We hit LACMA before Pelf's play.
Bobo wanted to check out their Western exhibitions and I've always wanted to check out their collection of Netsuke
My fave:
kleek.
and the wife's fave:
kleek.
They're no bigger than a walnut, but you expect their breath to fog the glass when you see them in person.
The Western landscape exhibit was fab, although the wife found their overarching theme suspect (and who am I to argue with an art history major?) It mixed photography and painting to good effect. The thing that nailed me to the floor was a mesmerising photo by Edward Steichen, one of my absolute favorite photographers and one I'd only seen in books.
It was titled Black Canyon, and it seems immune to Google (although I now know that a print recently auctioned for 110k, and that photography publisher Aperture is also a non-profit organization). Maybe Anner can use her google-fu to track down a visual.
It's a brooding, misty shot of a canyon, combining surpassing natural beauty with layers of depth to generate an aura of ominous fascination. The 'look' is a bit like his famous picture of the Flatiron building, but it felt like a much more profound image.
Of course I haven't seen the Flatiron shot 'live', so it's actually a monstrously unfair comparison...but it'll have to do because I'm too lazy to come up with a better one. =P
Oh, and there was an amazing painting by Thomas Hart Benton (who I was also seeing 'live' for the first time) that would have stood out as a masterpiece even if it wasn't encased in an armored Lucite box. I love his style and it was a treat to see it up close. Great paintings vibrate with life when you get close enough to see the brush-strokes...they're very organic.
Anyone in the vicinity is urged to check it out.
No comments:
Post a Comment