I spent some time wandering around the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) campus after checking out the exhibits inside. Here are some photos using my Diana camera of The Pavilion for Japanese Art.
The building above and below, The Pavilion for Japanese Art, is really intriguing. It was designed by architect Bruce Goff in 1978, though it seems more like something you would see from the 1960's. The fact that it is within sight of The La Brea Tar Pits, has abundant use of stone, and has ornamentation on the roof that could double as wooly mammoth tusks, helps to give it that Flintstones aesthetic.
But at the same time, it's whimsical and modern with the flow of the circulation emulating that of the Guggenheim Museum in New York by spiraling from top to bottom, though on a smaller scale. So in that regard, it points to another Hanna-Barbera creation, The Jetsons.
In reading up on Bruce Goff, I realized that we visited one of his earlier creations in the Art Deco style, The Boston Avenue Methodist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma last summer. It's interesting to note just how different the two buildings are. You can check out some photos we took of The Boston Avenue Methodist Church at Lulu's Vintage.
Pavilion for Japanese Art - LACMA
Pavilion for Japanese Art - LACMA
Shown below is a shot I took of the Resnick Pavilion on the LACMA campus. The white sawtooth fins control natural light allowing only the more subdued northern light to enter the building. Also of note is the bright red mechanical system.
Resnick Pavilion - LACMA
The next two photos were taken along the back side of the Hammer Building on the LACMA campus. It had just rained earlier that afternoon. I really enjoy the green-blue color of the sky with the profiles of the trees in the foreground.
Hammer Building - LACMA
Hammer Building - LACMA
Rounding out my stroll around the LACMA campus I wandered through the adjacent Hancock Park. That's the Variety building in the background with an unidentified critter in the foreground - perhaps a saber tooth tiger.
Another installation to stop by outside of LACMA is Urban Light by Chris Burden. According to LACMA, the collection of 202 cast iron street lights once lit the streets of Los Angeles and were all purchased, restored, and painted the same neutral shade of gray by artist Chris Burden. This enables the viewer to take note of the variety of profiles and detailing of the light fixtures. At dusk, the lights are turned on, powered by solar energy.
Anne and I recently returned from Los Angeles. While Anne was taking part in covering the TCM Classic Film Festival, check out her coverage at Lulu's Vintage, I spent my time wandering around Los Angeles checking out museums and other destinations. I brought along my Diana camera and just got these developed photos back from Blue Moon Camera in St. Johns - Portland. Over the coming days and weeks I'll be posting some photos from the trip.
One of our primary destinations while in Los Angeles was to visit LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). I can easily say that this was one of the better museums I have ever been to. We were lucky enough to visit during a couple of excellent exhibits: Metropolis II by Chris Burden, In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States, California Design 1930 - 1965 "Living in a Modern Way", Fracture: Daido Moriyama, not to mention taking in the strong permanent collection on display.
Just outside the Ahmanson Building on the LACMA campus, is this sculpture entitled Penetrabile by Jesus Rafael Soto. In doing some research about this piece I stumbled across LACMA's blog which has a nice explanation about the sculpture.
To provide a couple of brief stats on the Penetrabile sculpture: 20,000 linear feet of specially manufactured plastic tubing is employed in the creation of this piece of 2,000 - 2,500 suspended tubes.
The interactive quality of this piece is great - you can't help but being drawn in to experience the space and sensation of all of these suspended plastic tubes. While we were visiting there were several people exploring the piece including some children who were having a lot of fun running through the piece.
This is a fascinating kinetic sculpture by artist Chris Burden called Metropolis II (below). It is currently on exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
The sculpture's name alone conjures comparisons with the 1927 German Expressionist film Metropolis by Fritz Lang (below).
I really enjoy the spaces and relationships that are created between buildings, roadway, track and how the circulating vehicles approach and weave through the model of this 21st Century City.
I've always had an appreciation for model railroad sets and seeing the scaled versions of places that people create. Most model railroad scenes take place in a nostalgic period of Americana and the heyday of the railroad in the United States. Part of what makes this sculpture so interesting to me is that the artist applied the concept of model railroads, cars, and buildings to a futuristic time period. While watching the video about the Metropolis II that I posted below, I was really intrigued by all of the cars zipping and whirring around contrasted with the slow, steady movement of the trains lazily winding their way.
Not to be missed are the specifications of the sculpture:
Height: 9 feet, 9 inches
Width: 28 feet, 3 inches
Depth: 19 feet, 2 inches
Materials used: Three ½ hp DC motors with motor controllers, 1100 custom manufactured die-cast cars, 13 HO-scale train sets with controllers and tracks, steel, aluminum, shielded copper wire, copper sheet, brass, various plastics, assorted woods and manufactured wood products, Legos, Lincoln Logs, Dado Cubes, glass, ceramic and natural stone tiles, acrylic and oil-base paints, rubber, sundry adhesives.
If you can't make it to the exhibit, check out this video on the piece. Don't miss the end of the video with a camera mounted on top one of the trains providing a unique perspective through the sculpture.
