All the week's essential arts stories, including LACMA approaching the point of no return on its Peter Zumthor building even as the project's critics call for rethinking the plan.
All the week's essential arts stories, including LACMA approaching the point of no return on its Peter Zumthor building even as the project's critics call for rethinking the plan.
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[Los Angeles Times]
Essential Arts
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February 22, 2020
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An imminent museum teardown, a well-deserved prize for art critic Christopher Knight, a modern âFrankenstein,â a divisive âWest Side Story,â burlesque that breaks cultural barriers and an engrossing Paul McCarthy show.
Iâm Laurie Ochoa, arts and entertainment editor at the Los Angeles Times, guiding you through this weekâs essential arts reads while Carolina A. Miranda takes a quick East Coast trip.
LACMAâs transformative moment
With asbestos removal already in progress, it looks as if nothing will stop the wrecking ball due to demolish four key buildings at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in a matter of weeks. In place of three 1960s buildings by William L. Pereira & Associates and the Art of the Americas building added in 1986 by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer, an ambitious single structure designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor is planned.
As Carolina Miranda writes in her [examination of LACMAâs debt load]( âquestions about the radical nature of the design â which includes an unorthodox plan for the building to straddle Wilshire Boulevard â and the projectâs steep budget, have come up at every turn.â Miranda looks at the issues cited by the projectâs critics â including two different groups that use âSave LACMAâ in their names â and compares LACMAâs debt to other museums. It may be a numbers piece, but itâs a fascinating read about a major institution about to undergo tremendous change.
[The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has begun asbestos removal prior to demolition of four buildings on its Wilshire Boulevard campus. ]
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has begun asbestos removal prior to demolition of four buildings on its Wilshire Boulevard campus. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
LACMAâs teardown-and-rebuild plan is just one way a museum tries to keep pace with the times. Contributing architecture writer Sam Lubell takes this pivotal moment for the Michael Govan-led museum to examine the different approaches taken by LACMA and New Yorkâs Museum of Modern Art. While MoMA kept the essential structure of its Edward Durell Stone and Philip Goodwin building, the site has been âever changing,â writes Lubell, with additions and renovations by Philip Johnson, Cesar Pelli, Yoshio Taniguchi and a recently opened expansion by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (architects of The Broad).
At issue, though, are how both plans interact with the cities around them. âThe designs for both MoMA and LACMA are serenely beautiful,â Lubell writes. âBut both contain outdated thinking about the city around them. ... Neither fully embraces its messy, complicated metropolis, its messy, complicated past and its messy, complicated opportunities.â
Before we leave LACMA, itâs good to remind ourselves that the current museum has undergone massive changes since its Wilshire Boulevard campus opened in 1965. In 2015, Times art critic Christopher Knight wrote about German artist Norbert Krickeâs long-gone âSpace Sculpture,â which once was the centerpiece of LACMAâs entrance plaza. âBefore there was âUrban Light,â Knight wrote of the Chris Burden selfie magnet, âthere was âSpace Sculpture.ââ
[LACMAâs original entrance sculpture, âSpace Sculptureâ by Norbert Kricke, didnât fare as well as Chris Burdenâs âUrban Lightâ has.]
