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» LACMA and Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera is doing her part to help the arts.
The Grammy-winning singer is lending her voice to a fundraiser in support of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s latest project.
Aguilera will perform at the Sept. 25 grand opening celebration of the museum’s Lynda and Stewart Resnick Pavilion, described by LACMA as “the largest purpose-built, naturally lit, open-plan museum space in the world.”
The 29-year-old pop star said she’s honored to help celebrate the 45,000-square-foot exhibition building, which was designed by Renzo Piano.
The gala fundraiser is open to the public. Individual tickets are $5,000 to $10,000 and tables are available for $25,000 to $100,000.
The Resnick Pavilion will be a single-story, glass and stone-enclosed structure sited north of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM), which opened in February 2008 and was the keystone of Phase I of the Transformation. The new building, a pivotal feature of Phase II, is intended to house special exhibitions, freeing up existing gallery space for LACMA’s robust permanent collection. Architecturally, the Resnick Pavilion will complement BCAM—both buildings feature glass roof and ceiling elements that will flood the galleries with natural light. The Resnick Pavilion’s exterior will be a combination of glass and travertine marble, and its interior galleries will be a flexible open plan that can accommodate multiple exhibitions at once as well as large-scale works of art. Construction on the new building commenced in 2008.
I want to hear Christina Aguilera sing at the opening of the Resnick Pavilion. I wonder how this party will rank in comparison to BCAM’s opening?
“Mr. Wilson—sadly, not related to actors Owen or Luke, nor to Ann and Nancy of the band Heart, nor to the volleyball in Castaway (any of which would have made him way cool)—did get a couple of things right amid his hate-spewing under the guise of our name: There is an automotive museum across the street, and omg Justin Bieber is cute. Sooooooo cute.”
— LACMA responds to their Rainn Wilson twitter take over from this weekend, which was more embarrassing than funny.
“LACMA’s a very valuable piece of property that really should be developed. I’m thinking condos immediately. I know it’s by the Grove but I think another mall might be a good idea as well. My mission is to destroy the remaining art institutions in L.A. and look at the value of the real estate beneath them.”
If Fort is right, homophobia landed LACMA the best American painting west of… uh, another Eakins painting of naked guys in Fort Worth. But with Eakins, nothing is simple. His homosexuality (like that of John Singer Sargent) is a matter of plausible conjecture, not fact. In fairness to Columbus, they swapped The Wrestlers for Schiller works by Tooker and Paul Cadmus, who have to qualify as “gayer” than Thomas Eakins.
It’s great that LACMA isn’t ducking the gay angle, but like all great works of art, The Wrestlers resists any single reading. It’s a “queer” picture in the original sense of the word — five figures, and nobody’s face is visible. That kind of pictorial puzzle was ahead of its time.
1. Los Angeles County Museum of Art is on Fire slays me.
2. Eakins is so hot right now.
James Welling 0818 2006
LACMA’s blog has a post of Welling recounting John Baldessari as a teacher at CalArts. It’s very mellow.
He traveled a lot and when he traveled, he would have substitutes come in—Michael Asher taught his class once for a couple of weeks. John would come back with a suitcase of catalogues and Matt Mullican and I would pour over these catalogues—mostly from shows in Europe that were hard to get and hard to see.
