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Last Week's Trifecta

Tue, Nov 17 Listen

Last week Los Angeles hosted what sports fans would probably call a perfect trifecta of cultural events. First, the Museum of Contemporary Art celebrated its 30th anniversary with a huge, lavish gala attended by 1,000 art patrons, many of whom flew in just for the occasion...

Art and Babies

Tue, Nov 10 Listen

Today's program has a simple and wholesome title, "Art and Babies." And the sermon I'm about to deliver has to do with the impact that art can have on the lives of our little angels. Speaking in front of a live audience, I often bring up the issue of the importance of exposing children to art at a very early age. Every young parent knows the benefit of suspending a mobile with bright shiny objects above the crib to activate the child's brain. Therefore, there is no doubt in my mind that...

This Beauty's Looking at You, Kid

Tue, Nov 3 Listen

Every time I'm in New York, I never miss the chance to visit the most elegant salon on the Upper East Side of Manhattan to pay my respects to its charming hostess, famous for her beauty as well as her repose. A woman of few words, she greets you in the foyer, and you cannot help but notice that even with the passing years, her youthful glow and aura of mystique have hardly changed. She travels very rarely, but when she does, it makes the news. So when she recently accepted an invitation to...

Encountering Art, Police Chief Gets Egg on His Face

Tue, Oct 27 Listen

So, what would you think about the LA Police Chief if you heard that he had expressed support for a controversial public artwork installed in front of the new police headquarters? Would you worry? Rest assured, outgoing Police Chief William Bratton simply hates the eight monumental bronze sculptures installed at the new LAPD...

LA Artists on Fire

Tue, Oct 20 Listen

For almost one hundred years, people around the world have known Los Angeles primarily as the place where movies are made. But in the last couple of decades, something else has entered into the equation: a few LA artists have achieved such international acclaim that they've become our de facto cultural ambassadors to the world at large...

He Was the Scheherazade of Our Time

Tue, Oct 13 Listen

Last month, at the opening of the Irving Penn exhibition at the Getty Center, the celebrated 92 year-old photographer was not in attendance. We were told that he hates to fly, which shouldn't come as a surprise, considering his age. Though his exhibition of 210 black and white photographs is still on view at the museum, the artist himself is no more; last week brought the sad news of the death of Irving Penn, one of the most famous photographers of the 20th century...

Hitting a Nerve: The Anatomy of Beauty and Horror

Tue, Oct 6 Listen

Do you remember the olden days when everyone had a Polaroid camera, and the small color photos our parents took on vacation could be found in virtually every household? These days, Polaroid technology is almost obsolete, and one can hardly find the film for those instant cameras. A few people, however, are still continuing their love affair with this medium...

Towering Figures, Tumbling Walls

Tue, Sep 29 Listen

Anyone who had the good fortune to know Henry Hopkins (1928-2009), a seminal figure on the California art scene for the last fifty years, would probably agree that he was the epitome of what we call a gentleman scholar. Even at crowded museum openings, one could always spot Henry ? tall, imposing, impeccably dressed ? charming everyone with his courtly manners...

Love Thy Garbage

Tue, Sep 22 Listen

I'm not a morning person, so, fortified with plenty of coffee, I usually start the day off slowly by paging through the newspapers to catch up on the latest. Sometimes, a headline jumps off the page with such a good vibe that it instantly snaps me out of the morning doldrums. Today is one of those days: the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times reported on this year's recipients of the MacArthur Grants, each of whom will receive $500,000, no strings attached. Among the winners are...

A Generous Serving of Small Trades

Tue, Sep 15 Listen

If you have the slightest interest in the art of photography or fashion, you will undoubtedly recognize the name Irving Penn, whose artistic achievements have had a major influence on the contemporary art scene of the last sixty years. Born in 1917 and still active today, Irving Penn might have started his career as just a fashion photographer, but he quickly developed a distinctive style which set his images apart...

