Tarry Nights at LACMA

It’s summer, but the traffic is as bad as ever, and the art world continues to percolate.   Yours Truly recently came upon an evening concert at LACMA which was jam-packed from the stage at BP Plaza to where the museum conjoins with La Brea Tarpits on the 6th Street side. It was an especially tarry night— couldn’t help that!  Some visitors sat on chairs enjoying the jazz music, some picnicked on the grass, and some little ones pushed themselves vigorously about on scooters. Behind the musicians, Chris Burden’s Urban Light attracted its usual quota of Instagrammers, weaving in and around the lampposts trying to get The Shot. And some even went into the current exhibitions, hooray!  This museum has become our town square, our zocalo, or at least one of them, in a city often criticized for not having a center.

New Director for ICA LA

Here’s some REALLY good news— in September Anne Ellegood, senior curator at the Hammer Museum, takes over as executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA). Ellegood was lead curator responsible for the best Made in L.A. biennial yet, the one last year, which to me struck just the right balance of emerging artists and established artists, and included a sizeable selection of women artists and discernible female points of view.  Luchita Hurtado was a wonderful rediscovery, fitting in several neglected categories, and she is now experiencing a real comeback in the art world—picked up by Hauser & Wirth, she has a retrospective opening at the Museo Tamayo in 2020, which will also tour the U.S.

Prior to the Hammer Museum, Ellegood was curator of contemporary art at the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and before that associate curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.  And of course, our very best wishes to outgoing executive director Elsa Longhauser, who oversaw the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMoA), kicked out by the sad changes at Bergamot Station, and its transformation into the ICA LA, now with its own spiffy digs in DTLA.

18th Street Runs
Art Studios at Santa Monica Airport

Last year the City of Santa Monica awarded 18th Street Art Center the bid to manage what used to be called the Santa Monica Art Studios, made up of 50 studios plus an exhibition space at the Santa Monica Airport. This was after the City reevaluated its process of leasing space, at least partly because the Santa Monica Daily Press had questioned how artists were being charged for space.

Under the new rules, no subletting is permitted, and artists lease directly from the city, and starting July 1 the complex is managed by 18th Street.  “Under the new leasing arrangement, all artists will be paying the same rate per square foot,” writes Constance Farrell, Public Information Officer for the City Manager’s Office. Under the previous management, artists were paying quite different rates. “The vast majority of artists at this facility will see their rent decrease when they transition to City leases.”

The Tale of the Lost Colony, Continued

When and how will this sad saga end? Last year the Santa Fe Art Colony Tenants Association (SFACTA) announced that skyrocketing rent hikes were going to push artists out from the live-work space, which was established through city funding in 1986. This April they managed to submit a bid of $16.8 million to buy the complex from Fifteen Group, the Miami-based company that purchased said complex last June. On July 25, the Group counteroffered at $22 million—which appears to be a 47% increase over the price they paid. The Association points out that the current City of Los Angeles Conditional Use Permit (CUP) in effect limits leasing only to artists, and that Fifteen Group’s leasing to non-artists may put it in violation of the permit. 

 Still, the tenants group is ready and willing to purchase the property at fair market value if Fifteen can negotiate in good faith or, alternatively, to accept an agreement to not sell the property for five years. SFACTA president Sylvia Tidwell says, “Fifteen Group is on the brink of destroying the last large community of working fine artists left in the Arts District. What does it say about LA to have an ‘Arts District’ without artists?” Yes, a good question indeed.

Comings and Goings

Those of you applying for or renewing your LA Public Library card may get a very colorful surprise—a card designed by our own native son Gajin Fujita. Fujita grew up in Boyle Heights, and in his neighborhood library he read up on the Japanese folklore and legends that would fuel his imagination and become part of his artwork.  As many of you know, his paintings are eye-popping smashups of Street Art and Japanese woodblock graphics. On the new LAPL card, a Japanese hero with big hair and kabuki-style makeup wears a LA Dodgers T-shirt and sits on a green demon—perhaps the demon of ignorance? Recently Fujita told me, “Growing up, I got so much out of my library, and I wanted to give something back.” And so he has. Thanks so much, Gajin!

On July 31, 2019 the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts announced the appointment of artist Gary Simmons to its Board of Directors, joining Chair John C. Welchman plus Stephanie Barron, Catherine Opie, Claire Peeps, Edward Rada and Joan Weinstein. 

