LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Los Angeles is a sprawling mass, so is the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).  As soon as we spotted the huge campus, we realized the immensity of this complex:


LACMA, July 2013

Coming in from the back side, we passed by a very interesting installation - a huge boulder resting on the shoulders of a underground pathway - Levitated Mass, 2012, Michael Heizer (born 1944):


LACMA & Levitated Mass, 2012, Michael Heizer (born 1944)


Levitated Mass, 2012, Michael Heizer (born 1944), LACMA

The first exhibit we saw at LACMA was the much talked-about James Turrell: A Retrospective:

James Turrell: A Retrospective explores nearly fifty years in the career of James Turrell (b. 1943, Los Angeles), a key artist in the Southern California Light and Space movement of the 1960s and 70s. The exhibition includes early geometric light projections, prints and drawings, installations exploring sensory deprivation and seemingly unmodulated fields of colored light, and recent two-dimensional work with holograms.

I felt very lucky to be able to purchase a pair of just-returned timed-tickets to Turrell's show.  The light installations of Turrell at LACMA was too programmatic and calculated and I didn't feel much connection to them.  Later, when I saw his site-specific installation at De Young Museum in San Francisco, a burial mound and a round shrine behind a little wooded pathway, I felt that whimsical, mysterious work more engaging:



Afterwards, went to Ahmanson Building to see its permanent European painting collections.  At the lobby of this building, we saw another massive sculpture: Smoke, Edition 1/3, 1967, fabricated 2005, Tony Smith (1912-1980).  Size did matter.


Smoke, Edition 1/3, 1967, fabricated 2005, Tony Smith (1912-1980), LACMA

Across the lobby, in the courtyard outside, there was another installation caught my eyes - they resembled drying spaghetti.  I didn't find out the attributes to this artwork.  Or was it just a functional curtain?



Then, we went on to see another special exhibit inside the building, titled Henri Matisse: La Gerbe.

In 2010, Matisse's large ceramic, La Gerbe (The Sheaf) was bequeathed to LACMA. Commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Sidney F. Brody in the early 1950s for the courtyard of their home by A. Quincy Jones, the ceramic reflects the work Matisse had been doing with large, colorful paper cut-outs. 

La Gerbe, Henri Matisse (1869-1954), LACMA

This very modest exhibit was really just a tiny snapshot of this great artist and it didn't add or subtract anything I knew of or felt for him.

We then entered the section of German Expressionism - one of my favorite period in art history - turbulent, stark, menacing yet beautiful.  There were familiar works by my favorite artists such as Wassily Kandinsky and Käthe Kollwitz; yet, the most terrifying and fascinating objects were posters rallying people to fight against red tides and protect homeland:


Schützt Eure Heimat! (Protect Your Home!)


Untitled, 1919, Wilhelm Plünnecke (1894-1954) & Der Einzige Damm Gegen die Rote Flut


Motiv aus Improvisation 25 (Motif from Improvisation 25), 1911, Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)


Deutsche Werkbung-Ausstellung, Cöln 1914


Reiter (Riders), c. 1915, Ludwig von Hofmann (1861-1945)


Gedenkblatt für Karl Liebknecht (Commemorative print for Karl Liebknecht), 1919, Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)

Exiting this nightmarish world, we entered a "saner" world in the late 19th Century to early 20th Century.  The disturbance was definitely still there but much calmer and more ordinary comparing to the time and soil which had fertilized the German Expressionists.  I am going to record the works I saw in chronological order within each section of the stated time frames.

