Becher, Sander, Hockney, CLUI, Goodreads
David Hockney -- Pearblossom Hwy., 11 - 18th April 1986, #2
The Getty Museum
I was in Los Angeles over the 4th of July weekend, and made a trip to the Getty Museum to see the photography exhibits including:
- Bernd and Hilla Becher - framework houses are subtle and cool. I wish the prints were bigger, but it's lovely to see these in person.
- August Sander - a formidable collection of Sander portraits, extensive and wonderful as long as you skip the trite written material and just focus on the images. A must see if you're interested in portrait photography.
- Ten Years in Focus - connecting painting to photography, this small exhibit was quite good, and contains a rare painting by Walker Evans, and the original 6 by 9 foot Hockney image above that completely blew me away. I cannot remember the last time I was so moved by a work of art. Pearblossom has been in storage for almost 10 years, and is only on display for another month. Here's a video of Hockney. Photographers call it a painting. Painters call it a photograph. That's worth paying attention to.
Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI)
After the Getty we headed over to CLUI in Culver City to see the latest exhibit on trash. Extra points for the banana peel on a pedestal. CLUI's small but focused bookstore selection is always a treat, and has more than what's listed in their online store. I picked up Jan Staller's excellent book On Planet Earth, a reissue of John C. Van Dyke's often referred to 1898 book The Desert: Further Studies in Natural Appearances, and a brilliant new book from the Walker Art Center, Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes that is essential reading for anyone working in the post new-topographics continuum.
Goodreads
If you're an avid reader, check out goodreads.com -- a social networking site for sharing what you're reading with your friends. If you decide to join, or are already a member of the site, feel free to add me as a friend. I just finished reading my bookclub's selection for the month, Kurt Vonnegut's Bluebeard, which was an extremely nice follow up to Jed Perl's rant against the modern museum experience that I referenced last week.