Art was the main reason for stopping over in LA for a couple of days so it was a pleasant surprise none of the three big museums I've visited were over-crowded, albeit maybe in part because large areas of two - LACMA and MoCA - were closed for installation.
The Broad
The temporary exhibition, "A Journey That Wasn't", was about representations of time and included a few standout pieces from artists I didn't know, alongside some I did (a Ron Mueck, some Andreas Gursky F1 pitstop photos, a few from Gregory Crewdson's Cinecitta series):
The general collection display contained plenty of large and colourful pieces, including - ubiquitously, here and elsewhere, Jeff Koons (in the background of his "Tulips" below is a Takashi Murakami, itself splashy enough to hold its own in the central room).
The highlight was discovering Mark Tansey, a Californian painter whose careful, meaning-saturated images grabbed me.
Also:
I liked the roomful of Ellsworth Kellys too.
LACMA
A fairly miscellaneous visit. A few that caught my attention, all in an abstract expressionist vein:
MoCA
This wasn't the first time I've encountered one, but a room full of Rothkos - seven in all - still felt like magic.
Apart from that, a not overly large selection from the museum's permanent collection, though thoughtfully arranged to illuminate each other in each room:
And Helen Levitt's photographs of children playing in New York in the 1940s.
The Broad
The temporary exhibition, "A Journey That Wasn't", was about representations of time and included a few standout pieces from artists I didn't know, alongside some I did (a Ron Mueck, some Andreas Gursky F1 pitstop photos, a few from Gregory Crewdson's Cinecitta series):
Sharon Lockhart - "Pine Flat Portrait Studio" series (from 2005)
Marlene Dumas - "Wall Weeping" (2009) (painting inspired by a photo of Palestinians being searched by Israeli soldiers, with the soldiers cropped out)
Neo Rauch - "The Store" (2005) (I also liked the other of his own display, "Treasure Trove")
The general collection display contained plenty of large and colourful pieces, including - ubiquitously, here and elsewhere, Jeff Koons (in the background of his "Tulips" below is a Takashi Murakami, itself splashy enough to hold its own in the central room).
Robert Therrien - "Under the Table" (1994)
The highlight was discovering Mark Tansey, a Californian painter whose careful, meaning-saturated images grabbed me.
"Four Forbidden Senses" (1982) ... the 'missing' one is sight
"Achilles and the Tortoise" (1986) ... one of the philosophers, scientists and mathematicians depicted is Xeno, of the paradox
Also:
Jenny Saville - "Strategy" (1994), which arrived with a shock, this image that's so familiar and in fact iconic to me from The Holy Bible, and so much larger and more imposing in the flesh, so to speak
Anselm Kiefer - "Deutschlands Geisteshelden" (1973)
It was interesting to see a Lichtenstein sculpture ... I liked it more than I usually do his prints ("Goldfish Bowl", 1977)
I liked the roomful of Ellsworth Kellys too.
LACMA
A fairly miscellaneous visit. A few that caught my attention, all in an abstract expressionist vein:
Joan Mitchell - "East Ninth Street" (1956)
Willem de Kooning - "Montauk Highway" (1958)
Sam Francis - "Toward Disappearance" (1957)
MoCA
This wasn't the first time I've encountered one, but a room full of Rothkos - seven in all - still felt like magic.
Apart from that, a not overly large selection from the museum's permanent collection, though thoughtfully arranged to illuminate each other in each room:
Joan Miro - "Personnages dans la Nuit" (1950)
Max Ernst - "Capricorn" (1948-63); large, amusing, bemusing
Arshile Gorky - "Betrothal I" (1947)
Giacometti - "Tall Figures" II & III (1960), as moving as his pieces always are
John Chamberlain's "Red Beatts" (1988), my first encounter - as far as I can remember - with the idea of abstract expressionist sculpture; in the background, Franz Kline's "Black Iris" (1961)
And Helen Levitt's photographs of children playing in New York in the 1940s.
