Los Angeles: Blinky Palermo & William Eggleston at LACMA

This past Thursday exhibitions featuring work by Blinky Palermo & William Eggleston opened at LACMA. Although they are two independent exhibitions, the works in them operate similarly. This makes their sharing of BCAM's second floor a fruitful coupling. In a conversation a couple days before the opening Lynne Cooke, curator of the Blinky Palermo exhibition, and artist Mathias Poledna spent much time discussing the lightness of Palermo's work. Mathias noted that Gerhard Richter, a friend of Palermo's, was jealous of Palermo's light touch and skill with color. Lynne expanded on this, stating that although Palermo's work seems effortless he struggled and destroyed many paintings he felt to be beneath his standards. His work embodies the effort of looking effortless. This quality also exists in Eggleston's work. His photographs may appear as though they could be taken by anyone but very few people could take the same modest photograph and have it look as successful and effortless as Eggleston. Eggleston, like Palermo, is also a master of color. He was one of the first photographers to use color photography, earning him the title the 'Father of Color Photography.'

Palermo, To the People of New York City, 1976, 40 individual panels, acrylic on aluminum installed at Dia on 22nd St. NYC, 1987-88.

Los Angeles: Bergman, Tarkovsky, and Film at LACMA

LACMA's film department is currently screening "Cries and Whispers: The Psychological Cinema of Ingmar Bergman." Films being exhibited include "The Silence" (1963) and "The Seventh Seal" (1956), the former about contemporary alienation and the latter about a medieval plague. Although renown as a director of dramas, Bergman's films transverse genres, moving from the austere to the comedic to the libidinous. Not surprisingly, Woody Allen described him as "probably the greatest film artist...since the invention of the motion camera."
Bergman and actress Ingrid Thulin during the production of "The Silence"

Early this year LACMA's Film Department held a retrospective of Andrei Tarkovsky, a Russian filmmaker whose film "My Name is Ivan" (1962) was central to Kirsten Everberg's 2008 exhibition at 1301PE. "My Name is Ivan" is about a 12-year old boy who works as a spy on the eastern front during WWII. Ivan's small stature allows him to cross the Soviet/German border unnoticed, traveling through marsh, barb wire, and the Dnepr River.

Title screen for "My Name is Ivan" (translates as Ivan's Childhood)

Abroad: Next Door at LACMA

LACMA puts on a one day exhibit of work by Walter de Maria in the new Resnick building which officially opens in Oct.