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Los Angeles' MOCA Celebrates 30 Years With a Behemoth of a Retrospective
MOCA's First Thirty Years is a retrospective that covers 30 years of the Los Angeles museum's artistic contributions to the public. Since opening its doors in 1979, MOCA has prided itself on making the best of contemporary art available to the masses, and this behemoth of a collection—featuring more than 500 pieces by over 200 artists from 1940 to today—is a reflection of this cultural richness.
Novice art connoisseurs, or even those who don't know Mondrian from Michelangelo, will inarguably be impressed by this compendium of some of the 20th Century's most impressive pieces. Diane Arbus? Check. Jackson Pollock? Check. Mark Rothko? You get the idea. The list goes on and on, and the exhibition will enjoy a long run at the downtown location—through May 3rd of next year, to be exact.
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Run, Don't Walk to See David Lynch's Painting Exhibit in LA
Los Angeles' reigning auteur of "weird," director David Lynch, doesn't limit his mode of creative expression to the screen. Though better known for helming films such as Mulholland Drive and hawking the benefits of transcendental meditation on college campuses, the fabulously-coiffed Lynch actually began his career as an artist. In 2007, a major retrospective of Lynch's multimedia art was featured at Paris' Fondation Cartier, and earlier this year, a selection of his photographs were on display at L.A.'s Michael Kohn Gallery.
We deemed the latter exhibition, a visual offshoot of the Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse album Dark Night of the Soul, a mediocre representation of Lynch's creative bounds. We've yet to see his paintings in person, but as dedicated Lynch-o-philes we'll be rushing off to see his first L.A. painting show in a decade at Santa Monica's Griffin Gallery.
Tags: Fine Art Travel / Vincent Van Gogh / The Beatles / Art Travel / → All Tags
Follow In The Footsteps Of Great Artists At These Three Inspiring Sites
Sometimes you just have to get away to nurture your artist's soul and allow yourself to refill that well of inspiration from which you draw daily. Follow in the footsteps of these famous artists by visiting the places they loved and were stirred by in life.
· The Roman Ruins in Arles, France -- Vincent van Gogh was Dutch by birth but completed some of his best work in this southern city, where his paintings gained the brilliant color he was famous for. The amphitheater in Arles is far more accessible than the Colosseum for budding painters.
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Five Unexpected And Interactive Musical Attractions
By now, you've probably seen the video of commuters playing on the subway staircase-turned-piano keys that a group installed in a Stockholm station, but this isn't the only unexpected musical attraction out there in the world.
As parks and squares become more than just gathering places, but areas of interaction and public art, we're seeing more and more small new attractions to stimulate your senses of wonder and creativity. So, when you're traveling about and whistling to yourself, end a day happily by checking out one of these Five Unexpected and Interactive Musical Attractions:
Tags: Art Travel / India Travel / Mumbai Travel / Museum Travel / → All Tags
Is Mumbai Working To Become A Capital Of Contemporary Art?
We tend to think of Paris or Florence as the places to go for an art hit, but India's largest city Mumbai might be the up-and-coming spot. A new art gallery has just opened there and wants to start showing off India's huge art tradition to the world.
The Gallery BMB is one of the first new galleries in India for a long time—the few that do exist are mostly from British colonial times—but the directors predict it will be the first of many more. It will showcase art from international artists as well as encourage emerging Indian artists to make a name for themselves.
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The Milwaukee Art Museum Dares Reveal Warhol's Later Years
You've seen Andy Warhol's classic Campbell's Soup cans and his bold, bright Marilyn Monroe silkscreen works, but you probably haven't seen the Pop master's art from the latter part of his life, which veered away from glamour and beauty. The Milwaukee Art Museum gives you a peek at those works with "Andy Warhol: The Last Decade," the first U.S. museum exhibit to examine the artist's final years through a survey of painted pieces.
Although Warhol received most of his acclaim from his '60s Pop Art, his output during decade before his death in '87 was far more prolific. The Milwaukee museum shows pieces from this period, including collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente that inspired the artist to return to painting by hand; abstract works, black-and-white ads, works examining death and religion, self-portraits, camouflage patterns and oxidation paintings—also known as "piss paintings" because he peed on them...nasty.
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A Museum Fit For A Pope And A Prince: Rome's Galleria Doria Pamphilj
When art aficionados plan their trip to Rome, they usually fill their itineraries with popular picks like the Musei Capitolini and the Galleria Borghese. And while those places are nothing to sneeze at, they overshadow one of the city's best private museums: the Galleria Doria Pamphilj.
