Damascus Room on View
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| Damascus Room interior, AD 1766–67/AH 1180. LACMA |
After months of delay, the 18th-century winter reception room from Damascus is now open to LACMA visitors in the David Geffen Galleries.
Acquired in 2014, the Damascus room is the museum's only period room. Given the Geffen's changing displays, it has been reconstructed with an armature to facilitate installation and deinstallation. However, the room was not ready for the Geffen's opening this spring, and work dragged on for six months.
The Damascus room is the centerpiece of the Geffen installation "Mediterranean Crossings." More on the room's history here.
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| Exterior view with armature |
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"Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist."
Q: Are the wall surfaces intarsia?
In the Geffen, the exposed backside of the interior of a room from the 1700's Middle East makes a visitor ask, "why did they do that?" Or, "is all this gray concrete permanent?"
I read that some visitors coming upon the area under the oculus of the Lucas Museum begin to tear up. Several years ago, when the space shuttle Endeavor affixed to the top of a Boeing 747 was circling the skies of LA, a few onlookers reacted in a similar way.
It's hard second guessing certain places or certain projects---the Oschin Space Center next month will hopefully be more Lucas than Geffen. By contrast, LACMA since 1965 has been just the opposite. Did I mention since 1965?
monarchaudio, Instagram
Just an absolutely incredible collection and facility. I cannot recommend the Lucas Museum with more enthusiasm. And knowing that I have friends that have art being shown here feels pretty amazing too. This is one of the things we have here that makes me love LA.
carl_dobsky, Instagram:
It’s a fantastic collection! So much to learn from. The Rockwell’s alone are worth a visit. Can’t wait to see what kind of program they have in the coming years.
drob651, Instagram:
Definitely... I'm going again tomorrow!
oliviapinupart, Instagram:
I’ve been there 2 times and still haven’t seen everything! [End quote]
The Lucas generally attracts people who aren't as much into traditional or contemporary art museums. But even people who prefer typical museums of the visual arts can at least get something out of the architecture and visitor services lacking at LACMA.
The Lucas's free-to-the-public library, park grounds (non-concrete), constantly-running theaters, cafe (which is more thorough than a small Erehwon) are more than LACMA provides to visitors.
Notably, that unsightly exposed exterior is across from where the unfinished Fiorentino masterpiece hangs. I enjoy being able still to feel the emotional agitation the finished painting would more clearly convey while at the same better understanding from the unfinished painting how Fiorentino pulled it off in finished paintings.
If you want that "whoa" feeling, you are right to be disappointed by the Damascus Room mounting and should also question why LACMA failed to paint over all those unsightly unfinished gaps in the painting to display a more finished product. Because I want both to enjoy the artistry and to understand the artisanship, I appreciate the Damascus room exterior being left open to see, and I appreciate the unfinished painting displayed without touch-ups to hide the work-in-progess.
I also happen to love seeing the exposed seismic reenforcement bars in the Hammer Museum's gift shop down Wilshire from LACMA. You may hate that they are not concealed behind decorative paneling. Neither position is more correct than the other; we are different people who are looking for different experiences.
> all those unsightly
> unfinished gaps
Wall clamps used to hold sculptures onto a wall, such as this artwork...
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQeb3XcIW01AYob6Am8yNqzdgFx1jRDQ-xfeAma-zGVK4hE1_cMgMMe7K4&s=10
...are done in a clumsy or unprofessional way.
As the installation of the Geffen was ongoing, the first photo I saw of the Deare work made me assume the presentation was just temporary. I thought LACMA's staffers had yet to make the metal brackets less visually intrusive.
Google:
Judgment of Jupiter (1787): Carved by virtuoso British neoclassical sculptor John Deare, this iconic marble wall relief captures a scene from Homer's Iliad. It is widely considered one of the most important British Neoclassical reliefs in the United States. [End quote]
Govan and his people have done what I judge as so many unprofessional things in setting up the Geffen, I've become sort of beaten down. So now the only aspect of it I don't care for is the way they've accepted too many blank gray concrete walls and too many barren floor areas.
An ongoing record of something about LACMA for decades always bringing out, to paraphrase J. Garcin, the rube factor.
And with the new art museum in Las Vegas creating more stress on and distractions for LACMA's staff, I don't have the greatest confidence in what the future holds.
Current art historical opinion is that period rooms are museum-made fictions.
A " purpose-built room/environment for this" would make the opposite case, that the room is a neutral, time capsule.
... You should be disappointed by your ignorance.
--- J. Garcin
To my mind, there is nothing unfinished about the unsightly exterior..it's just gratuitous.
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2016/unfinished
> is that period rooms are
> museum-made fictions.
I wonder if that same opinion also judges a hokey sculpture on the roof of the Met or that influenced the interior of the revamped building around 2 miles to the east as perfectly okay too?
GoogleAI:
The renovated David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center...features public spaces and a ground floor that critics have described as resembling a comfortable, casual airport hotel lobby....
• Ground Floor Vibe: Styled with patterned carpets and plush seating areas that feel more like a hospitality lounge than a traditional classical music hall.
• Atrium Design: The three-story atrium starting on the second-floor mezzanine is painted in a dark blue hue reminiscent of a 1960s discotheque [End quote]
The period rooms ("whoa, how did they do that?!") throughout the Met on 5th Ave tell other museums: Hold my beer.
Meanwhile, LACMA and its features like the Damascus Room with its makeshift exterior go, "We is rubes."
--- J. Garcin
> and disappear.
lol. He's a rube who admires hick artists who make cheesy artworks for the roof of the Met.
Sooie, sooie.
fwiw, that should have been "2 miles to the WEST" of the Met.
Speaking of which, I wonder if Govan ever feels embarrassed after he visits it and realizes (all over again?) that his LACMA deserves to be called "Count-ee museum" with a southern twang?
The restaurant in the Lucas apparently is physically and operationally a good thing for the museum. In comparison, the restaurant that's supposed to be added to LACMA and open in late 2026 hopefully won't be another series of "oh-oh!"