Photo By Gail
While I was at the LA County Museum of Art this past December to see the Stanley Kubrick retrospective, I also enjoyed the experience of stumbling upon Chris Burden’s room-sized kinetic sculpture, Metropolis II – the focal points of which are 1,100 Hot Wheels cars. Continue reading Chris Burden’s Metropolis II at LACMA
Urban Light, 2008, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Photos By Gail)
This forest of city street lights, called Urban Light, was created by artist Chris Burden. Despite initial appearances, the arrangement is not a perfect grid. Depending on where the viewer stands, the lamps arrange themselves in different angles and arrays.
These 202 cast iron lamps once lit the streets of Los Angeles. Burden bought one at the Rose Bowl flea market, and soon collecting and restoring street lights became an obsession. He painted them all the same neutral gray, in order to draw the eye to all the different varieties of cast iron decoration.
Burden says that street lamps like these were symbols of a civilized and sophisticated city; safe after dark and beautiful to behold. The lights all still work, and they are now powered by solar energy. They are switched on every night from dusk until dawn. At night, Burden says his sculpture becomes transformed into “a building with a roof of light.”
All Photos By Gail
LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) currently has on site this 1990 sculpture entitled Penetrable, by the late Venezuelan artist, Jesús Rafael Soto. On loan from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros collection, Penetrable consists of innumerable suspended plastic hoses (which look like long, yellow noodles) that visitors can walk through and interact with. Kids I saw at the museum on the day of my visit really seemed to be into it, but it’s a lot of fun for adults as well! Continue reading Penetrable By Jesus Rafael Soto at LACMA
While I was in California over the Christmas holidays, I was fortunate to be able to check out the Stanley Kubrick Career Retrospective at LACMA – which was just amazing! I absolutely loved the exhibit and took a bunch of pictures, some of which I’ll share with you in this post.
As the museum’s website concisely describes the exhibit: “Stanley Kubrick was known for exerting complete artistic control over his projects; in doing so, he re-conceived the genres in which he worked. The exhibition covers the breadth of Kubrick’s practice, beginning with his early photographs for Look magazine, taken in the 1940s, and continuing with his groundbreaking directorial achievements of the 1950s through the 1990s. His films are represented through a selection of annotated scripts, production photography, lenses and cameras, set models, costumes and props.
A Selection of Posters and Lobby Cards from Kubrick’s Films
In addition, the exhibition explores Napoleon and The Aryan Papers, two projects that Kubrick never completed, as well as the technological advances developed and utilized by Kubrick and his team. By featuring this legendary film auteur and his oeuvre as the focus of his first retrospective in the context of an art museum, the exhibition reevaluates how we define the artist in the 21st century, and simultaneously expands upon LACMA’s commitment to exploring the intersection of art and film.”
Below is a selection of my photos from the show, representative of an overview of the exhibit. Enjoy!
Miniature Boardroom Set from Dr. Strangelove
Seating from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Production Stills at Rear of Gallery.
Custom Designed Futuristic Cutlery used in 2001.
Spaceship Model from 2001
Above and Below, 2001 Miniature Model Set
Kubrick’s epic period drama, Barry Lyndon, is represented mostly by its lavish costumes. Barry Lyndon is a fantastic film if you have three hours to devote to a viewing.
Above and Below, Costume from Spartacus
Signage and Props from the Korovoa Milk Bar scene in A Clockwork Orange — My favorite movie of all time!
Droog Costume worn by Malcolm McDowell as Alex, A Clockwork Orange. Notice the skewed shadow of the baton against the wall.
Alex’s Turntable. Trivia: the British band Heaven 17 took their name from the pre-orgy record store scene in this film.
The Shining Production Stills. Note the emphatic use of the color red, which Kubrick employed in each of his films to heighten the emotional impact of certain scenes.
The Shining’s Grady Sisters Dresses and Shoes
Masks from Eyes Wide Shut
AI Set Rendering
Helicopter Model from Full Metal Jacket
Stanley Kubrick Runs Through June 30, 2013 in the Art of the Americas Building, Level 2 at LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036. Admission to the Exhibit, which includes Admission to all Galleries, is $20.00.
1. Sue and I were walking to the fancy Marie Calendars restaurant to have a delicious lunch before going to the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) when I mentioned to her that, “Gee, it really smells like tar out here.” She then pointed out that we were, in fact, walking directly across the street from The La Brea Tar Pits. Funny! But seriously, that shit smells like tar. Continue reading Top Ten Fun Things About My Trip to California That I Did Not Blog About Yet