LACMAâs original entrance sculpture, âSpace Sculptureâ by Norbert Kricke, didnât fare as well as Chris Burdenâs âUrban Lightâ has. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
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Knight time
Let us take a moment to appreciate Times art critic Christopher Knight. On Monday, the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation announced it was awarding its lifetime achievement award â which includes $50,000 â to Knight, a three-time Pulitzer finalist. âReaders have come to depend upon the frank and fearless voice of Christopher Knight, whose commentary spans contemporary art and artists, art history, architecture, museum practices and ethics,â read a statement from the foundation. âHe often brings up questions that specialists worry about but are unwilling to expose to broader scrutiny.â As Rabkin executive director Susan C. Larsen [told Times reporter Makeda Easter]( âI donât know what the art world would do without him.â
Not one to rest on his lifetime achievement laurels, Knight was out in the galleries, where he took in Kristy Luckâs first L.A. solo show at Philip Martin Gallery. âColor is the most potentially irrational device in any artistâs toolkit,â [Knight writes in his review,]( âdifficult to name and available for random application, and Luck makes the most of the capacity.â
At Honor Fraser Gallery, Knight saw the âsly exhibitionâ of Joe Sola digitally fabricated prints called âI Drove to San Francisco and Back,â a show that includes âOscar in Mirror,â a âpretty funnyâ take on our townâs awards obsession. âOscar peers at his golden mirror reflection like Greek mythologyâs Narcissus at the pool, viscerally entranced,â [Knight writes in his review]( âbut cluelessly unaware that heâs in love with his own gilded likeness.â
Most compelling is Knightâs review of âPaul McCarthy: Head Space, Drawings 1963-2019" at the Hammer Museum. With more than 600 drawings, the show, as Knight writes, is âa lot to take in.â Which is why Knightâs review is essential reading before you go. He talks about how McCarthy brought âdead in the waterâ Surrealism and Expressionism âroaring to lifeâ and guides us through the stages of McCarthyâs career. âThis giant drawing retrospective resonates deeply with the awful age through which we find ourselves currently floundering,â Knight writes. âThatâs one sure sign of McCarthyâs artistic significance.â
[Paul McCarthy, âSelf-portrait,â 1963, ink on paper.]
Paul McCarthy, âSelf-portrait,â 1963, ink on paper. (UCLA Hammer Museum)
On stage
Mary Shelleyâs âFrankensteinâ is a âcautionary myth interpreted and reinterpreted by artists from all disciplines who never lack for contemporary analogies,â writes Times theater critic Charles McNulty in his [review of the staging of the novel]( at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts by Four Larks. âThe inventive interdisciplinary performance company has created a fascinating creature from the bones of Shelleyâs novel,â McNulty says. âVisually, this âFrankensteinâ is enthralling; narratively, the result is often blurrier.â
To find out how the âself-described junkyard opera companyâ Four Larks dreamed up its âFrankenstein,â Times contributor Jordan Riefe spoke with founders Mat Sweeney (director and composer on the production) and Sebastian Peters-Lazaro (designer-choreographer) and cast members. âIn some way,â Sweeney said, â[every piece we make has been a Frankenstein]( a creature weâve pasted and glued together.â
[A scene from âFrankensteinâ at the Wallis, from left, Kila Packett as Victor Frankenstein, Max Baumgarten as Creature and Claire Woolner as Mary Shelley.]
A scene from âFrankensteinâ at the Wallis, from left, Kila Packett as Victor Frankenstein, Max Baumgarten as Creature and Claire Woolner as Mary Shelley. (Kevin Parry)
McNulty also traveled to New York to see the divisive Broadway production by Ivo van Hove of âWest Side Story.â âControversy was stoked by the jettisoning of Jerome Robbinsâ original choreography, the excision of âI Feel Prettyâ from the score and the explosion of video in a production that some said threatened to turn the stage into cinema,â [McNulty writes in his review](. âNo, the early word was neither enlightening nor encouraging. But ... let me declare that I am firmly in Van Hoveâs camp on this one.â
[Shereen Pimentel and Isaac Powell, center, and the cast of âWest Side Storyâ directed by Ivo van Hove. ]
Shereen Pimentel and Isaac Powell, center, and the cast of âWest Side Storyâ directed by Ivo van Hove. (Adam Rodriguez/Jan Versweyveld)
Times classical music critic Mark Swed found himself at âFour Quartets,â a CAP UCLA staging of four T.S. Eliot poems with an original score by Kaija Saariaho, scenic design with Brice Marden paintings and choreography by Pam Tanowitz. âSaariahoâs incandescent score ... dazzles in its intensity,â Swed writes in his review. Actress Kathleen Chalfant âreads Eliotâs sublime stanzas with a restrained elegance such that each reaches the listener as a marvel of imagery.â
[T.S. Eliotâs âFour Quartetsâ read by Kathleen Chalfant, with music composed by Kaija Saariaho, choreography by Pam Tanowitz and design by Brice Marden at UCLA. ]
T.S. Eliotâs âFour Quartetsâ read by Kathleen Chalfant, with music composed by Kaija Saariaho, choreography by Pam Tanowitz and design by Brice Marden at UCLA. (Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)
Times contributing reviewer Margaret Gray [finds âstartlingly pertinentâ parallels]( between Frank Capraâs 1941 film âMeet John Doeâ and contemporary America through writer-director Stephen Sachsâ world premiere staging of âHuman Interest Story,â a retelling of the film at the Fountain Theatre.
