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Arts and Culture

A Visit to The Broad Museum!

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Broad Museum Exterior
All Photos by Gail

When I was in California at Christmastime, a little bit of advanced planning allowed me to enjoy a visit to the new Broad Museum of contemporary art, located in beautiful downtown Los Angeles. Featuring 2,000 works of art from the private collection of philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad (pronounced like “Bro-d”), admission is free of charge, but because the museum just opened on September 20th, 2015, the demand for tickets is so high that they must be reserved online in advance.

By December, the list was already booked up through February 2016! It is times like these that writing an awesome blog like The Worley Gig comes in handy. With a  couple of exchanged emails, the Broad’s press office was kind enough to extend VIP-treatment to myself and two guests, which included front-of-the-line cutting privileges that saved us about two hours of waiting in a queue that already wrapped around two sides of the building by the time the museum opened at 11 AM.  It is good to be the King, or Queen, whatever.

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Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: David Wojnarowicz, The Newspaper as National Voodoo: A Brief History of the U.S.A.

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The Newspaper as National Voodoo
Photo By Gail

During his short but prolific career, David Wojnarowicz worked in writing, painting, photography, film, music, performance and installation. Unapologetically making art about homosexuality during the peak of the AIDS crisis in New York, Wojnarowicz exposed the marginalization and suppression of a stigmatized community.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: David Wojnarowicz, The Newspaper as National Voodoo: A Brief History of the U.S.A. →

Arts and Culture

Pink Thing of The Day: Charles Ray’s Fall ’91

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Charles Ray Fall 91
Photo By Gail

Many of Charles Ray’s best-known works are remakes of objects and people taken from the real world. Small but significant alterations to familiar situations give Ray’s practice a disquieting tension. Cloaked in simplicity, his often humorous creations comment on sculpture’s history, from its austere formal issues to its surreal psychological consequences.
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Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: John Baldessari, Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell

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Tips for Artists
Photo By Gail

John Baldessari (1931 – 2022) never touched this painting. He did not paint it. He did not write the text. “There is a certain kind of work one could do that didn’t require a studio,” Baldessari said, “it’s work that is done in one’s head. The artists could be the facilitator of the work; executing it was another matter.” This concept – that an artist could present an idea rather than a material object from their own hand – was a way for Baldessari to take apart the notion of what art could be. In 1966 art meant painting, sculpture, or drawing, and with wry humor, Baldessari challenges this expectation. The viewer receives a painting in Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell (1966 – 68), but the painting is completed by sign painters. The viewer is presented with a painting’s content, but the content is text taken from an art trade magazine dictating what content should be. Clever!

Photographed in the Broad Museum in Los Angeles.

 

 

Arts and Culture

Ziggy Stardust By Albert Oehlen

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Ziggy Stardust
Photo By Gail

Albert Oehlen (b. 1954) exaggerates and distorts the conventions of abstract painting, breaking rules as a way to critique traditions based on taste and canonized art historical narratives. His paintings are steeped in an aesthetic of extravagance and indulgence, often containing jarring color combinations, half-baked forms, and decorative touches.

Oehlen’s Ziggy Stardust (2001) pays homage in its title to musician David Bowie, who used his lavish alter-ego, Ziggy Stardust, to examine the power — and the destructive nature — of Rock and Roll. By channeling Bowie, Oehlen draws attention to the excesses of painting.

Beginning with an austere architectural CAD drawing, Oehlen the launches an assault on the canvas with bilious color, sludgy forms, and clashing techniques. Combining computer-generated and gestural marks, Oehlen prods at the very idea of the artist’s hand and supposed creative genius.

Photographed in The Broad Museum in Downtown Los Angeles.