Allen Ruppersberg at the Hammer

Allen Ruppersberg’s art concerns the slippage of history, the importance of memory regardless of its unreliability and the blurred lines between fiction and fact. He has been mining this territory since 1969 and his work has never seemed more relevant.

Allen Ruppersberg, Al’s Grand Hotel, 1971. Environmental/Happening, first presented at 7175 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, California, May 7–June 12, 1971. Courtesy the artist; photo: Gene Pittman, Walker Art Center.

Al’s Grand Hotel staged in a craftsman style house at 7175 Sunset Boulevard, May 7 to June 12, 1971. This recreation of a hotel, with furnished rooms, a brochure and letterhead, placed the artist himself in the fictional role of hotelier. The fiction actual began two years earlier at Al’s Cafe, where guests could order from a menu offering impossible but amusing concoctions like “Toast and Leaves.” It became a brief gathering place for artists and collectors who might drop by for a beer.

Allen Ruppersberg, Meals from Al’s Café, 1969. Mix media, aluminum pie tins, paper placemats. Courtesy the artist; photos: Gary Krueger; digital scan: Augusta Wood.

Allen Ruppersberg, Greetings from California, 1972. Acrylic on canvas. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Purchase with funds from Ron Bailey, Peter Norton, Phil Aarons, Kevin Brine, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Raymond J. McGuire, Jon Sandelman, and David Wasserman, 2005.16. Courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art.

In Greetings from L.A.: A Novel, a mostly blank paperback was interleafed with occasional phrases of language.

Allen Ruppersberg, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1974. Marker on canvas in twenty parts. The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Partial gift of Stuart and Judy Spence and purchased with funds provided by Edward Joseph Gallagher 3rd memorial fund and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Robins Jr. Photo by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1974). The 1890 Oscar Wilde book is written long-hand across large panels of stretched canvas, all standing in a room as an installation. It is a painting about a book about a painting. Hanging adjacent is his “self-portrait,” actually a drawn copy of the Dorian Gray filmstar, Hurd Hatfield. Ruppersberg puts himself in the position of being the original author, the star of the film, and the artist who weaves together all ideas as his own work.

Allen Ruppersberg, Remainders: Novel, Sculpture, Film, 1991. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, partial gift of Eileen and Michael Cohen, 2014; photo: courtesy of artist.

Allen Ruppersberg, The Singing Posters: Allen Ginsberg's Howl by Allen Ruppersberg (Parts I-III), 2003/2005 (detail). Commercially printed letterpress posters. Courtesy the artist and Greene Naftali, New York; photo courtesy Skirball Museum, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles; photo: Robert Wedemeyer.

Howl is silkscreened on sheets of the gradiant colored papers once made by Colby Press. They are mounted on a wall with bench in front where you can put on headphones to listen to a recording of it.

El Segundo Record Club.

The show continues to May 12.

Ruppersberg’s memoir continues in another show, this one at Marc Selwyn Fine Arts. It is perfectly titled, "What a Strange Day it has Been." An entire wall is covered in magazine or record covers and other graphics. An index in white type details various people, events and sources with fictional page numbers. Anyone familiar with contemporary art of the past 50 years, especially in L.A., will find references that jog memory. There are artists, writers, dealers and others. Some remain active, some have faded from history. All have a place in Ruppersberg’s own life and career. In this show as well as the one at the Hammer, Ruppersberg’s archive preserves a particular and personal history while expanding its relevance for the future. It is on view through March 23.