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Bakersfield Breakaway: Los Angeles County Museum of Art
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Anonymous user Tue Nov 30, 1999 00:00:00 PST
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0 responses 0 comments “I am the freak of weirdness.”

So wrote one student when I asked my fourth-graders to list their positive qualities during an English lesson a few weeks ago.

Well, it’s a good thing she’s in my class part of the day, because it just so happens that I am a huge fan of weirdness, especially when it comes to art.

This is why I like to pay an occasional visit to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA for short.

Their collection of contemporary art is most appealing to me, and they have a fine display of paintings and sculptures dating from the early 1900s to the present. Abstract Expressionism is one of my favorite styles because it’s, well ... weird.

Daring, bold, imaginative and deeply moving are other ways to describe this uniquely American type of expression.

You remember Jackson Pollock, don’t you? He’s the guy who splattered paint helter skelter around his canvasses. In fact, in 1959 Time Magazine playfully referred to him as “Jack the Dripper.”

LACMA has two of his “splash-fests.” The first, entitled “Number 15,” was created during one of his rare sober periods, and even though some folks think all of his work was painted in a drunken frenzy, it was quite a treat to see his art. The only other Pollock the museum had when my husband, Doug, and I were there was an exploration in black and white, “Number 20.” At the peak of Pollock’s fame, he decided to try this new colorless form of painting. It was met with mixed reviews when he exhibited to the public and some scholars think Pollock slid back into alcoholism because of this lukewarm reception.

Pollock, believe it or not, was the inspiration behind several other Abstract Expressionists of the 1950s and '60s.

Helen Frankenthaler, another American, was one such artist. She took Pollock’s technique one step further, however, and thinned her paint with turpentine. When paint was dripped onto the canvas, it soaked in, creating an effect that’s supposed to make the colors look as if they’re on the same plane (Pollock’s “drip” paintings, by contrast, look layered).

LACMA proudly displays one of Frankenthaler’s paintings called “Winter Hunt.” I challenge you to find some hint of a “hunt.” This painting looks more like a kindergartener’s scribbles, with splotches of red, black, blue and yellow hastily slapped onto a canvas. But spontaneity and dynamism were prized in Abstract Expressionism, and Frankenthaler surely reveled in it.

Mark Rothko’s “White Center” is a lovely balance of basic colors and shapes. Believe it or not, the longer Rothko painted, the simpler (and hence, more abstract) his work became. “White Center” is a fine representation of what Rothko was well known and admired for.

These “freaks of weirdness,” brilliant artists every one of them, may be what that fourth-grader of mine had in mind when she did the writing assignment.

It’s very possible, because the last positive trait of hers that she listed was “great artist.”

Who knows, we might one day be viewing her new style of American painting at the L.A. County Museum of Art.

For more of Doug’s photos, go to: http://www.pbase.com/dougke...

If You Go:
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-857-6000 (general information)
323-857-0098 (TDD)
http://www.lacma.org
Hours
LACMA is open every day except Wednesdays,
Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: noon-8 p.m.
Friday: noon-9 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 11 a.m.- 8 p.m.
Tickets (general admission all-day pass)
Adults, $9; Seniors (62+ with ID) $5; Students (18+ with ID) $5; Children 17 and under FREE

 

 

 

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