Newsletter: Essential Arts & Culture: The loss of an L.A. patron, the future of freeways, art in the time of unrest
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It may be the middle of summer, but we are rich in stories about the arts — many of which touch on the moment in which we are living. I’m Carolina A. Miranda, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, and this is your essential guide to the week’s top culture stories:
Elyse Grinstein, an architect, arts patron and co-founder of the internationally renowned Los Angeles printmaking studio Gemini G.E.L. died at the age of 87. “She was a true humanist who was always exploring new ideas in her work and giving other artists a safe harbor to do the same in theirs,” architect Frank Gehry tells reporter Deborah Vankin. Los Angeles Times
A daring proposal from Los Angeles architect Michael Maltzan reimagines a stretch of the Arroyo Seco Bridge in Pasadena as a site that wouldn’t serve only as a roadway, but as a place that could harvest solar energy and help filter the air. It’s the first of a two-part series by architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne that looks at the ways in which freeways might better serve the communities they often divide. Los Angeles Times
In a terrifically searing essay, critic Ben Davis has parsed the art world’s reactions to “Brexit” and found them lacking. “ ‘The future’ can appear as an optimistic beacon only if you stand on its jet-setting winning side,” he writes. “There’s a perilous lack of self-awareness here.” Artnet
John Leguizamo’s historical show
Actor John Leguizamo takes on the topic of learning in his latest stage production for the Berkeley Rep — looking at the ways in which Latinos are and aren’t represented in the history books. But Times theater critic Charles McNulty says the show could use a bit more study: “Latin History for Morons,” as the show is titled, “hasn’t yet come into focus.” Los Angeles Times
Gun control takes center stage
“Church and State,” a new play by Jason Odell Williams at the Skylight Theatre in Los Feliz tackles the issue of gun control via the story of a political candidate who is having a change of heart on the issue. The pointed narrative preaches to the converted, writes critic F. Kathleen Foley, but a committed cast and able direction make for “subtle and gripping entertainment.” Los Angeles Times
How the arts speak to our times
Which brings me to the week’s news — which has been impossible to ignore. The videotaped deaths of two unarmed men at the hands of police, followed by a horrifying massacre that took the lives of five police officers in Dallas, has left the nation reeling. But a pair of essential works of art deftly deal with these topics in the Los Angeles context — and tell us a lot about the moment in which we’re living.
The first is the Underground Museum’s ongoing exhibition “Non-Fiction,” which explores themes of violence toward African Americans — a small gathering of works that pack a historical wallop. (Times critic Christopher Knight described the show in his review as an “elegiac tone poem.”) The Underground Museum
The second is director Ezra Edelman’s staggeringly good documentary series “O.J.: Made in America,” which I happen to be in the middle of streaming. It’s a profound look at the intersection of histories (political, racial, regional, athletic and otherwise) that turned the O.J. Simpson trial into a media-soaked bellwether on race and policing. Times TV critic Mary McNamara describes it as a work that is able to “show all sides of this history,” while film critic Kenneth Turan writes that it’s “so perceptive, empathetic and compelling you want it never to end.” A must-see. ESPN
In other news
— The Los Angeles Opera saw a spike in ticket sales for its 100th anniversary season — a nearly 20% increase, reports David Ng. The new season kicks off in September, with a performance of Verdi’s “Macbeth.” Los Angeles Times
— Leadership at the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach reports that plans to move the institution to a new Thom Mayne-designed building in Costa Mesa are back on track after a period of financial troubles. Orange County Register
— Architecture critic John King offers some helpful tips to filmmaker George Lucas on getting his museum built in San Francisco. San Francisco Chronicle
— Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk delivered a plea to museum leaders to create “small and economical museums that address our humanity.” The Art Newspaper
— The Frieze New York art fair is cutting its schedule back by a day for its 2017 iteration — pointing to possible art market troubles. Artnet
— Christopher Verdugo, the leader of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, is heading to San Francisco, to direct another chorus there. Los Angeles Times
— Jorge Gutierrez, a prominent animator and co-director of the 2014 animated film “Book of Life,” is debuting an exhibition of works inspired by Tijuana graphics. Los Angeles Times
— Art critics Jed Perl and Rosalind Krauss are currently duking it out in the letters page of the New York Review of Books over critical approaches. Times critic Christopher Knight says of the row, “A slap-fight between art critics can sometimes illuminate art, even though the petty nastiness makes a reader wince. “ New York Review of Books
— A brief history of the mosaic tile hallways at LAX. LAist
— I talked with photographer Rafael Cardenas about how his inky, black-and-white images capture the art of everyday L.A. life. Los Angeles Times
And last but not least
Do those oysters mean what I think they mean? Take a quiz to test your knowledge of food in art. NPR
Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.
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