Speaking of Joan Weinstein, in July she was officially named director of the Getty Foundation, having been acting director since Deborah Marrow stepped down at the end of last year. The two of them were the driving forces behind the Pacific Standard Time initiatives that have elevated Los Angeles on the international culture map. Weinstein joined the Getty in 1994 and has been deputy director of the Foundation since 2007. PST started with “Art in L.A. 1945–1980” in 2011, then launched “PST: LA/LA” in 2017.  The 2024 iteration will revolve around the region’s connection between the visual arts and science. Kudos to Weinstein for her tireless dedication! Yours Truly saw her again and again at the openings and events of the last PST – Yours Truly ended up going to about 30 of the 70+ exhibitions, and she must have gone to nearly all!

In July Ooga Booga, a 300-square-foot multipurpose books and events space atop Quon Pavillion in Central Plaza, Chinatown, celebrated its 15 anniversary— yet, sadly, also announced its closing at the end of the summer. It will continue in other forms, at least for awhile—at the Hammer Museum through January 5th, at the Chinese Culture Center SF through October 27th, and through its webshop.

IN REMEMBERANCE 

Cynthia Maughan (1949–2019)

Artist and musician Cynthia Maughan had a sharp wit and unmatched imagination. At once punk, poetic and pop, her over 300 short videos from the early 1970s on, reveal a voracious artistic sensibility weaned on Hollywood. As a storyteller she was full of feminist zeal, dark humor and earnest compassion. We’re honored to share these memories and note her incredible contribution to art in Los Angeles.

—Catherine Taft

As my older sister, Cynthia was a source of fascination to me. We shared a room growing up and her side was magical: colorful posters, makeup, jewelry, vintage clothing and collectibles. She had a style I could only aspire to. She was smart, funny, kind and fierce. Her art showcases it all.

—Jennifer Dellenbusch

If YouTube was around in 1976, Cynthia would have been its Queen. I still remember the joyous shock of seeing her videos for the first time, because I still get that shock when seeing her work now. She was one of the most singular, creative and (unfortunately) overlooked figures in the history of video art.    

—Glenn Phillips

Cynthia and I collaborated on the video Pursed, inspired by her outrage that a fashion magazine glorified a $10,000 crocodile handbag. She contrasted the lust for fashion to her wonder at the universe, ending her brilliant rant, “Your dreams are so small.” She was an amazing feminist with a profound sense of justice.

—Nancy Buchanan

In my head I see Cynthia walking into the L.A. Weekly, guitar hoisted over shoulder, looking serious. It was our day job and many of us talked of more artistic pursuits, but I never knew what Cynthia was truly up to…That was just like Cynthia to not talk about herself.          

—Betty Lee

Exchanges with Cynthia had the same wry humor and sharp poeticism as her tapes. She’d cover a range of subjects: Umberto Eco to Russ Meyer, Justin Bieber cat memes to John Ford movies. She talked about art-making and wanting to pick up a camera again, one that would offer the peculiar visual quality the Mars Rover was beaming back to Earth. 

—Rebecca Cleman

Don Suggs (1945–2019)

We are saddened by the recent loss of artist Don Suggs. Suggs died on July 30 in Los Angeles. He was 74 years of age. The cause of death was a pedestrian traffic accident.

Suggs leaves behind a rich body of work that he created over five decades. Eluding formal categorization, his art is representational, but also conceptual. Referencing diverse styles including Photorealism, Cubism, Surrealism, Symbolism, Pop, Minimalism, Assemblage, Dada and Abstraction, he translated his ideas into painting, drawing, collage, photography and sculpture, works that critic Doug Harvey describes as “gorgeous not in spite of their deep irony, but in conjunction with it.”

Known for his quick wit and ironic sense of humor, he possessed a keen intellect and extensive knowledge of his subject, which he undergirded with a vigorous work ethic and enormous generosity of spirit. Suggs was also an extremely talented and beloved teacher, influencing many hundreds of artists living and working in California and around the world.    

Born in Fort Worth in 1945, Suggs was raised in San Diego. He moved to Los Angeles in 1962 to study at UCLA, where he earned BA, MA and MFA degrees. He returned to teach at the university in 1983 until his retirement in 2014. Between 1972 and 1984, he also held teaching positions at Florida State University at Tallahassee; Franconia College, New Hampshire; the University of Southern California, and Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles.

Suggs was represented by L.A. Louver, where he began showing his work when the gallery was founded in 1976. While Sugg’s work has been included in over 100 museum and gallery exhibitions, its range and scope was finally given full rein with his retrospective “One Man Group Show” that was curated by Meg Linton and Doug Harvey at the Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design in 2007.

He is survived by his wife, artist Linda Stark, sister Carol Ambrosia, and her children and grandchildren.