Current and coming - Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 2000 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

California art and design

In what is claimed to be the largest exhibition ever mounted at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, nine curatorial and programming departments there have collaborated on a show that examines how the state of California has identified and promoted itself through art, design, and items of everyday popular culture over the course of the last century. The exhibition of some twelve hundred objects is entitled Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity: 1900-2000 and is on view from October 22 through February 25, 2001. The wide variety of works represented include paintings, sculpture, photographs, prints, decorative arts, costumes, videos, and three period-room installations. Some four hundred posters, tourist brochures, labor pamphlets, and documentary photographs elaborate on the themes treated in the exhibition. Installed throughout the exhibition are sixteen film and multimedia stations, two music stations, and three mural reconstructions commissioned by the museum. The exhibition is made possible throu gh a grant from the S. Mark Taper Foundation.

There are five sections, each confined to two decades of the twentieth century. The early years of the state's history are marked by the concept of California as a dream destination with infinite agricultural potential. The theme of racial and ethnic diversity is addressed throughout each section of the show, since California has always been a haven for immigrants. This diversity is also reflected in the art created by California artists. California's ideal climate and the glamour and creativity associated with the film industry have contributed to its reputation as a tolerant environment for dissenters and those who choose to live life by their own rules. The examination of this aspect reveals that one of our most populous and geographically vast states has contributed much to the fabric and artistic heritage of the nation.

The exhibition is accompanied by a two-volume catalogue by Stephanie Barron, Sheri Bernstein, and Ilene Susan Fort with contributions by Michael Dera, Howard N. Fox, and Richard Rodriguez. It is co-published by the museum and the University of California Press and may be obtained by telephoning 328-857-6146.

Art nouveau in Washington, D.C.

The enormous and highly acclaimed show Art Nouveau, 1890-1914, organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where it was on view this summer, has been recast in a slightly different guise at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it is on view from October 8 through January 28, 2001. A core group of objects from the London show has been brought to Washington where it is supplemented by new exhibits. The exhibition is underwritten by the DaimlerChiysler Corporation Fund.

One of the most international of styles, the art nouveau movement took root seemingly everywhere in different manifestations and intensities. The Washington exhibition explores its global impact with emphasis on eight cities: Paris (generally considered the birthplace of the style), Brussels, Glasgow, Vienna and Munich, Turin, New York City, and Chicago. The sinuous lines and whiplash curves that are widely recognized as the hallmarks of the style were not universally adopted. In some locales a more rectilinear approach held sway, and in such cities as Chicago both were employed. The diverse roots of art nouveau include Japanese and Chinese art, the natural world, and geometry; their combinations and recombinations in different locations make this show, and indeed the art nouveau style, particularly fascinating.

The 350 works on view represent the work of 150 artists and craftsmen and include paintings sculptures, works on paper, glass ceramics, textiles, furniture, jewelry, and architectural elements (including a room designed by Agostino Lauro, illustrated at left, and a lunch room from Miss Cranston's Ingram Street Tearooms in Glasgow designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh).

The catalogue of the exhibition, edited by Paul Greenhalgh, includes contributions by twenty-two international scholars. Iris co-published by the National Gallery and Harry N. Abrams and is available by telephoning 301-322-5900 or 800-697-9350.

Utopian visions

The pursuit of the perfect society--utopia--is as old as the recorded history of man and has occupied the thoughts of philosophers, writers, artists, and statesmen for millenniums. The dawn of the present millennium has been the catalyst for a number of exhibitions on this subject. One of the most intriguing of these is the result of a collaboration between the New York Public Library and the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris, where it was on view this summer. Entitled Utopia: The Search for the Ideal Society in the Western World, the show opens at the library in New York City on October 14 where it remains on view through January 27, 2001. It is comprised of some 550 objects, including books, manuscripts, drawings, prints, maps, and photographs from the two institutions, which both have particularly rich and complementary collections.