Beverly Hills

There is something about our daily commute these days that is visibly different.  Actually, now that we think of it, the streets of Los Angeles have changed, and we are thinking this change is for the better.

The MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House has decided to turn Los Angeles into a gallery space.  Instead of hanging paintings, they commissioned artists to create 21 billboard-sized artworks that will replace normal advertising spots.  So you can get a daily dose of public art without ever leaving the comfort of your car’s leather seats.

The exhibition How Many Billboards? Art In Stead — much like Clockshop’s Billboard Series, which also transformed Los Angeles’ landscape with artist designed billboards — is spread across the city, but is concentrated in West Hollywood and the Pico/Fairfax area.

We are hoping these artist billboards are a habit Los Angeles will keep.

The opening reception is this Saturday, February 27, 1-6pm at the Schindler House.  On Sunday, there will be panel discussions with participating artists from 1-5pm.  Also, make sure to check out their calendar for other programming accompanying the show.  Click here for more information.

Image: Artist Kerri Tribe’s billboard on La Brea Ave., north of Venice Blvd., on the east side of the street, facing north; photo: Gerard Smulevich

No matter how many times I drag myself to the movie theater to see shows like Avatar in 3D or the latest Batman in I-Max, I always feel like I’m doing just that: dragging.  Throughout the last century, the entertainment industry has undeniably evolved, but whether it’s for better or for worse is strictly a matter of opinion.  Personally, there has never been a morsel of doubt that I extract the greatest amusement from plays, books, movies and performances that are inextricably linked to the past.  Call me old fashioned, old-soul, call me grandma, but there is something about the classics (they’re called classics for a reason) that resonates from the works of Tinseltown’s youth.  Something that I can’t quite put my finger on—something like star quality.

“I don’t know what is, but I’ve got it,” reads the inscription at the entrance to Star Quality: The World of Noel Coward, the current exhibition at the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts & Sciences.  Noel Coward embodied the term “Renaissance man” with the grace, style, and elegance of a true dandy, and the Academy pays homage to him with a compelling installation of photographs, antique personal items, letters, films, sheet music, posters, playbills, set and costume designs, and personal clothing.

Primarily known as a playwright (Hay Fever, Private Lives, Cavalcade, Design for Living and Blithe Sprit to name a few, all later adapted for the cinema), and a celebrated composer (Mad About the Boy, I’ll See You Again), Coward’s immense talent and contribution to the arts encompassed nearly every form.  Star Quality is the first exhibition to shine light on the full breadth of his copious talents as a stage and screen director, actor, cabaret performer, painter, and wartime patriot, all while evoking the world of sawdust, tinsel, and naïve opulence that characterized early 20th Century Hollywood.

The tone of the exhibition is set immediately when you enter the 4th floor gallery of the Academy.  Large black and white photographs radiate Coward’s star quality, presence, and personality where he, in his signature dressing gown with a cigarette, preens as a dapper Hollywood darling.  Mannequins display his trademark loungewear, some flanked by caricatures that capture the flamboyant and distinctive personality that earned him a reputation his peers regarded as frivolous.

One cannot help but be impressed by the array of artifacts on display from Coward’s career.  A fascinating collection of cigarette holders (many gifts from Hollywood starlets), embroidered slippers, and letters provide a glimpse into Coward’s personal and private life. Photos taken on the set of The Untamed Lady show the close and affectionate relationship between Coward and Mary Pickford, one of his first and dearest friends in Los Angeles.  A sapphire blue dressing gown, worn by Moira Lister in the production of Present Laughter, comes to life against an array of photographs from the film.  It is a thrill to wander through this collection and see the evolution of the creative process, from a nascent thought into a polished end product.

Great genius in any form can be met with skepticism and rejection.  Coward’s star shined the brightest late in his life, and full recognition of his brilliance was awarded posthumously. One photograph in particular had a lasting effect—an image of Julie Andrews (playing Gertrude Lawrence) and Daniel Massey (playing Noel Coward) from the 1968 movie Star!. It served as a reminder of Coward’s increasing public popularity towards the end of his life (the film was released just 5 years before his death).

Drawing on public and private collections, and with unparalleled access to the Coward Archives, Star Quality: The World of Noel Coward showcases a remarkably robust, multifaceted and marvelous career, and recalls an era of Los Angeles history known for its lavishness, luxury, and innovation.  Coward’s is a legacy that even through the glamour of Hollywood remains deeply human.  Having what it takes in this town is not enough to achieve your dreams, but if you have star quality, you just might be able to do it all.

-By Brittany Krasner

Star Quality: The World of Noel Coward is on view through April 18th at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences on Wilshire Blvd.  Please visit their website for public viewing hours and more information. Admission is free!