Escaping the Dog Days of Summer

Tue, Sep 8 Listen

So, how was your Labor Day? Myself, I'm never sure what's the proper thing to do on this holiday ? to honor it with an honest day of work or by taking it easy. Even here in Santa Monica it was hot, so I did my usual and fled to the air-conditioned sanctuary of museum galleries...

What's in the Drinking Water in Toledo, Ohio?

Tue, Sep 1 Listen

Five flights, four cities, two countries ? not too bad for a one-week trip, eh? It was my first trip to Canada, where I spent three days in Toronto and two in Ottawa, followed by even shorter visits to Detroit and Toledo, where I hadn't been before either...

The Naked Truth

Tue, Aug 25 Listen

Truth be told, I haven't yet seen any of the five exhibitions that I want to tell you about today ? though I'm still hoping to catch one of them in New York, and another, if luck is on my side, in Florence. Two more exhibitions are coming this fall to Los Angeles, so that makes four. And the last one, the controversial installation of Jeff Koons' sculptures at Versailles, has already closed...

Inside the L.A. Art World

Tue, Aug 18 Listen

Summertime, and the livin' is easy...You are probably packing for a trip and looking for a book to read, so here's my suggestion: the recently published collection of essays by Los Angeles art insiders who spill their guts in conversation with Richard Hertz ? himself a consummate insider of the LA art world, with experience teaching at Caltech and CalArts as well as heading the Department of Graduate Studies at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena...

In This Cemetery, Some Like it Hot

Tue, Aug 4 Listen

There were four of us on this warm Friday night; blankets under our arms, plastic bags full of snacks; we were walking down a nondescript stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard after a seemingly endless search for a parking spot. And we were not alone. One could see a few more people on the sidewalk, like us schlepping bags and lawn chairs and headed in the same direction...

Paintings Enjoyed by All, Read and Deciphered Only by Few

Tue, Jul 28 Listen

I wonder how many of you would raise your hands if asked, "Who has been to a performance at UCLA's Royce Hall?" I wouldn't be surprised if most of you have been there on a number of occasions to see dance, theater, or a concert. But how many of you know about the museum tucked away down the hill from Royce Hall? I'm talking about the Fowler Museum, where savvy, adventurous Angelenos can find a variety of exhibitions about little-known arts and cultures...

Beautiful Nightmare

Tue, Jul 21 Listen

What would you say if a nightmare that woke you up in a cold sweat could be described in the most terrifying detail to a great artist who would be able to recreate it in bronze...and I mean it not figuratively, but literally, in bronze. If you are lucky enough to stumble upon the National Archeological Museum while wandering through Florence, you will never forget the encounter with one of its world-famous treasures, the life-size bronze sculpture of the Chimaera, the mythological creature...

Collecting, Until Death Do Us Part

Tue, Jul 14 Listen

For those looking for an excuse to step away from the media obsession with Michael Jackson ? and the Sarah Palin sideshow ? here's a good chance to do just that: go see the irresistibly charming documentary about Herb and Dorothy Vogel, the most beloved American collectors of the last half-century, whose unique and inspiring life devoted to art collecting earned them a well-deserved reputation as cultural icons...

Abroad, in Search of Art

Tue, Jul 7 Listen

Immediately after coming home from a trip abroad, I like to check out what's happening on the art scene here in my own town, to see if it holds up against the great variety of art adventures I had while traveling. The first day back in LA, totally jet-lagged and exhausted from two weeks of stuffing myself full of art in Europe (oh, poor Edward...), I rushed to the Getty for the opening of the ambitious exhibition of three centuries of French bronze sculpture. It was full of fascinating...

So Many Tsars, So Little Time

Tue, Jun 30 Listen

It's been only a couple of months since my last trip to Amsterdam, so there better be a good reason to return so soon for yet another visit. And how could I say no to an invitation to attend the inaugural ceremony for the opening of the Hermitage Amsterdam, the ambitious collaboration between the famous museum in St. Petersburg and its colleagues in the Netherlands? While two previous attempts at branding by the Hermitage Museum first in London and then in Las Vegas turned out to be...

