Broad Adds a Henry Taylor
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| Henry Taylor, untitled, 2020. The Broad. (c) Henry Taylor |
In the wake of MOCA's Henry Taylor show, the Broad has acquired its first painting by the artist. It's part of a group of off-kilter portraits/history paintings of Michelle and Barack Obama. The Broad's untitled 2020 work shows Michelle standing in a yard behind a gray horizontal line; the Capitol building; a group of three men waiting to cross MICHELLE S[TREET]; Barack at a podium; a wonkish, gray-haired man contemplating a bulbous black form labeled TAXES.
The two-canvas painting measures 7 by 10 ft. overall and is on view.
Comments
If he were any good, he would be an art critic at the New York Times. The New York Times pays much better. (It would be a homecoming too. Knight hails from the New York area.)
He would have had other options too (if he were more collegial). He could have taken a more influential position in the LA Dept of Cultural Affairs and/or academia. That's the path followed by Christoper Hawthorne, former LA Times architecture critic. He's now a senior critic at the Yale School of Architecture.
Of course, Hawthorne has the benefit of having graduated from Yale College. As one might expect, Knight graduated from lowly Hartwick College.
... LA deserves much better art critics.
--- J. Garcin
He's accurate enough to characterize the place as generally never being really great as a big-time encyclopedic museum and now not being really great as a modern-contemporary museum either.
Two for the price of one!
He could have added that LACMA has historically been one of the most highly funded institutions in America and the world.
Eat your heart out, Louvre!
BTW, everyone should thanks Michael for that, not James (who's James? lol)
First, he tries to make a name for himself by insisting that LAWA was and should be an encyclopedic museum.
Now, he's coopting the argument Govan was making all along --- that LACMA does not have an encyclopedic collection, to argue that LACMA is not even good at what it is trying to do.
Exactly, how would he know? Chrissie knows nothing about contemporary art. He once wrote an article about the artist Michael Grotjahn, wondering openly how long before the artist got a well-deserved retrospective.
The timing of that article was NOT good because shortly after the Chief Curator of MOCA was fired for refusing to stage a retrospective of Grotjahn's work. Rumors were that she thought Grotjahn was not deserving. She was right. Grotjahn's significance is almost entirely market-driven.
Chrissie Knight is a hack. The LA Times should put him out to pasture.
> LACMA does not have an encyclopedic collection
The only argument that Govan should be making is he's planning to retire and move out of LA. I hear the south of France or somewhere in Hawaii makes for an ideal spot for retirees. Or he can retire in Monteceito and be near celebs like Meghan and Harry Windsor.