At the Doria Pamphilj, you can cross out two sightseeing items on your to-do list, since you get a top-notch collection of art as well as a palace. The 18th-century palace and its collection are owned by the aristocratic Pamphilj family, who have held numerous important posts in the country, including Pope. One of Pope Innocent X's modern-day descendants, Prince Jonathan Doria Pamphilj, narrates a great free audio tour of the gallery. He provides a unique intimate perspective, explaining how and why the family acquired some works and which ones are his favorite.
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Forget The Class Trip: Top Three Museum Exhibits To See Now
Museums have always been travelers' inroad for getting in touch with culture, but the whole museum-visit ordeal has gotten a little staid these days. If we're going to do battle with long lines, shell out money for tickets, and deal with claustrophobic crowds, the experience better be less "school field trip" and way more gratifying.
That said, the US is still rich with these educational wonderlands—some new, some old, and many whose collections manage to bring out the uber-culture geek in us, like the following shows.
The Top Three Museum Exhibits To Visit Now:
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Nevada Desert Getting Ready for the Big Burn
All you fans of pyrotechnics, hallucinogenic drugs, peace and love, and running around naked better listen up…well actually if you’re a fan of all those things, you probably already know exactly where you’ll be August 31 to September 7: Nevada.
Some 48,000 like-minded folks will hit Nevada’s Black Rock Desert for the 23rd annual edition of the Burning Man arts festival. Attendees basically view the vast desert landscape as a blank canvas, erecting gigantic art installations, performing guerilla theater, and of course singing and dancing everywhere, all day and night, until everyone passes out (which is never). Of course, half the people there nowadays are mostly just there to watch the giant sculpture burn down at the festival’s close.
Tags: Chicago Field Trip / Architecture Travel / Zaha Hadid / Museum Travel / Chicago / Art Travel / → All Tags
Chicago's Millennium Park Piles On The Culture With New Pavilions
Forget the mirror-finish "Cloud Gate" sculpture, otherwise known simply as "The Bean" by Anish Kapoor, Chicago's Millennium Park has blossomed into something even greater than a sanctuary for great architecture and green space—it's become a work of art all it's own.
From all sides, Millennium Park is the place to visit in Chicago; the north holds Frank Gehry's Pritzker Pavilion auditorium and lawn, the south end is the Art Institute with its new Modern wing, the east edge of the park is the lakefront and harbor, and the west edge pulses with Michigan Avenue. Everything within the park continues to grow; from a huge garden of indigenous-to-Illinois plants to the sculptures scattered throughout.
The absolute freshest addition to this garden of al fresco delights, aside from a wading stream, are the two Burnham Pavilions being built to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the city plan. The first (pictured above), designed by Ben van Berkel of UNStudio, has been up for almost a month now and will remain until late October. It's neighbor by architect Zaha Hadid, however, lags severely behind.
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Eggs Benedict And Olafur Eliasson At Chicago's MCA
We luckily escaped New York City this last weekend for Chicago, just missing tornado warnings, hail, and the threat of having to stay inside for two days. Instead, on the lakefront here in Chi-town, we found a paradise of sun, brunch, and modern art. More specifically, we made a bee-line for Sunday brunch on the terrace at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which currently has an exhibition of Olafur Eliasson's works.
Olafur, in case you missed his waterfalls on the East River last summer in NYC, is something of a large-scale, light-and-color genius, and so pairing his 360-degree light room, prism hallway, and misting waterfall with eggs benedict is our highest recommendation for summer brunching in the city.
The exhibit, entitled "Take Your Time," spans fifteen years of Olafur's art, utilizing his architectural, engineering and lighting skills for constructions which, "at once eccentric and highly geometric, use multicolored washes, focused projections of light, mirrors, and natural elements such as water, stone, and moss to shift the viewer's perception of place and self, foregrounding the sensory experience of each work." It'll be on display at the MCA until September 13, and is way better than the waterfalls in our humble opinion.
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This Weekend In the World: Paris Loves Lance Armstrong and Seattle Loves Its Food
· Prague
You hit Miami's Art Basel and you've already passed through Venice for the Biennale, but what about swinging through The Czech Republic for even more art, and this time with feeling? Prague is throwing its own Biennale, the fourth annual, and this year brings the largest assemebly of young painters ever—120—who'll bolster the size and reputation of what is already a hugely significant exhibition of Central European art and photography. Find it all this month at Karlin Hall, Thamova 8 in Prague 8, and American are sure to be pleasantly surprised by the event's extra little show of "The Newest New York Young Photographers from the Big Apple."
