Carne Y Arena

From left: Carne y Arena by Alejandro G Inarritu, Picasso's Guernica, Goya's Third of May, Manet's Execution of Emperor Maximilian

Carne Y Arena, Alejandro Inarritu's VR contribution to raise awareness about the plight of illegal immigrants at LACMA is a worthy effort at literally putting us in the shoes of the desperate men, women and children who will do anything, pay anything, to cross the Mexico/US border. The room-by-room entry to the 'desert' where illegals face the undisguised wrath of border agents, the overhead drone of helicopters, and the exhaustion of many miles navigating the desert in the dark is compelling. I understand the impulse to put us there, I understand the impulse to have us share the terror and deprivation. The technology however, is not the most compelling part of the exhibition. Instead, what moved me most was staring into the eyes of the actual models for his VR characters whose film portraits are lined up in a narrow gallery bordered by an actual piece of a border fence as a bilingual scroll of their personal stories runs over their weathered, haunted faces as you exit the exhibition Carne Y Arena, instead of being noted as a tech innovation, should be classified along with Picasso's haunting Guernica or Goya's Third of May about the Spanish resistance to Napoleon, or Manet's Execution ofEmperor Maximilian, all passionate testaments, bearing witness to the powerful overwhelming the powerless. Carne y Arena adds to the conversation of what our country means to us, and the slippage from our founding ideals to those of the current administration. Que Lastima. 

Seattle Art Fair

Who knew? Seattle, once known as a northwestern outpost for backpacking and all things Scandinavian has turned into a full fledged international art outpost replete with gallerists hobnobbing over champagne and even New York biggies (Pace, Zwirner,Gagosian et al) having crossed the Continental Divide to show their wares at the newish Seattle Art Fair. Not as much black in Seattle on chic fair goers but plenty of blonde and bling. Lots of local art on display too but some jewel like Morris Graves, Josef Albers, James Turrell as well. Other than Canadian fires which have obscured the city in unusual haze the joint is jumping.

Jeanne Moreau: My Heroine

Jeanne Moreau has died.  I drank the Francois Truffaut/Louis Malle Kool Aid.  I was in love with Jeanne Moreau as much as they had been when they cast her as their pouty-mouth, emotional anarchist heroines.  She was beautiful and intelligent.  Fearless.  Sexy in the French-est possible way.

But mostly: she was in charge. 

In Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black, Jeanne Moreau is a true femme fatale: with perfect deliberateness—only halfway through do we learn why-- she kills five men and crosses them off the list in her black Hermes agenda. “My life is strewn with emotional obstacles that trip me over and end up becoming films,” she confessed.  In Jules and Jim she is the “inventor” of her own life, a woman who can love two men and have them get along with each other. Truffaut said Moreau gave him “the courage to make the film and the courage to see it through”.  In Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows and Les Amants (The Lovers), Moreau is again the catalyst for real-life male meltdown. “I knew that if I played the love scenes just as Louis [Malle] wanted, he would love me as an actress but hate me as a woman.  I could not play them without betraying him,” said Moreau.  Les Amants was the cause of a US Supreme Court case on obscenity, but the court could not agree on a definition of obscene which caused Justice Stewart to write his “I know it when I see it” opinion, one of the most infamous lines of jurisprudence. In Luis Bunuel’s Diary of A Chambermaid Moreau once again controlled the situation through her sexuality. Bunuel studied the way she walked in high heels. Mastroianni fell in love with her but said after she dumped him when their film finished. “ She is always searching for love but leaves victims along the roadside,” he said.  Moreau has been unapologetic—“Sleeping with people is one of the best ways of getting to know them”.

In 2011 when I was working on a post on the 50th anniversary of Jules and Jim (reprinted below) I reached out to her to try to interview her.  I got back the following message:

“I am very sorry but I am working on 3 projects and really my mind is not going back to the past.  Best regards, Jeanne Moreau”

All the more reason to remember her today, not only for her extraordinary cinematic performances, but also for the forward-thinking-living person she was until the end of her life. 

Jules and Jim -- and Catherine

"You said to me: 'I love you.' I said to you: 'Wait.' I was going to say: 'Take me.' You said to me: 'Go away.'" A woman's voice -- urgent, husky and siren-like all at once -- is heard over a black screen. Suddenly cheerful music reveals a gay turn-of-the-century world.

Bastille Day

I could not think of a more auspicious date to launch The CultureZohn website. Bastille Day, and France in general, has enormous importance in my life and in my work and I’m honored to contribute a tiny bit to the spirit of revolutionary independence it stands for. 

From Sur le Pont d’Avignon in first grade to grand battements at the School of American Ballet in fourth to Jean Seberg in Breathless in college to the French Culture Services in NY, to Picasso at MoMA, to Costa Gavras in Hollywood, France, its people, its language, its customs and its culture have been a driving narrative to my life.

