Los Angeles, February 2013

One of the recent additions to the L.A. County Museum (LACMA), I had been anxious to see, was Michael Heizer's rock named "Mass levitation."  This rock was seemingly happy enough in a quarry until Heizer's donors paid $70,000 for the 340 ton boulder.  A special  truck had to be built to move it.  That truck got 15 gallons to the mile - that's not miles per gallon, but gallons per mile.  It also moved at 5 mph, so roads were blocked for a week while it crawled into LA.  The Museum cleared out mature trees and changed the landscape of the whole back of the site.  Then the rock was craned up to rest on two concrete walls, which we are to take as "levitation" (what?).  Dumber humans can actually walk below this rock when they find their lives so dull that they have nothing better to do. This aspect of Lamca is free, so it is not as tho they are trying to get their money's worth.
I am fond of modern art, but usually offended by the ubiquitous line "The artist says that this forces the viewer to think about....blah, blah, blah."  In this case, Heizer condescend to us saying that we must think about stone age artists.  Oh yes, think very hard and think about artists who actually had some talent and worked to create a sculpture - like Rodin's with Honore Balzac as shown here.
This is not art.  It is the utter banality for our times.  It is the same banality as people wearing nothing but black clothing for more than two decades.  The same banality as one million women said to have complained about the only funny and clever ads on TV - the Geico pig in the same car as a woman - saying that it could promote bestiality!!  But Heizer's banality cost $13 million - all said to be from donors, none from taxpayers or museum funds.
There are a lot of Auguste Rodin sculptures at Lacma.  They looked majestic and pensive in the bright daylight just before sunset.  There are a lot of important works of art at Lacma and I enjoyed it.

UCLA has inherited The Hammer Museum of Art.  Armand Hammer - of Arm & Hammer Soda fame - had a handsome collection including a couple of Rembrandt's,  which is housed on the edge of UCLA.  Even until Hammer died a couple of decades ago, his museum in a modern building on Wilshire blvd would have seemed  customary.  But is has had to considerable misfortune of the Getty museum overwhelming every other museum with its dazzling site, collection and presentation.  Now the Hammer looks dated, small and is presented in a kind of depressing soviet style.

I will make a separate post for the Gettys as they are so compelling.