Learning to Love LA (again): Part Four—Seeing the Geffen
October 25th 2010 06:00 am
I apologize for taking too long to complete the Learning to Love LA (again) series that I started on April 21. I have so many blog ideas that I often get distracted, but I’m determined to finish the last two posts because I love art and because I need to love LA again. For a reminder of where I last left off, I recommend reading Part Three—Visiting the MOCA.
I didn’t know it when I planned my excursion, 
but apparently when you buy a ticket to the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), you receive free admission to The Geffen Contemporary. A DASH ride away, the Geffen includes pieces from MOCA’s permanent collection as well as touring exhibitions. Of course, I was there to see the Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years. I have selected some of my favorite pieces as well as my least favorite for your reading and viewing pleasure.
I was immediately drawn to Richard Hawkins‘ Disembodied Zombie Skeet Pink. The inkjet print transforms actor Skeet Ulrich into multiple dimensions, as the piece has a 3-D feel to it. What I like most about Skeet Pink is that it seems like an odd representation of me and my sister Adrienne. At first glance, it appears dark, edgy, mysterious, but if you look closer, you will discover the playfulness, the sensitivity, the woe. When I turned my back, I could feel Skeet’s empty eyes following me.
Barbara Kruger’s Untitled (It’s a small world but not if you have to clean it) is pop art at its best. At 143 x 103 inches, this photographic silkscreen on vinyl covers an entire wall; it’s impossible to miss. With the magnifying glass held against her eye, the woman seems to stare directly at you and the message seems specifically for you. With “small” and “world” in a much larger font and the half-opened smile, you sense Kruger’s intended irony. Even the title—Untitled—with the real title in parentheses mocks you, but I love it when art and the artist make me laugh.
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Six Crimee, a 72 x 144-inch acrylic and oil stick on masonite piece, scares me. When I first saw the green imagery with black scrawls that resemble people, I thought—Basquiat looked into my brain and captured my nightmares. The numbers and lines and halos made me shudder. You know how there are certain words that always have a negative connotation? Well, I think the same idea holds true in art. Six Crimee is cold, empty, grim, and frightening. I don’t like it, but I kept going back to see the dark side of my dreams.
Initially, John Baldessari’s Two Highrises (with Disruptions)/ Two Witnesses (Red and Green) appears to be an odd tribute to the terrorist attacks on 9/11—except that he created this 98 x 68-inch piece in 1990. Composed of color photographs and vinyl paint, Two Highrises/Two Witnesses forces you to think about the situation. Where are the people standing? Are they watching the event happen in front of them? Why are their faces blocked out? If red means stop and green means go, what does that say about the two highrises that explode into flames? I don’t have any of the answers, but I enjoy art that makes me question the world around me.
My nomination for the worst piece of “art” in MOCA’s collection (far worse than Cy Twombly) goes to Thomas Hirschhorn’s Non-Lieux (meaning non-site or non-places). Hirschhorn says, “I don’t make political art; I make art politically.” Well, I say he makes crap. Unlike the Baldessari piece, this mountain of candle wax (didn’t my friend make this “art” in college?) complete with a photographic collage and flags bearing the word democracy is a tribute to 9/11, and I’m sure it took a long time to finish. However, as I used to tell my students, you are not graded on effort, you earn your score based on your work. Despite Hirschhorn’s attempt to visually capture the various facets of the aftermath of 9/11, he gets an “F” in my book.
To see more artists and their works, I recommend viewing my MOCA Picasa Web album.
AWW — XoXo
P.S. Learning to Love LA (again): Part Five—Ending the Day is coming soon! (No seriously, it is.)
my God, i thought you were going to chip in with some decisive insght at the end there, not leave it
with ‘we leave it to you to decide’.
branchenbuch on 25 Oct 2010 at 10:00 pm #
Margot–I should have given more insight, but truthfully, I was quite tired when I posted this blog. Thank you for your brutal, yet honest, commentary.
Andrea on 04 Nov 2010 at 6:57 am #