Hammer Plans Alice Coltrane Show
The Hammer Museum is planning a thematic art exhibition built around the life and work of spiritual jazz musician Alice Coltrane (1937-2007). The wife and collaborator of saxophonist John Coltrane, Alice was also an author and guru of the Shanti Anantam Ashram near Malibu. Her transcendentally sonic music was recently featured in TV's The Curse.
"Alice Coltrane: Monument Eternal" is likely to invite comparisons to 2022's "Joan Didion: What She Means," which also used a cultural figure not known as a visual artist as the focus of an adventurous group show. The exhibition will combine documents of Coltrane's career, including unreleased music, with visual works exploring themes of "spiritual transcendence, sonic innovation, and architectural intimacy."
Curated by the Hammer's Erin Christovale with Nyah Ginwright, the show will run Feb. 9 to May 4, 2025.
Comments
Los Angeles doesn't have strong Asian art collections, for example (unless I'm missing something). You could partner with your sister to the North. The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco is a powerhouse. Why not meld masterpiecees from AAM with European artists in L.A. collections who were influenced by Asia?
> It's unusual for a prestige museum
> commission to be converted to a
> completely different use so soon
> after its creation. But the Paley
> Center didn't own the building...
> Meier, whose legacy has been clouded by
> multiple sexual harassment accusations,
> is known for pristine white buildings.
> It appears the new occupant plans to
> make some updates.
The new occupant very much did exactly that:
https://youtu.be/jKXIiCkNQ4g?si=YwAQS1fbwBFz05AZ
As for skilled, talented, well-known figures like a Richard Meier (or perhaps what Alice Coultrane herself witnessed through the decades among the so-called elite), it's increasingly a given that some of them harbor some really lousy traits.