The Presence of the Past: Peter Zumthor Reconsiders LACMA

Six years in the making, The Presence of the Past: Peter Zumthor Reconsiders LACMA, is a preliminary design for LACMA's extensive, $650 million campus transformation by the 2009 Pritzker Laureate and 2013 Royal Gold Medal recipient, Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.

Best known for his functional, site specific atmospheric spaces, choice of material, and mastery of light, Zumthor's model is a 360 degrees, glass wall transparent museum.

The glass structure enables art to be viewed into the museum from the street level and out. Galleries will overlook some of Los Angeles' key landmarks including Hollywood Hills, Hancock Park, the La Brea Tar Pits, Chris Burden’s Urban Lights and Renzo Piano’s buildings, namely BCAM and Resnick Pavilion. A panoramic view of one of Los Angeles’ most spectacular icons of Howard Ball’s woolly mammoth cement sculpture situated in the black tar lake on the campus would also be visible.

The exhibit's centerpiece, nicknamed the Black Flower for its resemblance to a floating water lily, is a unique, curvilinear, raised structure with a 30-foot, 6 ton concrete design model, fabricated on site. Powered by a solar panel roof, this efficient structure is designed to generate more power than it uses. There will be sunken rooms, 30-35 feet tall ceilings, and roughly 200,000 square feet of exhibition space, an increase by 70,000 square feet, while retaining its original footprint.

As his first structure outside of central Europe, Zumthor re-invents the encyclopedic museum notion while instilling insight, meaning and function to the project. Its multiple entrances and absence of a grand staircase places all art pods on the same plane, therefore eliminating traditional art hierarchies.

The new building will allow direct pedestrian access to LACMA’s park grounds, to Hancock Park and to the nearby future Purple Line stop, providing a cultural and social place as well as a sense of community.

Commissioned by LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, Michael Govan, Zumthor's over 700 feet long conceptual structure will replace the 1965 William Pereira campus (the Ahmanson, Hammer and Bing wings), as well as the 1986 addition of the Art of the Americas by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates.

Govan, noted that the current building agglomeration is difficult to navigate, and will soon need considerable upgrades and restoration which would cost just as much to renovate, without the addition of exhibit space.

Fundraising and the demolition of the Pereira buildings famously depicted in Ed Ruscha’s the Los Angeles County Museum on Fire (1965-1968), are among the challenges presented by this new project, pending approval by LACMA’s Board of Trustees and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

LACMA's more recent remaining structures such as the two Renzo Piano designs of Resnick Pavilion (2010), and Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) (2008), as well as Bruce Goff’s Pavilion for Japanese Art (1988) and the former May Co building will remain.

Presence of the Past contains approximately 116 items on view, such as late Pleistocene ice age fossils, film, photographs, drawings, architectural models and plans, some of which have not been on public view in several decades, if ever. Debuting is scientific illustrator John L. Ridgway's evocative watercolors of paleontological specimens which have only been illustrated in books to date. Also included is scientific illustrator Charles R Knight's renown fifty-foot mural of the La Brea Tar Pits that has been in storage for several years at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Through its historical, financial, and political evolution, this thought-provoking and revealing exhibit well links LACMA to its past and future.

Co-curated by LACMA 's director Michael Govan, the exhibit is part of the Getty sponsored initiative Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in LA museum exhibits and events currently held in Los Angeles.

The exhibit runs through September 15, 2013, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion, located at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036. For more information call (323) 857-6000 or visit www.lacma.org

The Blue Umbrella

Written and directed by Saschka Unseld, produced by Marc Greenberg, with a score by Jon Brion, is the latest Pixar six-minute short, The Blue Umbrella, about a blue and a red umbrella who, on a rainy day, fall in love.

Shown in theaters prior to Monsters University, The Blue Umbrella is a pure joy to watch. 

Well paced and with remarkable detail, the short features creative techniques of global illumination (GI) and camera capture, rendering stunning detailed visuals that captivate and immerse.

Monsters University

Witty, funny, and vibrant is this latest Pixar release by director Dan Scanlon, a prequel nearly twelve years after Monsters Inc.

Set in Metropolis, the feature opens with young, one-eyed Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) dreaming of becoming one day a professional Scarer. Now enrolled at the prestigious Monsters University's Scare Program, Mike is determined and studious. Only the best Scarers move on to the Scare Floor where terrified human children's screams serve to power Metropolis. Mike plans, however, are derailed when he crosses paths with the furry, laid-back Sulley James Sullivan (John Goodman), whose father is a legendary Scarer, and with the chilling Dean Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren).