Comparing to the epoch of old masters, this era could be broadly termed as modern era.  It started with works in more or less traditional manners then rushed into the period dominated by the impressionism, post-impressionism, cubism, expressionism, and so on.  From the featured works below, we could see the artists went into many directions, trying out the best personal expressive means and styles, and the resulting explosive emergence of these styles were truly exciting:


Mermaids Under Water, 1874, Félix Ziem (, 1821-1911), & Weeping Figure at a Sepulchre, 1898 & The First Morning (Albert and Charlotte Dubray Besnard and their Son, Robert), 1881, Paul Albert Besnard (1849-1934), & Man Smoking a Pipe, c. 1875, Jean-Alexandre-Joseph Falguière (1831-1900)


Le Havre, Bateau de Pêche Sortant du Port, 1874, Claude Monet (1840-1926)


Portrait of A. Cassabois, 1877, Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894)


Les Baigneurs (The Bathers), 1896-97 Paul Cézanne (1839–1906)


Still Life With Cherries And Peaches, 1885-1887, Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)


Sous-Bois, c. 1894, Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)


Boy With a Straw Hat, 1896, Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)


The Red Cow, 1889, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)


Fruit Dish on a Garden Chair, c. 1890, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)


Motif Romanesque, 1890, Maurice Denis, (1870-1943)

Sometimes, artists seemed went backwards and became more cautious, less adventurous; however, in the long run, the progression was unstoppable and those seemingly backwards leaps were only regrouping before the next giant leaps.


A View of Frauenchiemsee, 1891, Wilhelm Trübner, (1851-1917)


La Place du Théâtre Français, 1898, Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)


The Opera 'Messalina' at Bordeaux (Messaline descend l'escalier bordé de figurants), 1900-1901, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)


Le Pont du Carrousel à Paris, c. 1903, Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947)

From the more or less decorative paintings above, to the deeply expressionism paintings below, the change of style and subjects were startling:


Portrait of Sebastia Juñer Vidal, 1903, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) & Woman with Blue Veil, 1923, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)


Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire, c. 1904-1905, Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958)


Cows in the Lowland,1909, Emil Nolde (1867-1956)


Dancing Soldiers, 1909-1910, Mikhail Larionov (1881-1964)


Violinist on a Bench, 1920 (based on a 1914 original), Marc Chagall (1887-1985) & Knabe mit Apfelsine (Boy with Orange), 1911, Albert Bloch (1882-1961)


Jeannette III, 1910-1913, Henri Matisse (1869-1954)


Strand in Nidden (Beach at Nidden), 1911,  Max Pechstein (1881-1955)


Two Women, 1911-1912/1922, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) & Still Life with Jug and African Bowl, 1912, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938)


Sunday in the Alps, 1922, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938)


Badende (Bathers), 1913, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976)

And paintings became increasingly abstract since the beginning of the twentieth century:


Architectonic Painting, 1917, Lyubov Popova (1889-1924 & Untitled, c. 1920, Aleksandr Rodchenko (1891-1956)


Reverie (Study for the Portrait of Frank Burty Haviland), 1914, Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) & Young Woman of the People, 1918, Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920)


Tea, 1919,  Henri Matisse (1869-1954)


Portrait of a Girl/Still Life, 1919-20, Max Pechstein (1882-1955)


Pride of the Gatekeeper, 1929, Paul Klee (1879-1940)

Sometimes artists felt the need to shout to be heard and understood, and art became a verbal statement, for better or for worse:


La trahison des images [Ceci n'est pas une pipe], (The Treachery of Images [This is Not a Pipe]), 1929, René Magritte (1898-1967)

Yet, no words could beat iconic images to impress and move audience:


Head of Christ, c. 1932-1938, Georges Rouault (1871-1958) & Adam and Eve, 1935, Max Beckmann (1884-1950)


Village in Thuringia, 1943, Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956)


Bridge and Wharf, 1945, Max Beckmann (1884-1950)


Group of Figures (Groupe de Personnages), 1938, Joan Miró (1893-1983)


Mojave, 1941-1942, Arshile Gorky (1904-1948)


Flight, 1952, Hans Hofmann (1880-1966)

When American artists started to dominate the art scene in the mid-20th century, flashy and brass pop art dominated the scene; yet occasionally, some art with great subtlety and beauty emerged, such as below works by Jasper Johns and Jean Dubuffet:


Figure 7, 1955, Jasper Johns (born 1930)


L'Effacement des Souvenirs (The Effacement of Memories), 1957, Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985)

