A Reggie Burrows Hodges Trifecta
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| Reggie Burrows Hodges, Aida the Homegirl, 2024 |
Reggie Burrows Hodges came to wide attention in 2021 with an essay by Hilton Als, a painting in LACMA's "Black American Portraits," and the onset of six-figure auction prices for his work. This fall the Compton-born Hodges is getting his first museum solo shows in Los Angeles. "Reggie Burrows Hodges: A Theater of Miracles" will be at the California African-American Museum Oct. 20, 2026, to Feb. 28, 2027. The exhibition will include one of CAAM's more unusual loans: a large Venetian Renaissance painting, Jacopo Bassano's The Miracle of the Quails, from the Getty Museum. Hodges often takes inspiration from European Renaissance and baroque painters.
Another CAAM-organized exhibition, "Reggie Burrows Hodges: A Theater of Dreams" will run simultaneously at Art + Practice. Finally, the Getty Center will present "Reggie Burrows Hodges: A Theater of Passions," with five Hodges paintings shown alongside works by Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi.
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| Jacopo Bassano, The Miracle of the Quails, 1554. Getty Museum |
Comments
If Hodges' style weren't figurative but instead overly abstract or "even my kid can do that," the subjectivity of who's featured or who's ignored would be on full blast.
I notice the Broad Museum has posted: "The Broad is reinstalling nearly two-thirds of its collection galleries... These changes mean new artworks to see each month..."
The Broad has a banner outside promoting the museum being free to the public. Maybe it has long been there, but it and their more active rotating exhibition schedule made me wonder how much monthly or annual attendance figures affect a museum's management.
The Lucas and LACMA charge $25 while the Broad is free. Being the new kid on the block comes with advantages (ie the novelty of "new car smell"), but so does the cost of entry and range of public interest.
If the Broad weren't expanding and the Lucas didn't cater to a lot of non-traditional-art-museum goers, not sure which one would come out ahead. As it is, when the Geffen Galleries opened, the interest in it seemed more muted or apprehensive.
Within two years, his works were selling in the low $100,000's (primary market).
Wish I could tell you why? There are no great ideas here.
--- J. Garcin