How much do you know about Scandinavia beyond “smorgasbord”, the midnight sun, fjords, and your fantasy Swedish swim team? All you need to know about our Nordic contemporaries, cinematically speaking, can be seen at the Scandinavian Film Festival.  Featuring the cream of the crop in Scandinavian film, including all of the region’s submissions for the Best Foreign Film Academy Award, the Festival began last Saturday and finishes Sunday, January 17.  All the screenings are held at the Writer’s Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills and, if you take a look around, they’re filled with LA’s surprisingly large Scandinavian population.

Sitting behind us on Sunday, January 10 for the screening of Denmark’s Oscar submission, Terribly Happy, was a representative from the Royal Danish Embassy, for example.  Directed by Henrik Ruben Genz, the darkly comic Terribly Happy has a distinctly Coen brothers’ tone, albeit set in small town Denmark.

Saturday afternoon, we watched the Swedish submission for Hollywood’s favorite golden statue, called Involuntary.  From director Ruben Ostlund, the film follows five parallel stories of relatable, yet generally hysterical and also melancholy, human behavior. One vignette that stands out follows two young girls with an overdeveloped appetite for sex and alcohol, especially considering they can’t be many years out of puberty.

Before each film, you’re presented with a short from the same country.  The short film screened prior to Terribly Happy, was the equally dark and comic The New Tenants about the apartment building from hell.  Prior to Involuntary, we were met with The Man With All The Marbles – a captivating, witty, and beautifully made film about two brothers who have never quite understood how to get what they want from each other.

This Saturday, you can see The Accident, from Norwegian director Marcelino Martin Valiente at 12:45pm followed by Starring Maja at 2:30pm, which hails from director Teresa Fabik of Sweden.  Sunday, January 17 at 12:30pm, you’ll have a chance to see the much-anticipated submission from Iceland, Reykjavik Rotterdam, directed by Oskar Jonasson.

For more information on the Scandinavian International Film Festival, including a full schedule, please click here.

Terribly Happy is set for a small theatrical release, including screenings at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills.  For more information, please click here.

File this under “things to make you feel like an underachiever.” Legendary Hollywood producer Irving Thalberg, whose life and career are being celebrated in a current exhibition at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, was just 20 years old when he became head of production at Universal Studios.  In the grand Hollywood tradition of nepotism and exploiting personal connections, Thalberg’s grandmother’s neighbor was Carl Laemmle, the same man whose name still graces cinemas around the city.  And of course, in 1920, the movie business, as well as much of the landscape of L.A., was pretty wide open, waiting for the right person to come along and develop it into something big and important.

Although his name is little remembered outside industry circles with a sense of history, Irving Thalberg was just the man to help “the pictures” mature.  Thalberg restructured the way movies are produced like Henry Ford organized his auto factories.  Due to a childhood spent bedridden by illness reading the classics, he also appreciated fine literature.  These traits—business acumen and artistic sensibility—combined to produce some of the most profitable and sophisticated films of Hollywood’s early years.  Among his “40 hits a year” were Ben-Hur, ­The Big Parade, Grand Hotel, and one of the seminal escapist adventures (it was the Depression after all) Tarzan the Ape Man.  Thalberg and his system managed to rake in $8 million during the worst year of the Depression (a feat that would make contemporary execs snap their Ray-Bans in envy).  Box office success also allowed him to afford the occasional “experimental” film without stars or glamour.  Thalberg green-lighted such risky projects as King Vidor’s Kafkaesque The Crowd, Tod Browning’s infamous Freaks, and Vidor’s all African-American Hallelujah.

F. Scott Fitzgerald based the pragmatic protagonist of The Last Tycoon on Thalberg because “he led the pictures way up, past the range and power of the theatre.”  And 110 years after his birth, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences continues to celebrate his contribution to cinema with a small but vibrant exhibition in their fourth floor gallery on Wilshire Boulevard.

Clips of Thalberg’s great film achievements light up the walls; gowns worn by glamorous stars grace mannequins; the leather body armor worn by Ramon Novarro in Ben-Hur (smaller than you might expect) lies under a glass case; even Lon Chaney’s versatile make-up kit is disemboweled for inspection.  Continuing on, you’ll find the not to be missed mechanical birdcage tiara worn by his wife Norma Shearer in Marie Antoinette. But the stars of this show are the gorgeous black and white publicity and production photographs.  They are shimmering works of art and standouts include the impressionistic portrait of Novarro as a modern day Orpheus by the masterful George Hurrell, and two portraits of Joan Crawford: one in which she is drowning in a luxuriant fur collar and the other, a triptych with impossibly long eyelashes.

Best of all, admission is free, just be sure to bring along a photo ID as all visitors must be signed in, shall we say very deliberately, by security.

