LACMA exhibits are ready to open pending government okays

Suzan Filipek | March 4, 2021 | 0 Comments

Several new exhibits at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art have not yet been seen by the public, even though the exhibits were installed early last year. They had the misfortune to be readied just before the pandemic shuttered the museum’s doors last spring.

LACMA officials are eagerly waiting for the governmental go-aheads to open. (Outdoor exhibits and grounds have been allowed to be open to the public for some time.)

And when these shows finally open, things will be a little bit different. We’ll be wearing masks, for one, and socially distancing. One-way paths will be marked through the galleries, and doors are now equipped with touchless sensors.

Here’s a look at some of what’s in store on the inside:

100 WORKS by Nara await visitors at a to-be-reopened LACMA.

Japanese contemporary artist Yoshitomo Nara is featured in a retrospective of 100 of his portraits, sculptures and ceramics on an entire floor in the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM).

Doll-like faces gaze out from large canvases, while his phonograph record collection of folk, rock and other album covers fills one entire wall. The artist has drawn much of his inspiration from a passion for music and his childhood memories.

It’s the first exhibit to show the influence of music on his art in the United States, and is also is the first international retrospective of the artist.

Yoshitomo Nara is through July 5, 2021.

GIVE IT OR LEAVE IT installation
by Cauleen Smith.

A utopian society is created by Los Angeles-based African American artist Cauleen Smith in a series of videos and installations that borrow from the ideals of the Shakers and artists of the Watts Towers and other works.

“LIBRARY of Unborrowed Books” in “Not I,” at LACMA.

“Cauleen Smith: Give It Or Leave It” is in BCAM through Oct. 3, 2021.

Ventriloquists, puppets and sounds and voices in various forms through the centuries are depicted in 200 objects in a LACMA-curated show in the Resnick Pavilion.

“Beethoven’s Trumpet (With Ear) Opus #131,” by artist John Baldessari plays musical phrases in this work inspired by the composer’s ear trumpet.

Also on display are books never read, from the Los Angeles Public Library in “The Library of Unborrowed Books.”

“NOT I: Throwing Voices (1500 BCE – 2020 CE)” is through July 25, 2021.

An installation of image and sound by pioneering video artist Bill Viola features two projections on a large rotating screen of images showing the fullness of the human condition, in the Resnick Pavilion.

“Bill Viola: Slowly Turning Narrative: is through June 27, 2021.

RODIN GARDEN, I at LACMA uses camera obscura techniques. Vera Lutter, photo courtesy of the artist

Using her camera obscura technique, New York-based artist Vera Lutter’s 44 works in the Resnick Pavilion were made when she was in residence, and they chronicle works from LACMA’s collection as well as its now demolished eastern campus.

Vera Lutter: Museum in the Camera through Sept. 12, 2021.

A selection of 16 newly acquired works include works by Calida Rawles and Christina Fernandez. In the Resnick Pavilion.

“View From Here: Recent Acquisitions” is ongoing.