Are we lucky to live in Southern California or what?

For about ten years, while in my 30's, I ran from one museum to another, soaking up every detail of what I saw. I wanted to see firsthand the work of all my heroes.
I felt that looking at great art was as important as making it and that one required the other. I enjoyed looking at the work of the truly great painters more than looking at anything I was doing. Furthermore, my own paintings were hard work, so looking at these paintings became an excuse for not making my own stuff as much as I should have.

Then something happened and everything changed. Most of the work I was seeing just stopped having the same effect and just didn't look that good anymore.
So for the time being I decided I had seen enough. I felt I could learn more by studying my own work. Then paintings started coming to me easier and I was having more fun at it, so I stayed in the studio.

Then last Thursday I went to LACMA/BCAM. I was so moved by what I saw that I now feel I have entered yet another chapter in my appreciation of other artists.
Instead of comparing what I am doing to the work at the museum, I just slowed down and enjoyed. What a privilege to get to spend a day surrounded by hundreds of incredible works of art. The experience will inform what I am doing now, not replace it or be a source of envy.

What a total success the new layout is!
Chris Burden’s, "Urban Lights" makes you feel like you are entering a Temple or place of worship, which of course is appropriate. I really had my doubts driving by one day, before it was done, but now I am a believer. I can only imagine it at night! Jeff Koons, "Tulips" was ugly and garish but as I moved I loved the way when I looked into the piece the colored reflection in the mirrored surface made fantastic convex images like a fun house mirror. Charles Ray's Fire truck did little for me and I understand it will be removed soon because of damage from weather exposure. Robert Irwin is doing something interesting by trying to exhibit most or all varieties of palm trees.

I went first through the old buildings to see what had changed. The best change in the old buildings is the relocated American art wing. It starts with paintings done during our country’s infancy all the way to the present. All the work on this floor was shown with furniture of the same period. Great Idea. Others museums have done the same but this was done better. They found ways to keep the paintings close and not let the furniture get in the way. I am a total sucker for work done in the last part of the nineteenth century.

Right now art gets no better for me than Eakins, Sargent and Whistler. They lowered Sargent's "Portrait of Mrs. Edward and son..." so a guy like me can stand in front of it for fifteen minutes and examine every mark. The blood red walls framing Whistlers, "Blue Bonnet" portrait and Eakins, "Wrestlers" was brilliant. I was drooling. I enjoyed the chairs and tables from the period almost as much as the paintings.

Over to the Europeans. The Giacometti stand of sculpture was breathtaking with the lighting over the work creating a haunting scene of ghost-like images. Rembrandt, always a must see, never disappoints. Much of what is considered great work by Matisse still eludes me. His, "Tea"(though a great title) is a fucking mess and the only reason I can think of, as to why it is so revered, is that a lot of bad painters (who have most likely became curators or something other than artists) see it and it gives them hope.

Now...some lunch and on to BCAM. Wow...incredible!
A perfect way to display that kind of work, in most cases each artist gets his own room. Jeff Koons is growing on me in a disturbing way. In the past I have been almost physically sick looking at his work and now, somehow, it's like it's from an earlier time and has weight. Perhaps society has thrown so much stinking crap at us that his work now seems almost meaningful. I also noticed that Bubbles has 5 arms and hands, the origin of the fifth is uncertain.

I got to see many pieces I have never seen. Damien Hurst is a brilliant artist. The Kingdom of The Father is stunning! The idea of beauty in death strikes me as a profound concept in his hands. It's one of the most beautiful, and disturbing works, I have ever seen. It looks like a stained glass and the craftsmanship is second to none. This museums setting is ideal for his work.

Eric Fischl's, "Haircut" is a very strong painting. The effect of the forced light, though poorly painted up close, works really well from the vantage points BCAM provides.

How lucky we are to have this fantastic space so close to us all. Add to this the two Gettys, the Norton Simon, The Hammer, OCMA, all the galleries and the list goes on and on. I don't think the art scene is better anywhere else in the world. There is nowhere I would rather be than right here in the big So. Cal.!
Go enjoy-
--The Fish