Game Changers

The good ol' days of the manageable LA art scene, when one could see all gallery and museum exhibitions in one weekend… these days are gone. Now, if one wants to keep abreast of what's happening in the hundreds of galleries and dozens of museums around this town, it would constitute a full time job.

(L) Jackie Winsor, "30 to 1 Bound Trees," 1971-1972/2016

Trees, hemp

Hauser Wirth & Schimmel

(R) Shinique Smith, "Forgiving Strands," 2014-2016

Clothing, fabric, ribbon, rope, found objects

Hauser Wirth & Schimmel

Photographs by Edward Goldman

In the last few days, huge art crowds gathered across the city, one in downtown's exploding art district, and another atop the beautiful hills in Brentwood. A major international art player, Hauser & Wirth, with their five locations in Europe and the US, added one more, this time in the heart of LA. And this latest one is mind-bogglingly ambitious, huge, and game changing. It occupies a former flour-mill complex and stretches out over 116,000 square feet. Besides the 23,000 square feet devoted to gallery spaces, there is a gigantic courtyard and garden, a restaurant and bookstore, plus a dozen private offices along with a number of unique spaces for public events and activities.

(Top) Lynda Benglis, "Aluminum sculptures

Hauser Wirth & Schimmel

(Bottom) Louise Nevelson, "Sky Cathedral/Southern Mountain," 1959

Wood painted black

Photographs by Edward Goldman

The extensive media coverage devoted to the opening of Hauser Wirth & Schimmel is comparable in scope and intensity to media coverage of high-profile museum openings. And indeed, no other major city around the world but Los Angeles can provide a space so large in the very heart of its commercial center. But at the end, it's the artistic vision of Paul Schimmel, former Chief Curator of MOCA LA, and now a partner of Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, that turned this artistic endeavor into a game changing mixture of commercial gallery and center for museum level activity and education.

(Top) Ruth Asawa

Metal wire sculptures (Bottom) Lee Bontecou

Canvas, welded steel, and wire constructions

Photographs by Edward Goldman

The inaugural exhibition, Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 1947 – 2016, represents nearly 100 works by 34 female artists "who have transformed the language of abstract sculpture." None of them are interested in producing "sweet," "ladylike" art. Instead, they pack a real punch in their work –– the weight of which viscerally affects the viewer.

(L) Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium

Exterior view, exhibition at the Getty Museum

Photograph by Tom Mobley

(R) Robert Mapplethorpe, "Lydia Cheng," 1985

Platinum print

Photograph courtesy of the Getty Trust and LACMA

Twenty-five years ago, the Director of Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center was arrested and put on trial for pandering obscenity. What was his offense? Exhibiting photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe (1946 – 1989). Nothing of the kind is expected to happen now following the opening of the Mapplethorpe double-exhibition at the Getty and LACMA. I've been at many openings at the Getty, but the crowd last night was the biggest, the noisiest, and definitely the most colorful that I had ever encountered there.

(L) Robert Mapplethorpe, "Tulips," 1978

Gelatin silver print

(R) Robert Mapplethorpe, "Phillip Prioleau," 1982

Gelatin silver print

Photographs courtesy of The Getty Trust and LACMA

The self-portrait of a young Mapplethorpe was projected onto the stone façade of the Getty's West Pavilion. Inside, among the numerous images capturing the eternal beauty of male and female bodies, were portraits of his friends and muses. Among them is Sam Wagstaff, Robert's lover and art curator extraordinaire. There are also numerous images of Lisa Lyon, his favorite model, whose naked body evokes images of Greek Gods of love and war.

(L) Robert Mapplethorpe, "Self-Portrait," 1988

Platinum print

(R) Robert Mapplethorpe, "Self-Portrait," 1985

Gelatin silver print

Photographs courtesy of the Getty Trust and LACMA

It's simply heartbreaking to see the dramatic change in Robert's own appearance: from his gorgeous, beautiful youth, to gaunt and AIDS-ravaged in a self-portrait taken in the last months of his life. His was a short life. But his artistic achievement will be with us for a long, long time.

To learn about Edward's Fine Art of Art Collecting Classes, please visit his website and check out this article in Artillery Magazine.