Then, there were other artists who staked out independent paths for themselves and created works both representative and abstract, with great vibrancy and excitement:


Freeway and Aqueduct, 1957, Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993)


Two Women, 1957, David Park (1911-1960)

Purely abstract artworks in the new era could be just as vital and eloquent:


Montauk Highway, 1958, Willem de Kooning, (1904-1997)


The Ballantine, 1958-1960, Franz Kline, (1910-1962)


Elegy to the Spanish Republic 100, 1963-1975, Robert Motherwell, (1915-1991)


Band in Boston, 1962, Robert Irwin ( born 1928) & Roman Notes #3, 1970, Cy Twombly (1928-2011)

After the late 19th - 20th century art, we moved backwards time wise, into the older, more classical world of 18th Century-early 19th Century.  Classicism and romanticism were the dominant styles of the period.


Satan and Death with Sin Intervening, 1799-1800, John Henry Fuseli (Johann Heinrich Fussli), (1741-1825)


Judgment of Jupiter, 1786-87, John Deare (1759-1798)


Judgment of Jupiter (detail), 1786-87, John Deare (1759-1798)


Spoils of the Temple_ After a Relief from the Arch of Titus, Rome & Scene from the Arch of Titus, c. 1791, Jean-Guillaume Moitte (1746-1810)
 

The 10th of August, 1792, c. 1795-1799, Baron François-Pascal-Simon Gérard (1770-1837)


Thetis Bringing the Armor to Achilles, 1804, Benjamin West (1738-1820) & Portrait of Second Lieutenant Charles Legrand, c. 1810, Baron Antoine-Jean Gros (1771-1835)


Portrait of Monsieur Gest, 1819, Alexandre Dubois-Drahonet (1791-1834)

 
St. Sebastian with St. Irene and Attendant, 1858, Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)

Further back in time, we were in the 16th-18th Centuries, a time when paintings were the highest artistic achievements in the visual field, and the old masters actively created their long-lasting legacies: 


Allegory of Salvation with the Virgin and Christ Child, St. Elizabeth, the Young St. John the Baptist and Two Angels, c. 1521, Rosso Fiorentino Giovanni Battista di Jacopo (1494-1540)


Madonna and Child with Saints Jerome and Francis, c. 1525, Paris Bordone (1500-1571)


Portrait of Giacomo Dolfin, c. 1531, Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (c. 1489-1576)


Portrait of a Young Nobleman, c. 1545, Veneto-Lombard School (late 16th century)


Allegory of Navigation with an Astrolabe Ptolemy, 1557, & Allegory of Navigation with a Cross-Staff: Averroës, 1557, Paolo Caliari Veronese (1528-1588)


The Holy Family with St. Elizabeth, St. John, and a Dove, c. 1609, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) & The Israelites Gathering Manna in the Desert, c. 1626-1627, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)


The Sleeping Danae Being Prepared to Receive Jupiter, 1603, Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617)


Mercury and Argus, c. 1645-47, Carel Fabritius (c. 1622-1654)


Samson and Delilah, 1668, Jan Havicksz Steen (1626-1679)


The Snyders Triptych, c. 1659, Jan Boeckhorst (called Lange Jan) (1605-1668)


Portrait of Cardinal Roberto Ubaldino, Papal Legate to Bologna, 1627, Guido Reni (1575-1642) & A Philosopher, c. 1631, Jan Lievens (1607-1674)


The Raising of Lazarus, c. 1630-1632, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669)


Portrait of Marten Looten, Holland, 1632, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669) & Portrait of Dirck Jansz. Pesser, c. 1634, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669)


Portrait of Pieter Tjarck, c. 1635-1638, Frans Hals (1582/1583-1666) & The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, c. 1638-1640, Georges de la Tour (1593-1652)


Winter Scene on a Frozen Canal, c. 1620, Hendrick Avercamp (1585/1586-1634)


Still Life with Herring, Wine and Bread, 1647, Pieter Claesz III (1596_1597-1660)


