In my previous post I promised more about ‘foresty things’ at LACMA. So here goes. In this photo of the Cantor Sculpture garden you can see at the very back, part of the Urban Light installation, which, in my previous post I likened to an urban forest. The Cantor Garden is more soothing, but fans of Auguste Rodin should know that the entire Burghers of Calais–not just the single figures on view here at LACMA–stands in front of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.
Yellow “forest” for kids
The next ‘foresty’ thing, well, ‘rain foresty’ is the large and whimsical installation in the main plaza at LACMA. For thousands of children this participatory installation of plastic tubing is their introduction to art. And they love it! Little children also love Metropolis II, which I wrote about the the previous post, but it is a hands-off exhibition. I don’t know what the name of the yellow tubing artwork is, but I think of it as ‘raining sunshine.”
Photos and videos at LACMA
This day-long visit to LACMA started with interest in viewing the Hockney videos of the English Countryside.
There were three other photographic and video exhibitions at the museum, I should mention.
1) See the Light is an enormous overview of photography from the early 1840s through to today. Two images by my favorite photographer, Max Yavno, are included in this comprehensive show.
2) As Far As I Could Get is a small show of the painterly photographs of John Divola. Very nice.
And 3) Under the Mexican Sky, a retrospective of the films of Gabriel Figueroa, just didn’t touch me the way several other exhibits did. Perhaps it was because it was the last one I visited and I was getting tired and hungry.
This photo is of the old Plaza at LACMA on a Saturday afternoon in early January. Nothing to do with forests; I just like the photo. And the Plaza is much quieter now that there is another one on the other side of the Ahmanson Building near the Urban Light installation.
The old plaza at LACMA is much quieter now that there is a second one to the West of it. And as of, 2021, LACMA has changed again, as the rebuilding continues. These photos will maybe become part of a historic record of the way LACMA used to be.
Note: Since I wrote this LACMA is being rebuilt and it has changed significantly as some buildings have been demolished. This change is not for the better in my opinion. This post is about the past.
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