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art and Flickr user M.V. Jantzen.

The art: Christopher Wool, Untitled, 1990.

The news: A United States special forces team has killed Osama bin Laden. ABC News has the first look inside bin Laden’s compound. The New Yorker’s coverage. The Atlantic doesn’t have a single page set up, but has a ton of coverage here, as does National Public Radio. 

The source: Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art and Flickr user M.V. Jantzen.

Posted by modernartnotes
May 2, 2011 10:16am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZK7Y6y4nw28T
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(Notes: 90)
  
Filed under: Los Angeles Times LAT ABC News The Atlantic NPR New Yorker art 
19th of April
The art: Sarah Charlesworth, Bride, 1983-84. The news: “Gay marriage’s diamond anniversary: After the Netherlands acted, civilization as we know it didn’t end,” by Boris O. Dittrich for the Los Angeles Times op-ed page. The source: The (new) Feminist Art Base at the Brooklyn Museum’s Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

The art: Sarah Charlesworth, Bride, 1983-84.

The news: “Gay marriage’s diamond anniversary: After the Netherlands acted, civilization as we know it didn’t end,” by Boris O. Dittrich for the Los Angeles Times op-ed page.

The source: The (new) Feminist Art Base at the Brooklyn Museum’s Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

Posted by modernartnotes
April 19, 2011 10:10am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZK7Y6y4Qygjz
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(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: bride, wedding dress, Brooklyn Museum, Los Angeles Times art 
4th of April
The art: Pirkle Jones, The Graves Have Been Disinterred, Monticello Cemetery is Moved to Higher Ground, from the series “Death of a Valley,” 1956 (printed 1960). Jones and Dorothea Lange collaborated on “Death of a Valley,” which chronicled the last days of Monticello, Calif., before the town and the surrounding Berryessa Valley were dammed into Lake Berryessa. The reservoir is sited west of Sacramento, about halfway between the state capital and the Napa Valley wine-growing region. It’s one of the least-known great narrative photo-documentary series in American art. The news: “Water, water everywhere, but not enough is saved,” by George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times. Skelton reports that California built its last dam in 1979. Since then the state’s population has increased by about 50 percent, or over 14 million people. The source: Collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. More of the series is online here.

The art: Pirkle Jones, The Graves Have Been Disinterred, Monticello Cemetery is Moved to Higher Ground, from the series “Death of a Valley,” 1956 (printed 1960). Jones and Dorothea Lange collaborated on “Death of a Valley,” which chronicled the last days of Monticello, Calif., before the town and the surrounding Berryessa Valley were dammed into Lake Berryessa. The reservoir is sited west of Sacramento, about halfway between the state capital and the Napa Valley wine-growing region. It’s one of the least-known great narrative photo-documentary series in American art.

The news: “Water, water everywhere, but not enough is saved,” by George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times. Skelton reports that California built its last dam in 1979. Since then the state’s population has increased by about 50 percent, or over 14 million people.

The source: Collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. More of the series is online here.

Posted by modernartnotes
April 4, 2011 1:37pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZK7Y6y42rJPl
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(Notes: 31)
  
Filed under: water, art Los Angeles Times SFMOMA 
4th of April
The art: Pirkle Jones, House Being Moved, from the series “Death of a Valley,” 1956 (printed 1960). Jones and Dorothea Lange collaborated on “Death of a Valley,” which chronicled the last days of Monticello, Calif., before the town and the surrounding Berryessa Valley were dammed into Lake Berryessa. The reservoir is sited west of Sacramento, about halfway between the state capital and the Napa Valley wine-growing region. It’s one of the least-known great narrative photo-documentary series in American art. The news: “Water, water everywhere, but not enough is saved,” by George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times. Skelton reports that California built its last dam in 1979. Since then the state’s population has increased by about 50 percent, or over 14 million people. The source: Collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. More of the series is online here.

The art: Pirkle Jones, House Being Moved, from the series “Death of a Valley,” 1956 (printed 1960). Jones and Dorothea Lange collaborated on “Death of a Valley,” which chronicled the last days of Monticello, Calif., before the town and the surrounding Berryessa Valley were dammed into Lake Berryessa. The reservoir is sited west of Sacramento, about halfway between the state capital and the Napa Valley wine-growing region. It’s one of the least-known great narrative photo-documentary series in American art.

The news: “Water, water everywhere, but not enough is saved,” by George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times. Skelton reports that California built its last dam in 1979. Since then the state’s population has increased by about 50 percent, or over 14 million people.

The source: Collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. More of the series is online here.

Posted by modernartnotes
April 4, 2011 9:52am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZK7Y6y42dk2S
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(Notes: 13)
  
Filed under: water, art California Los Angeles Times photography 
14th of March
The art: Robert Polidori, Control Room, Reactor 4, Chernobyl, 2001. The news: “Japan’s nuclear crisis widens,” by Mark Magnier, Barbara Demick and Laura King in the Los Angeles Times. The source: Polidori’s must-own 2003 book “Zones of Exclusion: Pripyat and Chernobyl.” (This afternoon I’ll tweet a couple more images from Polidori’s book. Follow me here.) Also, after Polidori published his book on New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, I did this Q&A with him on Modern Art Notes.

The art: Robert Polidori, Control Room, Reactor 4, Chernobyl, 2001.

The news: “Japan’s nuclear crisis widens,” by Mark Magnier, Barbara Demick and Laura King in the Los Angeles Times.

The source: Polidori’s must-own 2003 book “Zones of Exclusion: Pripyat and Chernobyl.” (This afternoon I’ll tweet a couple more images from Polidori’s book. Follow me here.)

Also, after Polidori published his book on New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, I did this Q&A with him on Modern Art Notes.

Posted by modernartnotes
March 14, 2011 8:38am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZK7Y6y3bk1VJ
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(Notes: 14)
  
Filed under: art Los Angeles Times Japan Nuclear Chernobyl