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 take-down (I almost want to say, tear-down) of the proposed/presumed Zumthor-Govan Gumby-blot LACMA-East, “Peter Zumthor at LACMA: A Preacher in the Wrong Church.”  And if you thought Lane Barden and I were rough on Herr Zumthor, Michael Govan (and in my case, Christopher Hawthorne or for that matter A. Jerrold Perenchio), try exponentiating that by a factor of ten.  I almost wonder now if Govan’s spirited defense at the Hawthorne/Occidental College initiated Third Los Angeles symposium last month was spurred not just by the disclosure of the ‘Gumby’ revisions to the plan, but in anticipation of Giovannini’s devastating critique which, in all probability, was already in progress.  That slightly desperate edge now seems entirely warranted in the face of what Giovannini has unleashed.  I’d be nervous, too, if I were in Govan’s shoes that night. 

Govan was far from nervous at the media unveiling of the 50 for 50 presentation of promised gifts in honor of LACMA’s 50^th anniversary, fresh from the trustees’ annual fundraising gala that raised some $5 million for the museum, and clearly elated by the breadth and quality of the bequests.  And truth be told, there are some gems and one-of-a-kind masterpieces amongst this year’s gifts.  There’s already been substantial coverage of the casta painting by Miguel Cabrera that will soon join the museum’s collection; but this was far from the only (or most) outstanding donation.  A few of my favorites:  a Toulouse-Lautrec portrait of Jane Avril like no other Lautrec I’ve ever seen – a performance unto itself in boldly sketched, slashed and swirled pencil or pen and brush strokes, with only the head in profile fully painted; Degas’ Café-Concert study in gouache, pastel and monotype was also unique; an extremely unusual Edouard Vuillard – atypical in its explicitly non-domestic setting of a theatrical dressing room, its very self-conscious sophistication – a backstage portrait of the great actor and playwright, Sacha Guitry.  All of the foregoing (and more) among Perenchio’s promised gifts – and yes, they’re wonderful; but I’ll say it again:  there’s no need to build a new museum (or even a wing) to house them. 

There were others:  a breathtaking Monet masterpiece, Two Women In A Garden (from the Wendy & Leonard Goldberg collection) – a fabulous addition to the Museum’s collection; a very unusual (and great) Kirchner carved wood sculpture, a lovely Degas Dancer (also from Perenchio), an unusual Nolde portrait, a great Glenn Ligon, a great and unusual Warhol Two Marilyns (from the Nathansons); a Carpeaux plaster study that is sheer exuberant joie.  Two of my favorite works were African tribal-spiritual pieces – one from Guinea, the other from a tribal (Kota) people that traverses Gabon and the Congo.  The Kota piece was a double-sided object for veneration (in burnished wood, copper, brass, iron and shell) – the Janus Reliquary Guardian Figure – an object as magical as its reputed powers.  The Guinea (Baga peoples) work was a tall sinuously curving prismatic Serpent Headdress (a-Mantsho-na-Tshol) in painted wood — as great as any Brancusi — that I hope Philip Treacy will be inspired to design a hat from.  I kid (but maybe not) – but this is truly an inspirational, almost elemental form.  The description that accompanied the work tells us that the spirit had an “ability to bring rain”; and we can only hope – from the serpent’s tongue to the goddess’s ears.

More to come, possums; stay tuned – ears to the ground, eyes to the skies….