The thought of Donald Trump today in the reviewing stands on the Champs does not fit with this progressive narrative but I forgive Macron for his all-too-generous invitation as I am happy to see the very proud French people feeling more hopeful after the terrible events of the last few years. 

Grab a glass of rose, toast La France, and then settle back and enjoy the many pearls of the CultureZohn.  

Ode to the MoMA Philip Johnson staircase

The most important, the most evocative, the most sensational part of the MoMa construction project now underway (Diller Scofidio replacing two or three iterations of previous MoMa architecture) is the fact that one can now actually access the galleries in the old fashioned way, through the marvelous marble staircase. The elevators were very slow when I was, I think, the first MoMa intern in the film stills archive and then the photography archive, and I used to run up and down the stairs ferrying photos or memos, cutting through the galleries past Guernica and Demoiselles, Diane Arbus and the Italian designers. I miss the Johnson building the same way I miss the extraordinary curators who held sway at the time, John Szarkowski, Emilio Ambasz, William Rubin et al. This to me is the essence of the real MoMa, one that is now on display primarily through the extraordinary collection rather than the hodge podge of architecture.

Naoshima, Japan

The prince of museum islands, the Ando-centric Naoshima has a truly first class hotel. Most surprising, it feels like Hawaii with lovely beaches, a tropical breeze and little communities that spring up behind the hills.  Naoshima is very organized compared to Teshima and is worth a night, though I found the hotel restaurant pretentious.  Better to eat in town and shuttle back.

Teshima, Japan

It's impossible to get to all three Museum Islands in one day, and lord knows, I tried. The ferry and boat schedule make it impossible if you want to stay on one of the islands at night, probably Naoshima.  But, you can get to two out of the three. I chose Teshima so I could see the Sanaa museum there and have lunch at the Shima Kitchen and hike around this less developed of the art site destinations.  Without a van or bike, I was forced to hitch, not a bad solution.  

Kyoto, Japan

For my money, after what seemed like days of imperial-ness and temples, it was the back streets and alleys of Kyoto that held sway.  Kyoto has a few more mid century holdovers as it was not bombed like Osaka and Tokyo during the war.

Tokyo Bunka Kaikan

Directly across from the Le Corbusier masterpiece museum in the Ueno Museum district sits a much overlooked and truly thrilling symphony space, one a local patron described to me as "the people's concert hall".  Built in 1961 by architect Kunio Maekawa, it is a paradigm of mid century wooden architecture replete with acoustical elements that look like Josef Albers.  I heard not just one but two Beethoven symphonies and was, I think, the only non native in the packed 2300 plus hall.   

Tokyo Design

Tadao Ando's 21 21 Design Sight Museum had a whirligig of a VR sports exhibit which weighed, tossed and balanced visitors to the museum, only one of so many museums Ando has done in Japan (and elsewhere). His concrete aesthetic has become a signature of permanence which does not always jibe with the contents.  

National Museum of Tokyo

The worldwide sensation of Japanese artist Kusama does not abate.  The Hirschhorn Museum had its highest numbers ever and the exhibit which will hit LA soon will surely compete with Rain Room for foot traffic.  These trees adorning the foot path to the National Museum of Tokyo were as far as I got on the last day of the exhibit as the lines were historic, and in truth, I am less and less inclined to wait on line for art.

Ropponghi, Tokyo

Ropponghi is a delight of fashion and tasty treats.  The design aesthetic of Japan reaches from the most pedestrian to the sublime.  With the perfection comes rigidity however.

The 2017 Pritzer Prize

The Pritzker Prize for Architecture--the “Oscar” of architecture for achievement for a body of work and generally conceded to be a bellwether of still more architectural promise--this year was awarded at the Imperial Guest House in Tokyo in the presence of the Emperor and Empress and distinguished guests to a modest, affable collaborative of Catalonians--Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigen and her husband Ramon Vilata. The professional ménage a trois whose practice was described as having much in common with a Japanese aesthetic of harmony with nature, refer to themselves as “six hands, one voice” who communicate in “spoken jazz”. The images of their low-rise kindergartens, senior citizen centers, restaurants and sports facilities stand in marked contrast to the soaring towers and twisted confabulations of some of the work of previous laureates. At a dinner following the ceremony, I was seated next to Shigeru Ban whose Aspen Art Museum is probably his most well known work in the US and whose affection for the US may derive from his Sci Arc and Cooper Union formation. His fellow Japanese laureates Tadao Ando and Toyo Ito were seen posing for photos together. Ito mentored the Sanaa principals whose work is sprouting not only in New York (New Museum) and Connecticut (The River) but also in Teshima, one of the museum islands of Japan, Kanazawa, at the Vitra campus in Germany. Ando's Naoshima Island project is now the art world destination in Japan and may be the first time I actually slept in a museum.  

Dizzying Heights

Dizzying heights | Art | Wallpaper* Magazine

In theatres now, a documentary by Magnolia Pictures celebrates the life and oeuvre of the late Chris Burden The artist behind the Instagram darlings Urban Light and Metropolis II at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) was once not so photo-friendly, as a new documentary on the late Chris Burden reveals.