The feature is enhanced by superb voice talent and vibrant visuals. Pixar adopted global illumination (GI) lighting to create a rich environment with realistic effects. Using captivating cutting edge detailed animation, nearly 500 colorful characters were created, averaging more than 25 characters per shot, more than a double the number in previous Pixar films. 

Among the featured characters are Midwestern sales monster Don Carlton (Joel Murray) who is back to school to learn new career skills, the blob-like dweeb Scott 'Squishy' Squibbles (Pete Sohn), the rainbow shaped Art (Charlie Day), the two-headed, two-eyed creature Terri and Terry Perry (Sean P. Hayes and Dave Foley) who can't stop squabbling and Professor Knight (Alfred Molina).

Themes of friendship, teamwork, and setting realistic expectations prevail in this funny and engaging animation, keeping the family glued to the screen.

Preceding the movie is a clever 6-minute computer animated short, The Blue Umbrella, featuring new techniques in photorealistic imagery. Directed by Saschka Unseld, it tells the story of a blue and red umbrella who, on a rainy day, fall in love. The street mailbox and signs come to life to help bring the two together, leaving the viewer with a smile.

Hans Richter: Encounters

Recognized for his contributions to twentieth century modernism, Expressionism, Dadaism, Constructivism, Surrealism, and to avant-garde
film, is the versatile German artist, painter, filmmaker, and writer, Hans Richter.

In its debut at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Hans Richter: Encounters is a multidisciplinary exhibit based on 10 chronological, creative encounters between Richter and his fellow artists, filmmakers, writers, and composers, such as Hans Arp, John Cage, Marcel Duchamp, Sergei Eisenstein, and Kazimir Malevich.

The exhibit spans Richter's 50 year career, showcasing 175 of Richter's works along with approximately 60 works by his contemporaries, including drawings, paintings, sculptures, scrolls, photographs, architectural models, ready-mades, wall reliefs, and films, set in the backdrop of Frederick Fisher and Partners Architects’ design.

Opening with Richter's early career of abstract portraits is a series of distinctive and engaging black and white caricatures, among which the oldest piece, Flötisten (1911-15) is featured.

Additional highlights include the historically relevant Battle of Stalingrad (1943-44), a colorful mural made of actual WWII newspaper clippings, as well as Fuge 23 (1923/1976) where, on one page, themes are developed together emulating musical counterpoints.

Most notable of Richter’s art forms and media transformations, is the crossing of art and film. Scrolls of visual shapes, evolving over time, were created, giving rise to the first abstract film ever made, Rhythmus 21 (1921). It is a silent black and white short where square and rectangle forms in different sizes move rhythmically creating a subversion of cinematic illusion of depth. Richter's Orchestration of Colors (Orchestration der Farben, 1923/1970) is another vertical scroll to be used for film.

Juxtaposing photography and moving images is a 3-D special interactive

reality portion of the exhibit, by artists John Craig Freeman and Will Pappenheimer, recreated in the design of the Russian Room, the 1929 Stuttgart modern art landmark, and site of the Film und Foto (FIFO) exhibition where Hans Richter served as a film curator. FIFO emphasized the role of film as a new art form, and was one of the first exhibitions to showcase the use of photography in publicity, media, and graphic design. LACMA visitors would enjoy moving the ipads on the stand and explore their new juxtaposed surroundings.

Encounters offers plenty, and draws from Richter's creative spirit.

The exhibit runs through September 2, 2013, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion, located at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036. For more information call (323) 857-6000 or visit www.lacma.org

Man of Steel

The legendary DC comic superhero is back on the big screen in a nontraditional and more contemporary take of a relatable, yet darker, humorless character. CGI augmented epic battle scenes and massive destruction prevail.

Director Zack Snyder reveals Superman’s origin through well interspersed flashbacks. Facing Planet Krypton’s imminent destruction, parents Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and mother Lara Lor-Van (Ayelet Zurer) send their newborn son Kal-El to Earth where he is raised in a Kansas farm as Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) by loving parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane). A sense of isolation develops as Clark becomes conflicted about the special powers he possesses.

Stellar cast marks this feature. British actor Cavill and Amy Adams are terrific, both displaying screen chemistry. Costner and Lane deliver heartfelt performances as adoptive parents. Russell Crowe stands out as Jor-El, Kal-El's father. However, Michael Shannon steals the show as arch villain Kryptonian General Zod.

Engaging and upbeat, Man of Steel is sure to entertain superhero fans.