Interior of the Mariakerk, Utrecht, Holland, 1651, Pieter Jansz. Saenredam (1597-1665)

Last paintings section we visited was the Medieval and Proto Renaissance Paintings - they were strange, otherworldly and their distinct beauty, once accepted, could be overwhelming:


Worshipping Angels, c. 1325, Ugolino di Nerio (active 1317-c. 1327)


Virgin and Child with Sts. Louis of Toulouse and Michael, before 1362, Luca di Tommè (active 1356-1389, c. 1330-after 1389)


Madonna and Child with Sts. Nicholas and Paul, c. 1370, Luca di Tommè (active 1356-1389, c. 1330-after 1389)


The Archangel Gabriel, 1388, & The Virgin of the Annunciation, 1388, Bartolo di Fredi (c. 1330-1410)


A Bishop Saint and Saint Lawrence, c. 1404-7, St. Stephen and St. Bruno, late 14th-early 15th century, Gherado di Jacopo di Neri Stamina (active 1360-1413)


Triptych of the Madonna and Child with Saints, c. 1440, Neri Di Bicci (1419-c. 1491)


Fragment from a Cassone Panel 'Shooting at Father's Corpse', c. 1462, Marco Zoppo (1433-1478)


Madonna and Child, c. 1465, Jacopo Bellini (active 1421-1470/1471)


Portrait of a Man, c. 1465, Petrus Christus (1410-1472)


Adam and Eve in Paradise, Transfiguration of Christ on Palm Sunday, Abraham and the Three Angels, and Baptism of Christ, c. 1467, Jan Polack (1450-1519)


Triptych of Madonna and Child with Angels; Donor and His Patron Saint Peter Martyr; and Saint Jerome and His Lion, before 1483, Master of the St. Lucy Legend (active c. 1475-c. 1501)


The Triumph of Alexander, c. 1485, Bernardo Rosselli (1450-1526)


Holy Family, c. 1497, Fra Bartolommeo (Baccio della Porta) (1472-1517)

Finally some sculptures - from Greek period through 18th century:


The Lansdowne Bust of Athena of Velletri, Kresilias (430 B.C.-420 B.C.), 2nd-century copy after a Greek original of circa 430–420 B.C.


The Lansdowne Athlete, Rome, Roman, 1st century B.C. or 1st century A.D. copy after a Greek original of circa 340-330 B.C. by Lysippos


Biographical Sarcophagus, probably c. 176–193, possibly Eastern Mediterranean (Turkey), Roman


The Bateman Mercury, Roman, 2nd-century copy after a Greek original of the 4th century B.C.


Panels from the Retable of Agnès de Beaufremont, c. 1424, France, Workshop of Joinville-Vignory (active 1393-1442)


Tombstone of Alberto Barbiano, c. 1442, France, Meuse Valley


Christ and the Twelve Disciples, c. 1450-1500, France, Normandy


Saint Catherine, Germany, Ulm, c. 1510, Linden wood with traces of polychromy & Processional Cross, c. 1550, Spain


Saint Scholastica, Germany, c. 1755, Circle of Ignaz Günther (1725-1775)

We also saw some old drawings, mostly by the Italian artists from 16th century through 18th century - master draftmanship:


The Entombment, c. 1530, Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (called Parmigianino) (Italy, Parma, 1503-1540) & Crucifixion, c. 1764, Ubaldo Gandolfi (1728-1781)


Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, c. 1631-1632, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (called Il Guercino) (1591-1666)


Hercules Rescuing Deianira, c. 1669-1671, Domenico Maria Canuti (1626-1684) & Dancing Figure and Other Studies (verso), c. 1555-1558, Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527-1596)


Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst: 
- Revisiting Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena
- Getty Villa in Los Angeles (Malibu)
- Urs Fischer Exhibit at MOCA, Los Angeles
- My Favorite De Young Museum Collections
- "Renoir in the 20th Century" - Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- "Up in the Air" and Milling about in the Airport

Label: Los Angeles, Los Angeles Trip 2013