- By Michael Hartig

The Irving Thalberg exhibit will be shown at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on the fourth floor until December 13.  For more information, please visit www.oscars.org

Just in time to make us all feel lazy and inadequate, the Annenberg Space for Photography opened a new exhibit earlier this month simply called Sport: Iooss and Leifer.  A photographic chronicle of some of the most famous faces in the recent history of sports, the exhibit features over 80 prints by two of the worlds most acclaimed sports photographers – Walter Iooss and Neil Leifer.  Just remember, when you stop by the exhibit, that these are professional athletes and the photos shouldn’t make you feel bad for not having six-pack abs post-Thanksgiving.

Walter Iooss’s photographs have a bold feeling that almost says “hey, I’m just tellin’ it like it is.”  They don’t seem like they want to trick you into anything nor do they seem really produced beyond getting a household name in front of his camera and lighting equipment.  The athletes are the ones who have to bring the drama, the intrigue, the muscles, and the serious warrior poses (see: Serena Williams).  Born in Texas, Iooss moved to New Jersey as a young child and marked his first roll of film as a sports photographer at a Chicago Cardinals vs. N.Y. Giants game at Yankee Stadium.

A man who’s a fan of being in the field, Neil Leifer’s photographs are powerful in a separate way from Iooss’.  Known for his shots of Muhammad Ali in the ring and behind the scenes, Leifer has clocked innumerable hours snapping shots of ice boaters, the horses at the Kentucky Derby, surfers, and tennis players – most of his shots are of their athletic prowess in action.  A great shot of Martina Navratilova setting up to serve, for example, is complimented by one of Pelé crowd surfing over his fans in Mexico City.

From now through January, there are lectures and conversations accompanying the exhibit including one (which will likely be packed) featuring Neil Leifer himself – Walter Iooss came and went on November 14.  Other lecturers include Rick Rickman, Lucy Nicholson, and Aimee Mullins with Howard Schatz.

See you at the gym, tough guy. Better keep that New Year’s Resolution…

Sport: Iooss and Leifer will be on view at the Annenberg Space for Photography through March 7, 2010.  For more information, please call or click here.

Halloween has come and gone — you’ve hung up your wigs and put away the sumo wrestler fat suits.  It’s high time to return to thinking seriously about the coming months.  By seriously, we mean – it’s time to think about all the openings and parties you’ll be heading to through the holiday season.

Lady Gaga isn’t someone you’d readily associate with Los Angeles’ contemporary art scene, but Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli would like to politely disagree.  For MOCA’s 30th Anniversary Gala, Vezzoli will put on the first and only performance of his Ballet Russe Italian Style (The Shortest Musical You Will Never See Again) starring Lady Gaga and dancers of the Bolshoi Ballet.  Also on offer at the gala will be a preview of “Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years,” featuring 500 works from the museum’s permanent collection by such luminaries as Jeff Koons, Ed Moses, Nancy Rubins, and Ed Ruscha.  The exhibition itself opens to the public on November 15, but you’ll want to see Ms. Gaga’s performance on the 14th, just to see if she still gets dressed in the dark.  There is also an Engagement Party event on November 21 for MOCA members featuring My Barbarian’s The Fourth Wall to celebrate the museums second 29th birthday.

Los Angeles Philharmonic has decided to keep things interesting this fall with their “Eureka! West Coast, Left Coast Festival.” A celebration of the culture of California and how it works to inspire musical and artistic masterpieces, the festival will run from November 21 through December 8 and will include such performances as Kronos Quartet led by Leonard Slatkin in a world premiere by film music composer Thomas Newman and multifaceted Mike Einziger in a solo performance with a number of guest collaborators.  Gustavo Dudamel will conduct the LA Phil in Esa-Pekka Salonen’s LA Variations and also, the festival will include a slew of multidisciplinary events.

The gallery scene doesn’t disappoint this season either with a number of openings that should fit well in your schedule.  Roberts and Tilton in Culver City will bring Delphine Courtillot and her cinematic, almost Californian paintings back for her second exhibit in their space on November 21.  On November 7, you can celebrate the opening of Tomoo Gokita’s exhibit “Heaven” at Honor Fraser Gallery in Culver City.  Photographer (and Fine Arts LA team member) Gray Malin’s work will be shown at David Streets Gallery in Beverly Hills now through the holiday season.  LA><ART will throw their Third Biannual Benefit Auction on Sunday, November 15 featuring participating artists like John Baldessari, Dave Muller, and Allen Ruppersberg.

In case the Luis Melendez exhibit at LACMA has been making you nothing but hungry, November 18 sees a rare chance to head to the museum on a Wednesday (when they’re normally closed).  They present “The Art of Wine and Food: Spain in the Time of Luis Melendez” featuring a buffet inspired by what Melendez might have munched on during painting breaks.

Make sure to keep a couple of your Saturdays open.  We’ll be back with more where this came from… So stay tuned!

(Image by Tomoo Gokita)