Power and Pathos at the Getty Museum

Torso of a Youth, “The Vani Torso,” 200–100 B.C. Bronze, 105 cm x 45 cm x 25 cm; Georgian National Museum, Vani Archaeological Museum-Reserve; Installation view of "Power and Pathos" at the Getty Museum, 2015; photo © codylee.co
Torso of a Youth, “The Vani Torso,” 200–100 BC; bronze, 105 cm x 45 cm x 25 cm; Georgian National Museum, Vani Archaeological Museum-Reserve; Installation view of “Power and Pathos” at the Getty Museum, 2015; photo © codylee.co

During the Hellenistic period – from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC to the establishment of the Roman Empire in 31 BC – Greek power and cultural influence were at their peak throughout the Mediterranean and Macedonia. The vast empire was controlled by dozens of generals and rulers, and a new market for portraits was formed with the development of bronze as a primary artistic medium.

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Paris Photo Los Angeles Recap

Paris Photo Los Angeles, 2015; image © codylee.co
Paris Photo Los Angeles, 2015; image © codylee.co

We gave an overview of Paris Photo Los Angeles last week in anticipation of its third edition.  The weather was characteristically perfect in LA and the satellite edition of the Paris fair now seems quite established.  News feeds on both coasts were full of Paris Photo Los Angeles for an entire week before early Instagrams began to appear from the Venice Biennale.

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Paris Photo Los Angeles

Paris Photo Los Angeles, 2015 official poster; Skyline Vista, 2014 © Matthew Porter, courtesy Matthew Porter and M+B Gallery
Paris Photo Los Angeles, 2015 official poster; Skyline Vista, 2014 © Matthew Porter, courtesy Matthew Porter and M+B Gallery

Paris Photo Los Angeles returns to Paramount Pictures Studios in Hollywood from May 1 to 3. In its third edition this year, Paris Photo LA includes 70 galleries with works by 265 artists. Exhibitors come from 17 countries and also include 9 publishers and specialized art book dealers.

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LACMA update

LACMA campus and La Brea Tar Pits. Image credit: Monica Almeida, The New York Times.
LACMA campus and the La Brea Tar Pits alongside Wilshire Boulevard. Photograph by Monica Almeida, The New York Times.

We recently explored LACMA’s new campus plans – codylee.co/lacma.
In short, architect Peter Zumthor has designed a massive new pavilion to replace a dysfunctional set of older buildings. However, officials from the Page Museum identified that Zumthor’s new building could encroach upon and damage the adjacent La Brea Tar Pits, which are an active paleontological research site with important deposits of Ice Age-era fossils.

Today, revised designs show Zumthor’s amoeba-like building sparing the tar pits and instead spreading across Wilshire Boulevard. This is insane bold.

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New Museum in LA: Petersen Automotive Museum

exterior view of the new Petersen Automotive Museum
exterior view of the new Petersen Automotive Museum

The Petersen Automotive Museum first opened in 1994 in a former department store building at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, across the street from LACMA and the forthcoming Academy Museum. It is one of the largest automotive museums in the world with a collection of more than 300 vehicles and other objects relating to the history of automobiles. Last summer, the Petersen announced a capital project to redesign its building to mark its 20th anniversary in 2014.

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New Museum in LA: The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

exterior view of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
exterior view of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

At the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, on the southwestern edge of LACMA’s campus, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is constructing the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. The project is led by Renzo Piano – the starchitect of LACMA’s adjacent Broad and Resnick pavilions – and will include a renovation of the landmarked May Company Building.

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New Museum in LA: LACMA

Chris Burden, Urban Light, installation view, LACMA

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is the largest art museum in the Western United States with more than 120,000 works in its permanent collection and more than 1 million visitors annually. Its collection is encyclopedic, its programs are exemplary, and its leadership is solid, but LACMA’s mid-Wilshire campus is a hot mess.

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New Museum in LA: The Broad

exterior view of The Broad, image via Diller Scofidio + Renfro
exterior view of The Broad, image via Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Eli Broad has been a primary benefactor of the LA art world for decades. He was the founding chairman of MOCA in 1979 and is a lifetime trustee. In 2008, The Broad Foundation gave MOCA a $30 million bailout after its endowment had been depleted. Broad is also a lifetime trustee at LACMA, where The Broad Foundation gave $60 million for the Renzo Piano-designed Broad Contemporary Art Museum building. In total, the Broads have given over $800 million to LA’s art institutions.

Simultaneously, the Broads and The Broad Art Foundation have developed a combined art collection of nearly 2,000 important modern and contemporary works. So, Eli Broad is building a new museum.

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