Esoteric Survey

Angelo Testa textile for IBM and Eames Computer House of Cards. Part of  Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982 at LACMA .  The exhibition looks at the interaction of art/design and computer technology.  This is pretty high up on my want list. It's hard to talk about design and computers and not include Paul Rand. In the last 1960's Frederick Hammersley used an IBM mainframe at the University of New Mexico  to do a number of computer works.    Donald Judd Hans Haacke, News, 1969/2008 - continually prints the news of the day.   This Lillian Schwartz piece is on loan from The Henry Ford Museum. My buddy  Kristen Gallerneaux, The Henry Ford's curator of communications and information technology, helped bring the Schwartz estate to the Henry Ford.  Speaking of Kristen, here she in front of a Tanya Aguiniga piece recently acquired by LACMA. I was at the border during the making of it. Mostly for the party. More about that, h...

Over the years my friend Susan has shared many stories about her parents with me. I knew they collected art and some of it was even exhibited at LACMA. It wasn't until recently, when Susan shared the catalog above with me, did I begin to understand the importance of their collection. Michael Blankfort and his wife Dorothy began collecting art in the late 1950s. Michael was a novelist and the family lived in Los Angeles. In terms of art, this was a great time to be in L.A. The Blankforts began visiting contemporary art galleries like Paul Kantor, Felix Landau and Frank Perls. They also became regulars at Ferus Gallery, which was operated by Ed Kienholz and Walter Hopps. They became friends with artists like Billy Al Bengston, Ken Price and Robert Irwin before any of them were a big deal. In his essay, Confessions of an Art Eater, Michael said Walter Hopps "Chico" helped "teach us how to use our eyes." The Blankfort's first purchase at Ferus i...

Isamu Noguchi, Coronos , Bronze OMG! John Mclaughlin with Claes Oldenburg pool balls in the foreground   Donald Judd "I haven't sufficient interest in objects or anything I can see around me to do what Oldenburg does." — Donald Judd   Donald Judd   Donald Judd Lorser Feitelson  This is from 1936. Amazing. John Mason Edward Kienholz “We didn’t talk the art out. We talked about where we were going to get six dollars so we could buy gas  for a car  to go to the Valley and get drunk… I don’t know that I’ve ever talked to Bob Irwin about art in my life.” —Ed Kienholz Richard Diebenkorn That electrical outlet pisses me off. Yayoi Kusama Way before the LV handbags John Chamberlain "Art is basically made by dissatisfied people who are willing to find some means to relieve the dissatisfaction." — John Chamberlain Willem de Kooning vs.  Franz Kline   That De Kooning once...