Last weekend we had some spare time on our hands so we decided to pay a visit the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). We’d had daughter No 1 over for a couple of weeks with a college friend and had been out doing lots of tourist stuff, so I felt in need of a bit of a culture fix again.
A month or so ago whilst venturing into downtown LA I had been enticed into the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) on one of it’s “free” afternoons - just as well it was free otherwise I might have asked for my money back under the Trade Descriptions Act. I’m sorry but I don’t consider three wooden steps covered in beige carpet or a dead bird in a disused hen house to be "art" – but there you go, what do I know?
However, at least LACMA sells itself as having a little bit of everything. It’s a vast space with nine separate buildings housing a variety of ancient and modern art from around the world - paintings, sculptures, artifacts, textiles. It was also my first opportunity to view some South and Central American art which was quite enlightening.
But the real highlight of the show was the contemporary galleries where I came across the work of the artist Jeff Koons. Now I’d never heard of Mr Koons but I recognized his work straight away – this is the guy who has made a fortune from his gold leaf painted porcelain statues of Michael Jackson and his pet chimp Bubbles, and who does a nice little line in large scale reproductions in stainless steel of blow up toys. In fact the centre piece of the exhibition was a very large metallic replica of a blue balloon poodle. Fascinating. Other works of Mr Koons on display included two plastic inflatable beach toys hanging off a metal fence, and a child’s sit on inflatable caterpillar wedged between the rungs of a stepladder. The man is a genious - how on earth did he get away with that one?
(If you want to see what I mean take a look at http://www.jeffkoons.com/site/index.html Popeye collection)
I’m not quite sure what goes on in Mr Koons’ head when he’s coming up with these designs but I suppose it does get you thinking and at least his work is bright, colourful and puts an ironic smile on your face. More than can be said for some of the other items on display. We hurried on past a large piece of black canvas hung on the wall at slightly irregular angle (I think that one was called Who Forgot the Spirit Level?) and came face to face with the White Hexagon - and yes it was exactly that - a hardboard hexagon painted white. I’m pretty sure the only thought in this artist’s head was what mug can I sell this piece to.
By the time we reached the giant sized tray of cat litter I’d had enough.
There will be plenty of people out there who will say I’m just a philistine who doesn’t know a Pablo Picasso from an Andy Warhol - well actually I do. I’m sorry but all this contemporary stuff just smacks a little too much of the tale of the Emperors’ Clothes for my liking.
Now whenever I do these posts I do usually like to start with a relevant photograph of whatever it is I’m harping on about. Unfortunately I didn’t take my camera to LACMA so I’ve just had to use my imagination and rustle up a little piece of my own to illustrate the type of work on display. Unfortunately I didn’t have any balloons, inflatables or cat litter to hand, but remember you saw this one first on LITLAB. It’s entitled Blue Square on White Paper and I’m hoping somebody out there will like it enough to make me an offer – starting bids anyone?
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