Agnes Martin Retrospective at LACMA

Agnes Martin Retrospective at LACMA

One of the wonderful things about being a member of LACMA, is being able to see exhibits before they open to the public. The first Agnes Martin retrospective in the US since 1992 was one of those exhibits.

On display from April 24, 2016–September 11, 2016, this extensive exhibition covers the full breadth of her practice, revealing her early and little-known experiments with different media and tracing her development from biomorphic abstraction to the mesmerizing grids and striped canvases that became her hallmark.

Agnes Bernice Martin was born in Canada, but lived her entire adult life in the US. She is often referred to as a minimalist, but she considered herself an abstract expressionist. Her work has been defined as an "essay in discretion, inwardness and silence," while to me, her work gives me a sense of calm, wonder and introspection.

Martins simple, clean geometric paintings are made in pale brush strokes of color that are lined with pencil.  Her work emerged from her Abstract Expressionist inspiration, yet at the same time precedes the Minimalist movement. 

One thing to note about that Martin's paintings is that while they're repetitive in with their patterns, she was not striving for perfection—rather, influenced by Taoist and other eastern philosophies, she felt her paintings were a reflection of the complex patterns of nature. 

When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection. - Agnes Martin

Ana Lydia

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Made in LA Exhibit at the Hammer Museum

Made in LA Exhibit at the Hammer Museum

I was honored to attend the VIP preview for the third installment of the Hammer Museum's Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only, which is multifaceted exhibit that features condensed monographic surveys, comprehensive displays of multiyear projects, the premiere of new bodies of work, and newly commissioned works from emerging artists.

Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only presents Los Angeles as a center of activity inseparable from the global network of art production and reveals how artists move fluidly between contexts and respond to their local conditions. Subtitled by the minimalist poet and writer Aram Saroyan as his contribution to the exhibition, Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only extends into art disciplines such as dance, fashion, literature, music, film, and performance.

These pictures are just a small representation of the variety of artists from different disciplinary backgrounds that shape the overall Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only exhibition.

Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only is organized by Hammer curator Aram Moshayedi and Hamza Walker, Director of Education and Associate Curator at the Renaissance Society in Chicago. This cross disciplinary study of art in Los Angeles Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only includes 26 contributing artists and participants. will be on display from June 19, 2016 to August 28.

Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only is also accompanied by a robust schedule of free public
programs, including live performances, film screenings, a music series, conversations among
participating artists, and student events. (View here: www.hammer.ucla.edu)

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Visiting the Hammer Museum in Westwood Village

Visiting the Hammer Museum in Westwood Village

September is a huge month in the Los Angeles Art world.

Many exhibits are closing this month, new exhibits have been announced, and this year a new museum is opening in Downtown Los Angeles.

But unlike everyone else that is going to be recommending the obvious, or simply ra-ra over a new museum opening, I want to tell you about a museum that you have probably never been too - even if you live or work in the area:

The Hammer Museum located in Westwood Village.

Let's get the most pressing doubt out of the way: But it's Westwood....

Yes it is.

So yes, you will be stuck in unbearable traffic on the 405 or Wilshire Blvd. to get to the Hammer Museum.

BUT, then you can just park in the museums own parking lot ($3 parking with validation) and not pay a dollar to get into the museum.  You visit the museum 12 times? You earn a Participate level membership.

The Hammer Museum also has a beautiful courtyard and restaurant, which means that even if you don't dine at Ammo, you can bring your coffee or lunch and sit in one of the awesome swinging chairs (that you can also buy if you feel so inclined to do so).

But let's talk about the various collections in Hammer Museum, both permanent and special exhibits: The Hammer Museum offers the most stylistically eclectic art collection in Los Angeles. Period.

From its curated Classical Art collection, to Avant Garde media abstractions, each floor at the Hammer Museum allows us to see how artists from different backgrounds and periods in time, and how they see the world around them.

A few of my favorite exhibits that are ending soon are: Perfect Likeness: Photography and Composition, which ends today (9/13): Mark Bradford: Scorched Earth, ending on 9/26; and, the Afghan Carpet Project, ending on 9/27.

