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Remember a while back, when the Prado culled Goya’s El Coloso (above) from their current Goya show, Goya in Times of War, claiming that it is not a Goya, but giving no explanation more satisfying that a “because we say so.” Well, they’ve finally proffered an explanation, via Manuela Mena, their senior Goya specialist, that the work was painted by one of his students, largely because of stylistic differences and some anatomical errors on the bulls in the painting. I’m still not satisfied, and if this isn’t an example of how not to bring an issue like this to light, I don’t know what is. Isn’t there some kind of peer review that should come into play, behind the scenes, before an announcement like this.

Anyways, Elizabeth Nash of The Independent has the story, following up on her earlier piece. Seen over at C-Monster, who also mentions that you can eyeball Goya’s print series, Los Desastres de la Guerra, which is on display at the Hammer right now.

Technorati Tags: Goya, Francisco de Goya, Prado, art, Spanish art, painting, El Coloso, The Independent, Elizabeth Nash, C-Monster, Hammer Museum, Goya in Times of War, Los Desastres de la Guerra, art

As noted elsewhere around here, I’m up to my neck in it, so I’ve got one thing to recommend this weekend, the Wattstax/Dave Chapelle’s Block Party mashup by Edgar Arceneaux that’s part of MOCA’s Cinemoca series. Both movies are excellent, and both are important. When the now-defunct San Pedro Film Society put together a Black History Month Film Festival back in the day, my primary reason for doing the project was to show Wattstax, essentially a post-riots documentation of the biggest concert that ever happened in LA (with the exception of the US festival), which no one seems to really know about. I cannot state just how amazing the performances by the Bar Kays, the Staples Singers and Issac Hays are in that film. Go see the mashup, do your funky dance and then make sure to catch the straight Wattstax action as soon as you can.

At MOCA, Saturday, June 21, 7-11 PM - $10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors and free for kids under 12 and MOCA members.

Technorati Tags: MOCA, CineMOCA, Wattstax, Dave Chapelle, Edgar Arceneaux, video, mashup

There’s a staggering amount of must see and do stuff happening this weekend. Here’s some of it.

Thursday, June 5

Prison to a Slave @ AndrewShire. Works by Derric Eady, Eric Medine, Suzanne Oshinshky and Nam June Paik. I’ve shown Eric Medine on a number of occasions, and he gives great proposal, usually in the form of .pdf based diagrams like the one above. Reception is from 6 - 9 PM.

Friday, June 6

Spirit of the Horse @ Palos Verdes Art Center. Juried by yours truly, this exhibition benefits the Portuguese Bend Pony Club. I love horses and horse culture, so this was a fun project to work on and an opportunity to help a local group that puts youth and horses together. There’s an invitational portion of this exhibition, curated by Scott Canty and Peggy Zask, as well. Reception is 5-8 PM.

Kara Walker, My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love Closing Party @ The Hammer. Get down to the DJ as your slightly buzzed ass listens for awkward/racially questionable combinations of tracks and visual elements while enjoying Walker’s silhouette-based explorations of America’s racial subconscious. From 7-11 PM.

Batters/ Kroll/ Weegee: From the Collection of Eric Kroll @ Anna Kustera Gallery. Okay, so this is taking place in New York, but I’d murder to see the Elmer Batters work in this show. Elmer Batters was a South Bay-based fetish photographer who’s work I developed a fascination with while investigating the curation of a show about the darker, sleazier side of the port town I live in. Reception is 6-8 PM.

Saturday, June 7

Underground Forces @ MOCA. Presented by Joe Rees of Target Video, a two hour program of vintage punk video, in conjunction with California Video. This is kind of a can’t miss event if you’re into punk history. Apparently Henry Rollins designed a “special guest music set”, probably the most aggressive, veiny forehead extravaganza ever. Music and Exhibition Highlight Tours from 7-9 PM, Screening Starts at 9PM. $10 or free for MOCA members - at the Geffen Contemporary.

First | Last @ Winstead Adams Projects. Apparently the first and last exhibition to be held at 436 S. Main, before it becomes Raw Materials, an art and architectural materials supply store. Featuring work by Matthew Bryant, Jessica Curtaz, Brian W. Evans, McLean Fahnestock, C. Finley, Jeff Foye, Jocelyn Foye, Adam Mars, Kyle Riedel, Noah Thomas and John Weston. Curated by James Adams. Reception is 6-9 PM.

Tomoko Sawada, Bride @ RoseGallery. Tomoko Sawada is a “multiple, costumed self portraitist.” This series has her costumed as brides. I love self portrait work in general, and Sawada’s work is in that category of multiple self portrait that reminds me of the possibly fictional work Read Us the Names of the Book of the Dead, briefly mentioned in William Gibson’s book Count Zero. Reception is 5-7 PM.

Technorati Tags: art, contemporary art, LA art, Eric Kroll, Elmer Batters, Weegee, Kara Walker, Palos Verdes Art Center, Hammer Museum, Anna Kustera Gallery, MOCA, Target Video, Joe Rees, AndrewShire, Derric Eady, Eric Medine, Suzanne Oshinshky, Nam June Paik, Winstead Adams Projects, Matthew Bryant, Jessica Curtaz, Brian W. Evans, McLean Fahnestock, C. Finley, Jeff Foye, Jocelyn Foye, Adam Mars, Kyle Riedel, Noah Thomas, John Weston, Tomoko Sawada, RoseGallery

Seen at Modern Art Notes. Explanation and background here. Flickr sets of jumping at MOMA and PS1 by Daily Marauder. Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: art, jumping, art jumping, jumping in museums, Modern Art Notes, Daily Marauder

Made it back to see Phantom Sightings, this time without the crowds. I didn’t take that many pictures, but the ones I took are in this Flickr set.

