It is depressing for me to think that most of my favorite art is a cold-hearted attempt at mind control. No, the Egyptians were not thinking only of beauty when they built the pyramids; they were thinking of death, and the power of intimidation. The little servant...
In the middle of this issue where we talk all about the movers and the shakers, I think I should drop in a note saying that, in the end, it is all actually epically opaque.This one came from this obscure place, made a fortune in this impenetrable industry by moving...
If anybody reading this is looking for a topic for an art book, I would like to suggest La Fura dels Baus. Although they are well known in Europe (they designed the opening ceremony for the Barcelona Olympics, and have had other pieces performed before audiences of...
Dear Babs, I’ll be getting out of the Army soon and was thinking about going back to school for an MFA. If I don’t apply to a grad school in LA or New York, what should I be looking for in a school outside of those two areas? I’ve heard it’s an ideal way to make...
Last December, with little fanfare, a major monograph celebrating the great postwar photographer Art Kane came into being. A 20-years-in-the-making labor of love for his son Jonathan, it presents, in one gorgeous volume, the first truly cumulative collection of Kane’s...
Francesco X. Siqueiros is an artist/printmaker, founder of El Nopal Press, publishing fine-art limited-edition prints since 1990 in downtown Los Angeles. The focus of El Nopal Press is to underscore the heterogeneous nature of culture and to acknowledge its borders...
It’s a commonplace of the current cultural moment that we have trouble tearing ourselves away from our screens. (Some of us anyway; and for some of us that screen is basically an extension of our desk.) But actually I think it’s a bit more complicated than that. ...
We don’t call it ‘AWOL’ for nothing, you know. So while you (and my editors) were all HOWLing for my updates last week – and oh yes, we did have a few – the local art world news was eclipsed by the Los Angeles Review of Books’ publication of Joseph Giovannini’s...
I might have called it Sit Through This (which, I assure the reader, would have encompassed the best the show had to offer). The 60th Anniversary Celebration of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl (not the 50th, mind you; the 50th + 10), took place last night at the fabulous Ace...
[Part I of this post appeared yesterday, following the preceding evening’s Third Los Angeles forum at Occidental College. I continue where I left off – as LACMA’s Director, Michael Govan left the stage to the evening’s host, the forum’s principal organizer, and Los...
And so the Govan/Zumthor/LACMA PR juggernaut thunders on, steamrolling over those skeptical eyes looking over their shoulders from near and far, critics and other local scolds (and possibly its immediate neighbors), to say nothing of its own Board of Trustees, the...
By the time I had discovered Eloise (there is only one, you know), I was already well on my way to becoming Eloise – if I wasn’t already. By that time, I had already begun moving away from children’s books and into actual literature. My older brother had already...
Do you ever wonder what happened to the Occupy moment? We can’t really call it a movement because it had no coherent program, plan or organization, no well defined or articulated policy (or revolutionary) objectives; and its only concrete target was a somewhat...
Having followed Gabriel Kahane’s songwriting career for some time, I was primed for a terrific show this past Saturday evening at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse. Kahane has the dual gift of an innate musical talent and extraordinary musicianship wedded to a peerless gift for...
JANE CHAFIN owns and operates Offramp Gallery with life partner Chaz Alexander out of their historic home in Pasadena, California. ARTILLERY: You grew up in West Virginia as a descendent of the feuding Hatfield family and your grandfather was an infamous union-busting...
It is a basic human impulse to make things: the basic and poignant idea of surrounding oneself with plenitude, making it harder for death to penetrate. Connecting the great arc of maker and collector/consumer, no one is spared this inevitability. It is crucial that we...
Inge Reist is the director of the Center for the History of Collecting in America at the Frick Art Reference Library of The Frick Collection, New York. She plays additional roles as chief of research collections, which includes the Frick photo archive, and choosing...
Dear Babs, I’m an art student about to graduate with a BFA in photography at one of the best art schools in the Los Angeles area. Is it okay to work in a commercial photography field while showing artwork in galleries? Besides presenting two separate portfolios/series...
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