âA high tolerance for indeterminacy is required,â [writes Times reviewer]( Philip Brandes of Lee Blessingâs âsurreal, self-described puzzle playâ âA Body of Water.â The Actors Co-op production, ârevisits the mystery of identity with a newly revised ending in an eerie, thought-provoking staging.â
âThe Book of Mormonâ [has returned to Los Angeles]( for the fourth time, this time at the Ahmanson Theatre, and Times reviewer Daryl H. Miller was there. He says the jokes may not be aging as well as one would hope, but he has one word to describe the current cast: âFantastic.â
Miller also took in A Noise Withinâs production of Shakespeareâs âThe Winterâs Tale,â staged by Geoff Elliott âin what appears to be a fascist country in the 1930s,â[Miller writes.]( âThe result, while wholly admirable, reflects the pitfalls as well as the triumphs of broaching the romances.â
And Times contributing reviewer Nikki Munoz [writes that]( âThe $5 Shakespeare Company,â by Matthew Leavitt at Theatre 68 in North Hollywood, has a âsharpâ script with âa fluid and nuanced plotâ and âactors shine individually and as an ensemble with a pulsating chemistry.â
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Burlesque barrier breakers
The Timesâ Jessica Gelt spent time with the all-Filipina cast of dancers starring in âBurlesque Las FilipinX,â a bawdy show that happens to be sponsored by the Assn. for the Advancement of Filipino American Arts and Culture, or FilAm Arts. Held at the speakeasy-style Genever in L.A.âs historic Filipinotown, the burlesque show is meant to entertain and bring attention to the nontraditional art form.
âYou just donât see our people in those spaces because itâs taboo,â Giselle Töngi-Walters, FilAm Artsâ [director of programming tells Gelt](. âA lot of us are still trying to break free from gender roles and the colonial mentality of what a Filipina should be.â
[Mizon Garde at Genever Bar, where she performs burlesque shows]
Mizon Garde at Genever Bar, where she performs burlesque shows. (Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
Your arts planner
Jessica Gelt [has the rundown]( of the Ahmanson Theatreâs coming 2020-21 season. Among the anticipated productions: âTo Kill a Mockingbird,â âHadestownâ and âThe Lehman Trilogy,â directed by Oscar-nominated â1917" filmmaker Sam Mendes.
[Gelt also previews]( this summerâs female-focused Hollywood Bowl lineup, which includes Brandi Carlile, Diana Ross, Janelle Monáe, Cynthia Erivo, Yuja Wang, Brittany Howard âand an evening celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment,â prohibiting the denial of voting rights on the basis of sex.
Matt Cooperâs [eight best things to do in L.A.]( include the Los Angeles Opera production of âRoberto Devereux,â L.A. Dance Projectâs reprisal of a Benjamin Millepied work and from dance company Step Afrika! a performance centered on an 18th century slave revolt. Youâll find Cooperâs listings for this week and the week ahead in dance, theater, museums and more on our [things to do: arts & culture page](.
Also ...
â Zoe Caldwell, four-time Tony winner and the master of âMaster Class,â [has died at 86](.
â The Allentown Art Museumâs âPortrait of a Young Womanâ (1632), long attributed to unknown artists in the studio of Rembrandt, [was discovered to be a true Rembrandt]( after a restoration.
â The Philadelpia Inquirer reported that after misconduct allegations against Philadelphia Museum of Art former executive Joshua R. Helmer, [employees were demanding âanswers]( the institutionâs tolerance of another well-paid but controversial manager, James A. Cincotta. ... Cincotta slapped, punched, pinched, shoved, grabbed, and verbally berated workers, according to interviews with 14 current and former museum employees.â
And last but not least ...
Heard of the âmuseum walkâ? Hyperallergicâs Hakim Bishara [talks with posture specialist]( Mark Josefsberg about âthe unhealthy way in which we tend to move our bodies while seeing art.â How to avoid the lower back pain that often comes with museum visits? Josefsberg says âfree your neck,â âlead with your kneeâ and âdonât plod!â
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