Mar 27, 2009
Los Angeles: Now with Some Culture-Type Stuff
(for a limited time only)
If you're in Los Angeles, or passing through town before April 16, don't miss -- I mean, do not miss -- the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's fiercely exoteric Art of Two Germanies exhibit. Like Maria Tatar's scholarship on post-WWI German art, or Annabel Jane Wharton's wonderful book on the architecture of Cold War-era Hilton hotels, the exhibit examines art history in the context of political history. Galleries are organized around chronological themes; the entryway sign for one room of works from the 1960s and 1970s, for example, reads,"Holocaust Memory and the Auschwitz Trial" -- and there's nothing in the room about the Auschwitz trial. But you'll very quickly see how much it's all about, you know, Holocaust memory and the Auschwitz trial.
In a very telling choice, the path to the building that houses the exhibit is lined with photographs of political events, in the order they happened. The theme is social and political engagement, and the problem of being a participant in the stories we try to tell about our lives. Remember that as you look at the box full of trash that Joseph Beuys swept off the street. It is, I'm not making this up, really cool.
If"Art of Two Germanies" is a reminder of the ways that art historians and political historians can speak to one another, it's also just a pleasure to look at. Almost everything is interesting; at least a dozen pieces in this very large exhibit are as remarkable as anything you'll see in a museum. I spent some time finding images online, and planned to post links to show a few of the most remarkable pieces -- but the digital images don't do the job. You have to go stand in front of the things.
But plan a full day, and keep looking. It's a good time to go to LACMA:
If you're in Los Angeles, or passing through town before April 16, don't miss -- I mean, do not miss -- the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's fiercely exoteric Art of Two Germanies exhibit. Like Maria Tatar's scholarship on post-WWI German art, or Annabel Jane Wharton's wonderful book on the architecture of Cold War-era Hilton hotels, the exhibit examines art history in the context of political history. Galleries are organized around chronological themes; the entryway sign for one room of works from the 1960s and 1970s, for example, reads,"Holocaust Memory and the Auschwitz Trial" -- and there's nothing in the room about the Auschwitz trial. But you'll very quickly see how much it's all about, you know, Holocaust memory and the Auschwitz trial.
In a very telling choice, the path to the building that houses the exhibit is lined with photographs of political events, in the order they happened. The theme is social and political engagement, and the problem of being a participant in the stories we try to tell about our lives. Remember that as you look at the box full of trash that Joseph Beuys swept off the street. It is, I'm not making this up, really cool.
If"Art of Two Germanies" is a reminder of the ways that art historians and political historians can speak to one another, it's also just a pleasure to look at. Almost everything is interesting; at least a dozen pieces in this very large exhibit are as remarkable as anything you'll see in a museum. I spent some time finding images online, and planned to post links to show a few of the most remarkable pieces -- but the digital images don't do the job. You have to go stand in front of the things.
But plan a full day, and keep looking. It's a good time to go to LACMA:
A long walk across the campus, for example, you'll find a small exhibit of Lester Beall's strange and horrible New Deal posters for the Rural Electrification Administration. The digital image of this poster, for example, doesn't even begin to convey what it's like to stand there and look at the thing.
Also worth the time:"Shellshocked: German Expressionism after the Great War," where you'll find this.
And LACMA, ladies and gentlemen, has a bar. Case closed.