More Contemporary Art at LACMA

Striking avian-inspired dress by McQueen

Today we checked out the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, known as LACMA which houses contemporary art.

Elegant and gothic feathery cape 

Here the person who checked our tickets also asked us if we had caught Covid recently or if we were in contact with anyone who had caught the virus in the past 10 days. They even had a box of masks ready to hand out to anyone who didn't have one on hand.

And there were hand sanitizers everywhere, and washrooms where you just waved your hand to open the door.

We first checked out the fashion exhibition called "Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind Mythos Muse".

It's hard to believe McQueen left this world 12 years ago, and he left behind a massive body of work we continue to analyse, understand and cherish.

He was known for his detailed tailoring, but also his fantastic imagination and research, alluding to various periods in European history as well as Asian (mostly Japanese) influences that can be found in his pieces.

This exhibition brings together what informed his collections, from Japanese Buddhist priest textiles to ancient headdresses, birds that led to his cape made of feathers, and the French court of King Louis XIV among the influences.

One of Magritte's famous works

We also saw an exhibition of Impressionist works from the collection of Janice and Henri Lazarof, who was a Hungarian-American composer who later taught at UCLA. 

The couple seems to have amassed an impressive art collection over the years and even more outstanding is that they donated 130 of these pieces to LACMA in 2007; sadly he died in 2013 of Alzheimer's.

Works of art by Degas, 20 pieces alone by Picasso, as well as those by Paul Kee, Wassily Kandinsky, Constantin Brancusi, and Alberto Giacometti to name a few.

Was also lovely to see other famous works by Ren Magritte, like "Ceci n'est pay une pipe", or "this is not a pipe" when it obviously is one, Young Woman of the People by Amedeo Modigliani, and Georgia O'Keefe's Horse's Skull with Pink Rose.

Large painting PH-143 by Clyfford Still

Other more modern pieces included one by Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, and Clyfford Still, whose painting PH-143 really is an immersive large work you can't help but be drawn into and then feeling overwhelmed by the size and scale of the piece.

In terms of pop art LACMA had Andy Warhol's famous Campbell's Soup can was there, and an odd sculpture -- Claes' Oldenburg's Typewriter Eraser.

How many still remember using this object it before?!

An intriguing piece by Richard Serra is called Band -- my brother joked that there is no way anyone could steal this art work made of steel. Walk in and feel overwhelmed by the steel that has taken on a corroded rusted colour. It's not menacing by any means, with its gentle curves. You feel invited to interact with the massive statue and are welcome to enter it at any of its openings.

Richard Serra's Band is immersive, interactive

Outside in the museum's plaza by the restaurant and bar is Ai Weiwei's Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads from 2011.

LACMA

5905 Wilshire Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA

90036