Of course you can't miss the Armand Hammer Collection of classical Art pieces ranging from European paintings from such renowned artists such as Paul Cezanne and Gustave Moreau, to early American works from artists such as George Bellows; and the largest collection of Honoré Daumier pieces. 

Besides exhibits, the Hammer Museum also schedules special events and movie screenings; sometimes free, but other times fee-based. One of my favorite is the Art Talk, which is a 15-minute art discussion every Wednesday at 12:30 p.m.

Check-out their calendar for event dates and more information.

Ana Lydia

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Visiting the Phoenix Art Museum

Visiting the Phoenix Art Museum

When I finalized my trip to attend Phoenix Fashion Week, I connected with my friends Marissa and Aggie to plan time to see each-other during my short stay in Arizona. Thankfully, these ladies are absolutely amazing and planned a YUMMY South West Breakfast, where I got to meet the LOVELY Sophie Kay and nuzzle with the cuteness that she is.

After breakfast, Marissa took me to the Phoenix Art Museum to meet her horse (You'll see what I mean later on), touch my first Palo Verde, walk in the middle of the sky (video at end of post), and see the Frida Kahlo commissioned painting "The Suicide of Dorothy Kay." As a huge museum nerd and art fan, it made me so happy to be surrounded by so many beautiful works of art, at what happens to be the largest museum in the South West.

Some of the exhibits that I saw included the permanent Contemporary Collection, which is the most active and growing area in the museum.

We were also given a tour of the "From New York to New Mexico, Masterworks of American Modernism from the Vilcek Foundation Collection," which is on display until September 7, 2015.

It was there that I was introduced to the works of American modernist painter Marsden Hartley and saw my first Georgia O'Keefe sculpture.

We also saw the "One-of-Kind, Unique Photographic Objects from the Center for Creative Photography," which unfortunately I couldn't document with photos. But I do want to share the names, quotes and/or a quick overview from the photographers that spoke to me:

I was trained as a painter and was drawing with photographic detail and large scale before picking up a camera for the first time. As this body of work evolved, I got to envision the making of the negatives as drawing with light. - Patricia White  

The negative is like the composites score and the print is like the performance. Not only is each print (even from the same negative) a necessarily distinctive object, but that variation between orients was a desirable reflection of the changing mood and experience of the artist. - Ansel Adams 

Betty Hahn - Used her photographs as a canvas, and decorated each picture with her paintings or drawings to create a unique visual perspective on simple panoramas.

These are just some of the highlights from my visit to the Phoenix Art Museum, that also included a stop at the Museum Store - and of course I picked-up some goodies. My favorite? I GORGOUS summer scarf that I promise to share picture of very soon!

It goes without saying that I'm looking forward to visiting the museum again and spending time at the sculpture garden and viewing the fashion collection - which I didn't get to see this time around.

Learn more about the Phoenix Art Museum and their current exhibits here: https://www.facebook.com/phxart

Ana Lydia

P.S. Marissa and I walked in the sky!

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Coloring Books for Adults

Coloring Books for Adults

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post that also includes affiliate links.

Have you heard about adults getting together to have a glass a wine, nosh, dish, and color?

Well, now you have....

On a recent weekend I hosted a couple of friends for a relaxing evening at home that included every gals fave's: good wine, mixed fruity drinks, sweets...and coloring books!

My friends and I each picked our own page from one of the two books I received from the publisher: Paisleys: Coloring for Artists or Mandalas Coloring for Everyone.

Once we picked our page, we selected our colors from my stash of crayons, coloring pencils and markers. It was quite fun to see what colors we each gravitated to and whether or not we stuck to a color theme.

The Coloring for Everyone page, as you can imagine, was completed in a couple of hours, while the Coloring for Artists pages were a bit more challenging and more time consuming, albeit just as fun.

I also loved that the pages in these coloring books are perforated, one sided and thick enough to display in a frame once we completed our masterpieces. 

My first masterpiece!

Two other coloring books are also available in this four-book series: Mandalas: Coloring for Artists Paisleys: Coloring for Everyone. Each coloring book includes eleven pages of full-color designs that illustrate the design and coloring of these motifs.

The act of coloring forced us to put aside our worries, reignited our imagination and got us back in touch with our creative soul...which is, in my book, a perfect evening that's worth repeating - SOON!

Ana Lydia

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