A certain strain of contemporary art has examined, or taken inspiration from, the aesthetics and pulp visions of the American comic book – of course the Pop art movement and influential artists like Lichtenstein and Rauschenberg come to mind. Comics have also influenced American cinema, a trend I’m not terribly fond of, and the latest comic book to hit the…
As an aficionado of modernist aesthetics and goals, my heart took flight when I read that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was offering an important new exhibit on modernism, The Modern West. LACMA claims The Modern West offers “a fresh and innovative look at modernism through a very personal lens,” however, in the museum’s publicity, the use of…
I know that public memorials to a nation’s war dead are usually erected after a conflict, but lately I’ve been thinking that it’s time for American artists to begin seriously contemplating what an Iraq War Memorial might look like. As of this writing, 3,154 American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq. Years ago I visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial…
Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution, opens March 4th, 2007 at the Geffen Contemporary of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and runs until July 16th, 2007. Organized by MOCA curator Connie Butler, the show features artworks created from 1965 to 1980, by 100 women focused on the status and liberation of women. In one attempt to capture the…
I find an odd prescience in the “Target” paintings of Jasper Johns. While some gush madly over his works and others are simply indifferent – there is another story to relate, an untold chronicle that details the corporatization of American culture and the dumping of recent history “down the memory hole.” Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955-1965, is a…
Americans for the Arts is a leading nonprofit organization that advances the arts in the United States. With offices in Washington, DC, and New York City, it has a record of more than 45 years of service. On February 5, 2007, Americans for the Arts President and CEO Robert L. Lynch, responded to the Bush administration’s fiscal year 2008 Arts…
Online streaming videos are now available for Siqueiros: The Art of Censorship, a recent speakers forum about David Alfaro Siqueiros, his murals, Los Angeles history, and public art. Held November 9th, 2006, at the Los Angeles Times Harry Chandler Auditorium, the forum was produced by CauseConnect and attended by some 300 persons. Speakers included Luis Garza—the instigator behind the future…
Shams (Arabic for “Sun”) is a popular female Kuwaiti singer who has just released a controversial song titled, Ahlan Ezayak (or “Hi! How are you!”) Accompanied by a slick MTV-like video that lambastes George W. Bush and his occupation of Iraq, the song has become all the rage in the Middle East. Shams croons in the Khaliji style, one of…
