Hammer Museum
Westwood
October 24, 2015
We did not expect to go back to the Hammer Museum so soon; we had last been here in August. But we were intrigued by Mike Boehm’s article which we saw in the Los Angeles Times on October 10, Brush with Conflict or Stroke of Genius?, about the Canadian landscape artist Lawren Harris. A follow up article appeared in the Times the day we went to the exhibit.
The Harris paintings were quite striking. Although they are landscapes, they are somewhat abstract. There are echoes of art deco in them. A great range of Canadian geography was represented, from Lake Superior to Baffin Island to the Rocky Mountains. It reminded us of our trip to Canada last year, although we had stayed in urban areas of Ontario, but the exhibit inspired us, and perhaps we will go back to see some wilder places in the future. The Harris exhibit at the Hammer runs through January 24, 2016.
We toured the other special exhibitions, including three that were in small galleries: Avery Singer; Njideka Akunyili Crosby; and Jessica Jackson Hutchins. We enjoyed the intricate details and shapes and perspective of the paintings in the Singer exhibit. We also liked the collages by Crosby and Hutchins’ use of ceramics. We then went on to a larger exhibition of Frances Starks’ works. She uses quite a variety of different media, and there were several pieces we liked. We were most entertained by a three-dimensional piece: a black dress on which an old-fashioned rotary dial telephone face had been affixed. Margaret and Bob posed in front of it, with Margaret holding out a hand to make it appear she was dialing the phone, although of course she was not actually touching the art.
We ate lunch in the museum café and were all pleased with our food. Margaret had a good appetite, which was nice to see.
Museum admission is free. Parking on Saturday costs a flat $3 charge. Wheelchair accessibility is generally good, except that the doors into galleries are heavy and do not have automatic opening mechanisms. With two of us assisting Margaret, that is not an issue, but a wheelchair patron visiting alone would have to rely on staff and other patrons to open doors.
We did have a few odd moments in the museum parking garage when leaving. Margaret at first thought we were at the wrong car and did not want to get in it. We did finally convince her it was our car.
We then met up with Meredith’s sister Kathleen for coffee, and we gave Margaret a book of cartoons from the 1940’s that she had remembered recently, Barnaby and Mr. O’Malley, by Crockett Johnson. She was very pleased with the book, and Meredith read through the first chapter with her.