Florine Stettheimer at the Guggenheim

The Florine Stettheimer show Painting Poetry at the Guggenheim Museum is charming, delightful and goes down easy. Stehttheimer's sinuous, colorful drawings and paintings which take as their subject matter the very elite world of her sisters, shopping, picnicking, dancing, opera and famous friends give insight into an upper class woman who straddled the line between fine art and illustration. At a panel about the artist last night, this artist was recognized as culturally undervalued as someone who created meaning through social process. Artist Cecily Brown who said at first Stettheimer was something of a guilty pleasure then studied the work and understood the work to be more like the Breugel jigsaw puzzles she favors for their crowds and sub texts. "She leads your eye on in a joyous dance...in the electricity and intense passages between things."

Rei Kawakubo at The Met

After all is said (too much) and done, the Rei Kawakubo show at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York is really spectacular. The lumps and bumps, the holes, the ruching, gathering, tucking, coloration and cut makes you understand that Abner Elbaz and now everyone else could not have helped by be influenced by this march-to-her-own-drum original artist. We are now used to seeing pregnancy bumps in full display, but Kawakubo puts them everywhere but. Her hole-y designs reminded me of Lee Bontecou's wall sculptures. Misplaced sleeves, shoulders, belts, stitches combine to make you feel her restless, original energy. The hair treatments by Julien d'Y's are another delight of stiffened towers, urethane curls, Louis XIV wigs and helmets. I had a smile of wonder and delight throughout. Though the natural resting place of these garments is in a museum show, if you manage even a small protuberance or mis match even one thing next time you get dressed it will be in homage to this unique and original talent. Here's how you feel when you leave: tame and small and risk-adverse and determined to shake up your life and be bold.

Mimmo Rotella at Barbara Gladstone's East 64th Gallery

Barbara Gladstone's show of the work of mid century Italian artist Mimmo Rotella at her splendid space on E 64 Street is short and sweet. Rotella's work will remind you of Alberto Burri , the surfaces built up with gumpy resins and glue as if each layer was an application demanded a week's worth of settling. His palette is my own personal favorite, the nubby burlap hosting flame-like muddy colors and plackets of collage.

Frieze New York 2017

This year’s iteration of Frieze New York 2017 seems both larger and smaller. A gallery from Dubai sits across from a gallery from Mumbai. But the big players are still stationed at the crossroads of the long allees. Gagosian Gallery with four walls of John Currin drawings. Currie-for-all? There is so much beautiful art from around the world I felt sorry for artists. If you are not a blue chip artist or collector, how to choose? Themes that emerged: black women artists and black artists in general in ascendance in lockstep with the national mood for reflection and commentary on the impoverished state of civil rights. (Kara Walker and Lorna Simpson on full display). Pattern and decoration is back, but maybe it never went away. Images of houses, embassies, all kinds of architecture as subject matter. Art world denizens are uniformly handsome and well dressed and now treks to Venice, Basel, Germany, Greece and so on. Eat your Wheaties.

The Sixties in Full Swing at UC Berkeley Art Museum

The sixties are in full summer-of-love-y flower all over the country, (Museum of Arts and Design had a show, another in Los Angeles) but especially in northern Cal where it all began. UC Berkeley Art Museum has a show up for a few more days and then the big SF guns at De Young mounted their own hippie-inflected show. On view, many walls of psychedelic posters, fringe, embroidered flowers, fringe, macramé and weaving, fringe, photos of be-ins, musical interludes, fringe, virtual rooms with astral projections, furry seating, etc. The times they are a changing but not so much it seems. Does anyone remember that the sixties were scary too?

Alice Neel: Uptown at the David Zwirmer Gallery

The elegiac Alice Neel: Uptown show that newly-anointed Pulitzer Prize winner Hilton Als has curated at David Zwirner Gallery shows her to be a prescient, original talent. The infinitely more rambling but charming cinema verite film on her by Michel Auder was shown alongside. Neel, a white woman lived most of her life in Harlem. The show’s title was originally Colored People which was how African Americans were most often referred to in those days, preceeding Negro, Black, African American and post terms this writer is too politically correct to list. There are people of other races in the show as well, but as the catalogue states, “for Neel herself, everyone was equal in all their idiosyncrasies and racial differences. Everyone was a member of her club."

In addition to her subject matter, her style is over the top gorgeous. It’s outlining but not paint by numbers, the character of each sitter reflected both in its application of paint and choice of rock-me-baby color. Even a Harlem building has a sensuousness and flow. Neel apparently kept her sitters for a long time, like Lucien Freud, but for her arm’s length meant something different. The film shows how she interacted with them, even taking one famous cellist along with her on an inspection of the plumbing when the building inspector came to call in response to a complaint.

Mostly though, you sense the trust each sitter had that Neel would bring out their essence: the proud, the fierce, the innocent. The show is only open until April 22.