All the Presidents' (Men and) Portraits

Tue, Jun 9 Listen

Sunday morning's ritual: a large cup of coffee and piles of newspaper spread out all over my bed. Then, out into the world to the farmers' market, with its abundance of color, texture, and taste. The Santa Monica market is brimming with eccentric characters vying for attention. Last Sunday, it was a slim, shirtless young fellow, with his pants so low that the only mystery remaining was whether he'd been circumcised or not. Looking at the multitude of his boring tattoos, I wondered if he had...

Highs and Lows on the Museum Scene in LA

Tue, Jun 2 Listen

Let me come clean. Every time I visit the Metropolitan Museum, I skip the galleries displaying American art, and until recently, it was the same with the Huntington in San Marino. I would spend most of the time there savoring the world-class collection of English paintings and then finish by looking at a couple of temporary exhibitions. Not any longer...

Will Nude Edge Cowboy Out of White House?

Tue, May 26 Listen

On Inauguration Day, four months ago, I talked about the dream I had for what our new president could accomplish if he decided to become a champion of art. I imagined Barack taking Michelle and their adorable girls on a stroll through the National Gallery, and I fantasized about the president deciding to bring contemporary artworks into the White House not only into the living quarters, but the Oval Office as well. What a great chance it would be to breathe new energy into the historic...

So Close to the President, Yet So Far Away

Tue, May 19 Listen

President Obama's commencement speech at Notre Dame has gotten a lot of attention. I heard it on the radio and watched it on TV and was impressed by his eloquence. But when I saw on the front page of Monday's New York Times the photo of students with the president big smiles and handshakes all around I was taken aback by the unintentional lack of civility shown by the students. Take a look at the photograph...

It Takes a Village to Raise Museum Funds

Tue, May 12 Listen

For good, normal folks who might go to a museum only once in a while, museums present themselves in a stately, unhurried, dignified manner. But if you peer behind the curtain, 'calm' is the last word you would use to describe what's going on there...

Twitter as Big Brother?

Tue, May 5 Listen

In last weeks program I asked you for advice: To Tweet or Not to Tweet... and respond you did with humor, sarcasm, and good straightforward advice. To read all the responses posted, visit the Art Talk page of the KCRW website. Here are some excerpts...

To Tweet or Not to Tweet, That Is the Question

Tue, Apr 28 Listen

Looking back at the past thirty years, I see the pattern of my initial reluctance to embrace the technology of the modern world. First, I had to learn to drive a car, though some of my friends tell me that I still drive like a Russian peasant. Then, there was an especially embarrassing moment when I heard for the first time the word "fax" and mistook it for, hmmm...an unprintable profanity, and that's how l learned about the existence of fax machines. When I started to do my Art Talk, I...

Oh...to Be Sixteen Again

Tue, Apr 21 Listen

It's unbearably hot even here, in Santa Monica, near the beach. Damn those Santa Ana winds. To survive, I need to think and talk about something cool. How about this? A stone's throw from Venice Beach sits LA Louver Gallery, one of the mainstays of the Los Angeles art scene. There, for the next few weeks, you can find a small herd of horses roaming the galleries some standing still, others grazing or lying down, maybe even sleeping...

Moved by Art

Tue, Apr 14 Listen

Compared to a journalist covering the disintegration of the international financial system or reporting from the battlefield in Afghanistan, there is an obvious advantage to being an art critic. After all, where else if not in the art business can one think about Death, Debt, and Divorce as something to look forward to, a renewable source of profit for auction houses when private collectors are pressured to sell their art as a result of these three famous "D's." Even when the news from the...

From Russia with Art

Wed, Apr 8 Listen

Somehow in the last several weeks, Russian avant-garde culture of the early 20th century has been presenting itself with surprising consistency, both here in LA and during my recent trip to Holland. In Amsterdam I saw excellent early paintings by Kandinsky, and on the last day there, I was invited to see The Four Temperaments by Balanchine performed by the Dutch National Ballet. The theater was packed, and the dancers were very good. All that made me think about the famous Ballets Russes...

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