Groundhog Day
"Los Angeles has been experiencing something of a cultural evolution. Although closely intertwined with the movie industry since the early 20th century, the city is becoming increasingly a center for arts and culture of all kinds."
—Architectural Record, Nov. 23, 2023
"Is LA the Country's Best City for Art?"
—Inside Hook, Oct. 3, 2023
"I don't think LA has regional character. It's not regional [or] backwater. It's international."
—Robert Goff in ArtReview, Aug. 1, 2023
"It is easy to forget that two decades ago… Los Angeles was a backwater in the art world."
—W Magazine, March 15, 2023
"New York is. Los Angeles will be. But it isn't, yet."
—Claudia Ross (paraphrasing Travis Diehl), ArtReview, Aug. 1, 2023
—Jason Farago, The New York Times, Feb. 29, 2019
"In the past few years, L.A.’s art scene has undergone a revival of sorts."
—The New York Times, July 30, 2015
"Long the center of the movie industry, the region is now becoming a magnet for artists, dancers, musicians and a murderer’s row of museum leaders.”
—The Washington Post, Oct. 10, 2014
“This is clearly the No. 2 art center in the U.S. today, and in 20 years or so, Los Angeles may even overtake New York.”
—Richard Fargo Brown in Time magazine, April 14, 1958
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| Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science, and Art, 1936 |
Comments
The Mayflower arrived in 1620, WWI, the Great Depression and WWII dominate the first half of the 20th century. Certain wunderkinds fled to LA around that time. Adolf Einstein touched base briefly in LA (Caltech) before moving to the NY tri-state area.
An old TV broadcast posted online shows the gala dinner for the 50th anniversary of Beverly Hills. It was held in the 1950s. People in that town nowadays get facelifts easily not much later than their 50th year alive.
LA's weather, topography, culture and economy are like a mix of things: Various great cities, various half-crocked cities, various beautiful cities, various ugly cities, major cities of the world with Mediterranean-type beaches, major cities without, cities with so-called southern-France-type climates, cities with weather like in a Calexico-Tijuana or France's Marseilles.
Pick your treats, pick your poisons.
As for LACMA, its buildings mainly from 1965 really weren't suitable. But the slash-and-burn approach probably will end up being a case of cutting off the arm in order to treat a few cavities in the mouth. The architect for the Lucas creatively liked the idea (which increases the budget) of a building sitting on two uprights, the architect for LACMA didn't need to do the same thing.
It's the home/destination of more Ivy League grads.
What those grads bring is cultural capital? They collect art from local galleries. They contribute money to museums. They demand better arts programming. They subscribe to the local newspaper and they get superb arts coverage.
By contrast, in LA you have the SaveLACMA mob and Christopher Knight (LA Times) --- no money, no art, and no intellectual credibility. Good luck with those rubes.
https://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-cities-for-harvard-yale-ivy-league-grads-2018-8
Having the most Ivy League grads is not a structural advantage for art unless they become Wall Street hedge funders keeping Sotheby's afloat. NYT has great coverage because it's simply a better paper than LAT. It's not Ivy League grads that keep it in shape. It's ironically Californians who get better coverage from that paper than locals, and make up the biggest by state numbers of their subscriber base.
> and Christopher Knight (LA Times) --- no money,
> no art, and no intellectual credibility. Good
> luck with those rubes.
LOL. Are you the same person who for the past few years has remained a devotee of the Govan/Zumthor building? If so, sticking up for a project that is more Hollywood flash than substance (not to mention also appears to be fiscally, operationally, logistically ill-advised) seems the epitome of "rube."
However, I admit my original irritation for the slash-and-burn approach to redoing LACMA, circa 1965-1986, is not as great as it once was. I now better realize that the former layout was unsuitable the way a flaky, outdated tract house from the 1960's is. But Michael Govan and his enablers, since their judgment and common sense (and also ethics?) aren't too stellar, haven't exactly dealt with that like top-flight professionals. Peter Zumothor now grumbling about aspects of his work for LACMA may be another warning sign.
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