My Favorite Paintings at Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles

The relatively modest Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles didn't overwhelm people with blockbuster pieces, as other Museums in Los Angele often did, yet it invited conversation and thoughts with some austere pieces.

My favorite was a mixed media on paper titled Dêpouille (Skin or Human Remains) (1945) by French artist Jean Fautrier (1898-1964). The strongest impression of this abstract piece was the understated, appealing palette, which consisted of pale brownish yellow and red, underneath some intermittent light blue wash. The main object, occupying almost the entire paper, shaped like a giant pearl upon its irregular shaped mother shell. Yet, once the title sank in, this amorphous object took on a sinister meaning and darker tone, and the imagined sheen of a piece of jewel morphed into rough and cracked mass, symbol of the degeneration of bodies.


Dêpouille (Skin or Human Remains), 1945, Mixed media on paper mounted on linen, Jean Fautrier (1898-1964)

At first glance, Franz Kline (1910-1962)'s 1956 oil painting, Monitor, was a pure abstract piece, consisted only white and black paints. The wet over wet effect of the merge and interplay of these sharply contrasted colors was both dramatic and subtle. The boldness of the gigantic central black "beam" also contrasted wonderfully to a very thin dark stroke, fading into far distance, and aided by a small pole at the end of that disappearing stroke, thus added more focal interest to these ever entangled and extending objects, instantly a broad space was opened up for the viewer. After the dramatic impact of the high contrast had dissipated, I realized that one of those protruding object in the center of the canvas was actually indeed a traffic or security monitor, atop of a huge horizontal beam, pointing to unseen and perhaps unaware people, beyond the edge of the canvas. Beautiful and disturbing. 


Monitor, 1956, Oil on Canvas, Franz Kline (1910-1962)

My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 156: My Favorite Paintings at the Broad Museum, Los Angeles
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 154: My Favorite Paintings at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

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Monumental "Andy Warhol: Shadows" in Los Angeles

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, is celebrating Andy Warhol, one of the most influential American artists from the 20th century, by presenting his monumental Shadows series of 102 canvases.

MOCA stated that "conceived as one work, Warhol’s exceptional series of variously silkscreened and hand painted canvases features two different compositions, ranging in hue from an electric green to a somber brown. Based on photographs of shadows taken in The Factory, the artist’s New York City studio, the Shadows paintings alternate between positive and negative imprints. With few exceptions, “the peak,” or black positive, always appears on a colored ground, while “the cap,” a smaller, colored form, hovers before a black background."

"“The Shadows are one of Warhol’s most mysterious and beautiful works, full of mood and feeling, repeated over and over, not unlike a song. Seeing them all together at MOCA provides a special occasion to consider an artist we think we know from a new angle,” said MOCA Senior Curator Bennett Simpson."



In October, I had the chance to visit MOCA in LA, and I was surprised by how compact this series seemed and how grandiose it really was, when confronted by those arrays of canvases displayed in a modest corridor and a single albeit huge hall.  At the first glance, I was rather underwhelmed by the seemingly smallish looking display; upon closer inspection, I realized the amazing scope of the endeavor and was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of those canvases and the myriad variations they conveyed - the imagination of the artists was apparently boundless and the beauty of these subtly differentiated coloration was incredibly moving.  Below are images from that incredible exhibition:































Below images offer closer look of those canvases:































The show ends on February 2, 2015, so people still have chance to see the exhibition. Even for those who are not big fan of Warhol, me included, it can still be a moving experience to see those incandescent beautiful pieces together.  High recommended.


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The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles

The last museum we visited during our Los Angeles Trip in July was the main site, one of the three sites, of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), located at 250 South Grand Avenue.

Previously, I have discussed an special exhibit we saw there - A Retrospective of Urs Fischer, whose surreal and macabre sculptures, installations and paintings were fun but less than truly satisfying.  Now, I'm turning my focus to MOCA's core permanent collections.

The hallway, painted with mysterious and disturbing images of wheels and gears, and characters, created a dangerous industrial look, boldly declared the location as like no other museum or gallery.  









The galleries were less in your face and rather conventional, allowing visitors to pay attention to the displays. This museum focused on the contemporary works, those created in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including works by de Kooning, Rothko, Kline, Twombly, Krasner, Miró, Pollock, Giacometti, Johns, etc. and some other names I was less familiar with.  Below the the works I liked most:


Untitled (flag), 2006-08, Rodney McMillian (b. 1969)


Untitled, 1973, 1989, Charles Ray (b, 1953)


Untitled & detail, 1990, Caviar, acrylic, and lacquer on canvas, Georg Herold (b. 1947)


Gone, 1987-92, Wood, rubber, plaster, copper, flowers and lead, Liz Larner (b. 1960) & Untitled, 1991, Aluminum, wire, paper-mache, and gauze, Franz West (b. 1947-2012)




Untitled #2, 1977, Agnes Martin (1912-2004)


Black (PL100155), 1988, John McCracken (1934-2011) & 36-85-1, 1985, Larry Bell (b. 1939)


Untitled, 1967, Cy Twombly (1928-2011)


Map, 1962, Jasper Johns (b. 1930)

 

Untitled, c. 1954, Oil, pencil, crayon, paper, canvas, fabric, wood, glass, mirror, etc., Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)


Two Women with Still Life, 1952, Willem de Kooning (1904-1997)






Number 1, 1949, 1949, Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)


Primeval Resurgence, 1961, Lee Krasner (1908-1984)


Untitled (The Cry), 1946, Barnett Newman (1905-1970)


Black Iris, 1961 (middle), Minotor, 1956 (right), Franz Kline (1910-1962)


Personnages Dans la Nuit, 1950, Joan Miró (1893-1983)


Yellow and Orange, 1949, Mark Rothko (1903-1970)


Red and Brown, 1957 & Black on Dark Sienna on Purple, 1960, Mark Rothko (1903-1970)


No. 301 (Reds and Violet over Red_Red and Blue over Red) [Red and Blue over Red], 1959 & Purple Brown, 1957


No. 9 (Dark over Light Earth_Violet and Yellow in Rose), 1954, No. 61 (Rust and Blue) [Brown Blue, Brown on Blue], 1953 & No. 46 [Black, Ochre, Red Over Red], 1957, Mark Rothko (1903-1970)


Tall Figure, II, 1960, ALberto Giacometti (1901-1966)


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Label: Los Angeles, Los Angeles Trip 2013