Written on: Monday, March 30th, 2009 | Filed under:
Blog, Events
| Art Chat
With a major renovation completed earlier this year and a growing number of high-profile events under its belt, the L.A. Mart Design Center has stepped out onto the big stage. Secret? Not for long
By Judy Seckler
Over the last ten years, Downtown L.A. has seen a remarkable transformation from a bland center of office towers and civic buildings to a living, breathing community. At the forefront of the movement has been the L.A. Mart Design Center, Downtown L.A.’s—and quite possibly Greater L.A. itself’s—best kept secret.
Written on: Thursday, March 26th, 2009 | Filed under:
Blog, Cuisine
| Art Chat
[Image courtesy of Jeff Gordon]
Art and Living’s Artisanal Wine and Cheese Correspondents explore NASCAR great Jeff Gordon’s viticultural offerings
By Matthew Goldfarb and Barrie Lynn – The Cheese Impresario
Drinking and driving is a bad combination, right? Under most circumstances the answer is resoundingly “yes!” However—and you cringe as we say however—in this specific instance, it seems to go hand-in-hand. Not actually at the same time, but yes, hand-in-hand.
[Chris Edwards, Scott Butler, Gretchen Bender, and Chris Carnes. Photo: Brandy Rawlins]
Evening nets $20,000 for Queen of the Valley Medical Center’s CARE Network Program
The 21st annual Napa Valley Academy Awards Gala and Black T-shirt Extravaganza, held February 22 at Robert Mondavi Winery, raised more than $20,000 to benefit HIV, AIDS and other chronically ill patients served by Queen of the Valley Medical Center’s CARE Network.
The event featured viewing of the Academy Awards ceremony, samplings of cuisine from 30 Napa Valley restaurants, entertainment by actor/comedian Bob Sarlatte, a silent and live auction, and dancing. Approximately 300 people attended the event.
[Center, Left to Right: Lowe Taylor, Rick Segall. Background, Left to Right: Leslie Stevens, Gabrielle Wagner and Gregory Franklin]
Yes, Art and Living does theater reviews. Here’s our first one
By Jeff Marinelli
Divorce! The Musical is definitely a play for everyone—absolutely brilliant! I haven’t had this much fun in a musical in a long time. If you’re single, you should go to see what you have to look forward to; if you’re married, you should go see how to avoid an unwanted end to your union; if you’re divorced, you should go for a little perspective on what you have been through. The acting and lyrics to the musical captured me and the audience the entire time without missing a beat.
Written on: Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 | Filed under:
Blog, Events
| Art Chat
[Sony CEO Michael Lynton, Chairman of CalArts Board of Trustees Austin Beutner, and actress Natalie Portman. Photo by Stefanie Keenan/WireImage. Courtesy of REDCAT]
Event honors contemporary artist Barry McGee, among others
On March 14, REDCAT (the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater) in Downtown Los Angeles marked its 5th Anniversary as one of the most prominent cultural centers in Los Angeles with a gala honoring contemporary artist Barry McGee. Artist Mark Bradford provided a tribute.
[Left to right: Ronald Davis, Ron Cooper, Robert Dean Stockwell, Dennis Hopper, and Larry Bell]
Actor and artist Dennis Hopper curates two exhibitions to honor long-time Taos friendships—and to mark the 40th anniversary of Easy Rider
Dennis Hopper first set foot (or wheels, as the case may be) in Taos, New Mexico in 1968 while directing one of the 60s’ most powerfully iconic visions, Easy Rider, a film that looked so real, felt so raw, and sounded so good it helped define a social movement—and, some may say, the way a nation saw itself.
For the next 15 years, Hopper pretty much made Taos home, taking up residence at the Mabel Dodge Luhan house, continuing Mabel’s tradition of hosting the best, brightest, and surely the most off-beat of his generation.
[Blake Edwards at the opening of his PDC exhibition]
The Art of Blake Edwards: A Retrospective of Sculpture and Paintings 1969 - 2008
By Gail Feingarten Oppenheimer, Curator
Everybody has always known Blake Edwards as a successful writer, producer, and director of film, but very few people knew about his secret passion for painting and sculpting. I have known him for 35 years and had no idea how many paintings he had created and stored while also making successful films. I knew he had about ten paintings stashed in the closets but, through the years, that number grew to hundreds. His art has even ventured into three dimensions; in 1983, when Blake was doing a movie about a sculptor, he started creating the sculpture himself. The quality of the art is so extraordinary.
Written on: Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 | Filed under:
Art
| Art Chat
An elegant, doe-eyed Natalie Wood sitting strong and confident in a shoulder pad-imbued dress; artist David Hockney afloat in a boat amid a placid English lake; sculptor Robert Graham in the studio awash in the stains of pliable clay; a self-absorbed Andy Warhol curled up in a massive fur; punk-poet Henry Rollins reading a Wall Street Journal on fire. These are only some of the legendary images that graced the Palm Springs Art Museum’s walls during celebrated Hollywood photographer Michael Childers’ 2003 career retrospective.
The show represented a bygone era when Childers, knee deep in the entertainment industry lifestyle and alongside his director-partner John Schlesinger, was able to turn his intimate relationships with cultural icons and his inimitable ability to yell ”Fabulous, yes!” into breathtaking images. These were the days when, as an Interview magazine photographer, he captured the essence, rebellion and freedom of rock and film stardom. Over the ensuing decades, Childers’ career began to shift.
Written on: Monday, March 9th, 2009 | Filed under:
Blog, Art
| Art Chat
[Jacopo Bassano (Jacopo da Ponte), “The Flight into Egypt,” c. 1544–45. Oil on canvas. Norton Simon Art Foundation]
Two powerhouse museums create an unprecedented loan program
By Diane Dunne
On view at the New York’s Frick Collection through May 10th are five 16th- and 17th-century masterpieces, none of which have, in over thirty years, left their home at Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum, an institution noted for seldom lending works of art from its collection.
The five featured paintings were specifically selected by the Frick’s Associate Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Colin B. Bailey as iconic examples from the important California museum, and they happen to be works by artists not represented in the Frick: Jacopo Bassano’s brilliant Flight into Egypt (c. 1544-45), Peter Paul Rubens’s admirable Holy Women at the Sepulcher (c.1611-14), Giovanni Francesco Barbieri’s (Guercino) striking Aldrovandi Dog (c. 1625), Francisco de Zurbaran’s extraordinary Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose (c.1633), and Bartolome Esteban Murillo’s touching Birth of Saint John the Baptist (c. 1660). These five artists are in the first tier of the finest Flemish, Italian and Spanish European master painters.
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