A specter is haunting the City of Los Angeles – the specter of social realism in art. That spirit stalks Olvera Street, the city’s oldest boulevard; the ghostly apparition is not a lost soul from one of the original inhabitants of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles (The Town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels), the…
I had the good fortune to see Gustav Klimt: The Magic of Line, at the J. Paul Getty Museum of Los Angeles, California. It is the first exhibition devoted exclusively to the drawings of the Austrian painter and leading member of the Vienna Secession movement. Marking the 150th anniversary of Klimt’s birth, the Albertina Museum of Vienna, Austria, loaned over…
I am thrilled to announce the October 9, 2012 public unveiling of David Alfaro Siqueiros’ fully preserved 1932 mural América Tropical, at the site of the mural’s original location, a rooftop wall at the Italian Hall located on Los Angeles’ historic Olvera Street. Concurrent with the unveiling of the mural will be the official public opening of Olvera Street’s América…
“Here they talked of revolution Here it was they lit the flame Here they sang about tomorrow And tomorrow never came.” Empty Chairs At Empty Tables – from Alain Boublil’s libretto for the musical, Les Misérables.
“Some think that so much of today’s art mirrors and thus criticizes decadence, not so – it’s just decadent, full stop. It has no critical function, it is part of the problem. The art world beautifully copies our money driven, celebrity obsessed, entertainment culture; same fixation on fame, same obedience to mass media that jostles for our attention with its…
There are those who credit the Tate Modern in London for being in the vanguard of promoting and collecting “cutting edge” postmodern art. A 2010 installation at the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is often mentioned in that context. Working with the Tate, Ai had assistants cover the entire Turbine Hall floor with over 100 million…
In 2005 I created a small oil painting depicting striking workers huddled together in the early morning light in preparation for the day’s labor rallies and picket lines. The painting was inspired by the numerous strikes I had personally witnessed in the City of Los Angeles over the years. Titled Amanecer (Spanish for “Dawn”), my painting was a glimpse of…
This article is a critique of For Greater Glory, the latest film by director Dean Wright that purports to tell the true story of the Cristero War, the armed uprising of Catholics against the Mexican government that began in 1926 and lasted until the late 1930s. Touted as a “sweeping historic epic,” the film presents only the viewpoints of the…