Above - Vocho, Margarita Cabrera - This piece steals my heart. A sewn Volkswagen bug, with the non-Mexican parts removed and replaced by fiber elements. This piece has a funny bit, kind of a little gag - it rides on casters, and I found the idea of pushing a stuffed VW around on casters to be kind of performative and funny. I don’t know why. The interior is really well made. Here’s a shot of the whole car, and here is her label.

Above - Vocho, Julio Cesar Morales - This body of work, which everyone in LA has had blasted into their heads by the promo for the exhibition, drips with completeness and intent. These are reproductions of materials documenting human trafficking at the US border, downloaded from the website of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. I’m seeing more and more works based upon the web cross my desk over the past three years, especially a lot of things based on or in reference to Google maps, and this is really some of the more mature and well-thought work that I’ve seen based upon anInternet source. Here are three more works, and his bio is here.

Above - Shizu Saldamando - Point of disclosure - I work alongside Shizu as a Getty Multicultural Undergraduate Internship Program Discussion Leader, but I don’t know her that well. I first saw her work at her 2007 Tropico de Nopal show. I was really taken with her ballpoint on cloth drawings, her ability to use mixed media in a contextually solid way and I was also very much impressed by her navigation of her own tricky, multi-racial identity politics in her artist’s talk. Her bio is here.

Above - Cruz Ortiz - This picture is here because I love catapults, especially scratch built ones. This is actually a trebuchet, the most awesome species of catapult, and I love the sling made from a piece of cut-off jeans. I thought that this installation was slightly unfocused, but this element latched onto me.

Above - Treasure Room, Eduardo Sarabia - A little square tiled room at the back of the space holds Treasure Room, which I can only describe as temple-like. Masonic, even. I was filled with a kind of cautious reverence while I was in this space.

Above - Nicola Lopez - I saw this work installed in Santa Fe over a year ago, and I’ve been trying to find an opportunity and the resources to bring her work out to LA. Looks like LACMA beat me to it, and I’m glad to see her work in this show. This picture really doesn’t do the work any justice at all - This whole piece is composed of prints. Go see the show, dammit.

Technorati Tags: Nicola Lopez, Eduardo Sarabia, Cruz Ortiz, Shizu Saldamando, Julio Cesar Morales, Margarita Cabrera, VW, VW Bug, Beetle, Volkswagen, Fiber Art, sculpture, painting, Buttercup, Powerpuff Girl, human trafficking, smuggling, LACMA, Phantom Sightings, Catapult, Trebuchet, art, contemporary art

Flickr user xarene has posted an awe inspiring set of 265 Fluids related images from today’s happening at LACMA. They’re great shots, too, hardcore documentation of every bit of the process, start to finish. I gotta tell you, this ice is a photographer’s dream.

We’re building Fluids at Angels Gate on Sunday, starting at noon. If you want to get in on the action, E-mail me at the office.

Also noticed a curiously beautiful image from LACMA in the Fluids Flickr Pool, 2:20 PM, captioned “The southeast corner after the walls gave way - - -”

Technorati Tags: Fluids, LACMA, Xarene, ice, happening, sculpture, Allan Kaprow, reinvention, art, contemporary art, performance,

I read about this the other day in the Times, that Koons’ Tulips were getting so scuffed and damaged by visitors that they had to go home to the Broad-cave. And Charles Ray’s Firetruck apparently just can’t take the heat of being on public display. I’m not really sad to see the Koons go, but Firetruck seemed a good fit for the museum. I was at LACMA yesterday for a meeting and saw the Koons go away. Maybe this is an opportunity to replace it with a more durable (and better) work by a LA artist? Tulips was located in the perfect spot to meet people, outdoors, by the ticket booth, but in the shade. Something inviting, durable, that doesn’t require a comically large cordon or a virtual army of security to protect it, maybe even sit on-able, is called for, perhaps?

Technorati Tags: Jeff Koons, Tulips, Firetruck, Charles Ray, LACMA, crates, art, sculpture, contemporary art

Just woke up to do some early paperwork and saw this item by Tyler Green on the RSS. Apparently the Prado is opening the exhibition, Goya In Times Of War, and have pulled El Coloso from the exhibition, claiming that “doubts over the attribution of El Coloso are widely accepted by the museum’s scientific team.” That quote is from a really thorough and excellent article in The Independent on the controversy. Apparently the attribution of this painting has been in debate for some time, but there is a tremendous amount of evidence to support that it is a Goya, and outside of “We don’t think it’s a Goya”, the Prado really hasn’t said anything substantial to support its case.

I’m not inclined to buy this, and if it’s not a Goya, then it’s really difficult for me to imagine who else it could be by. El Coloso seems such a natural extension of Goya’s body of work and style, that I cannot imagine it otherwise. Again, it’s one of my favourite paintings by one of my favorite artists, so this whole concept goes against my inclinations and bias.

Technorati Tags: Francisco Goya, Goya, Prado, Goya In Times Of War, painting, art, attribution, El Coloso, The Colossus, art, attribution, Spanish art