Vogue Proposal: The Arts in L.A.

THE ARTS IN L.A.
(Outline prepared for Vogue by Kurt von Meier)

I.   "Conventional" scene: LA as the 2nd city for art in the US (NY = 1st). LA compares itself to NY, reflects trends started there (e.g. Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art), very conscious of acknowledgement and acceptance by the NY scene. As a complement, NY interest in LA has grown remarkably within the last few years. This is manifested on all levels of the art scene's structure:

1.       Specific works of art included in NY exhibitions (e.g. Whitney's sculpture show with many pieces by LA and West Coast artists).

2.       Artists from LA, many still living and working here, have es­tablished themselves on a more permanent and solid basis (e.g. Larry Bell, John McCracken, Tony de Lap, Ron Davis).

3.     Broader stylistic traits, such as the "LA Cool School" or "Fetish Finish," as extended directions of "primary structures" have had a significant impact and influence on artists in NY and elsewhere.

4.       LA publications such as Arts and Architecture and especially Artforum (and possibly even my own LA Letter in Art International) have established LA as a center for the arts on an international scale.

5.       Gallery and Museum activity, especially shows which have traveled to other parts of the country (e.g. the Edward Kienholz retrospective of the Los Angeles County Museum, the Henri Matisse retro­spective of the UCLA Art Galleries).

6.       Growing interest in LA collectors and in the response of the LA public.

II. The new scene: LA as the key city in America, pointing toward the 21st century. In the arts this means LA as the center for developing new media such as cinema, TV, radio, and the often interrelated popular arts (e.g. rock and roll, rhythm and blues music, the world of sports, and even cultish movements such as surfing, drag racing, and psychedelic light shows). In a way these new media have had a profound retroactive influence upon the conventional media of the fine arts, each of which has manifested radical directions that are often intimately related to the Southern California context.

1.       Drawing: Linear decoration called "pin striping" on the hot rods and custom cars has spread now even to the commercial product (Camaro). The original center for such "drawing" was, and still is, LA. The work is often magnificently Baroque--at other times resembles the Book of Kells or such intricate manuscript illumination.

2.       Painting: Scale in contemporary painting has increased to the extent that the billboard has become the format most consonant with the rest of our visual experience (e.g. skyscrapers, freeways). The implications of Pop Art are still being felt and expanded, as the gap between commercial and "fine" art has been bridged almost completely. Hence ads, comic strips, and the incredible lacquer paint jobs of hundreds and hundreds of hand-finished coats on the custom cars are all radical new directions of the conventional medium.

3.       Sculpture: Both scale and motion are keys to the development of sculpture in the 20th century, From what is still largely a concept of sculpture as "macro-jewellery" the more exciting sculptural statements can be found in structures such as cranes and derricks, or in earth movers and other highway equipment. This also brings in the question of motion--kinetic sculpture has developed over the last 50 years, but mostly in the context of the "fine" arts, accord­ing to critics and historians. But it is quite clear to those who can break away from such limiting and exclusivistic concepts that the true masterpieces of sculpture are to be found in the kinetic statements of the automobile and the airplane. A Boeing 727, for example, can be approached as both kinetic sculpture and as "macro-sculpture," and in addition it suggests dimensions of smell and sound.

4.   Architecture: The great space-time, four-dimensional "events," or works of architecture of our time, are not necessarily buildings. They may also be the crossovers and cloverleafs of freeways. Occasion­ally there is a fine conventional structure, such as Le Corbusier's Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp. But the Santa Monica - San Diego freeway interchange articulates our perception of space and time just as carefully, impressively, architecturally.

III. New Media and Intermodia: In addition to those 20th century media created by technology (TV, radio, cinema, etc.) we have now begun to look at many conventional realms of experience as media--at least potentially capable of conveying aesthetic content. The Hipple-Teenybopper-Psychedelic revolution places an extraordinary emphasis upon hair styling, clothing and accessories as media for self-expression. This is only one example of the idea put forth by Marshall McLuhan that media are the extensions of man, although it is a particularly important one for the arts (and for the readers of Vogue). Another significant development is the tendency of artists in the traditional media to move into intermedia. Again, the rise of intermedia has a history that goes well back toward the beginning of the century. Collage (papier colle) was developed by Braque and Picasso in the years 1908-1912; this in turn led to assemblage, which can be thought of as an intermedium between painting and sculpture. The cinema added motion (the dimension of time) to graphic representation around the same time that sculpture was becoming kinetic. The "talkie" further created the intermedium of cinema - sound (music). But the theater has become the richest basis for intermedia developments. Robert Rauschenberg, Billy Kluver, and others have sought to bridge the communication gap between art and science and/or technology. The performance of three evenings by Rauschenberg and others (Steve Paxton, Alex Hay, Debra Hay and Trisha Brown) in Los Angeles last year served as an important stimulus. Since then there has been tremendous activity in intermedia in LA, not all of it necessarily related to the tradition of Environments and Happenings by Oldenburg, Dine, Kaprow and others around the New York scene. Some of the most vital directions of this radical new art scene in LA are suggested here:

1.       Psychedelic revolution activities: including the Human Be-In and Love-In "demonstrations" in local parks, where flowers, food, and smoking equipment are distributed, all with smiles, and sometimes kisses. Wild music, dances, clothing, and conversations. Psychedelic shops in LA and spreading all over one country (even to Canada), half a step beyond the typical Greenwich Village shops. San Francisco is also key.

2.       The Freak-Outs involve not only performance of the new (and typically West Coast) sound, but also light shows with multiple-projections of slides and films--in ways deriving from Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable and Velvet Underground. The new Cheetah opening in LA is only one example, and a somewhat more commercial­ized one at that, of a phenomenon that has been growing in LA and San Francisco for several years--the multi-media happening.

3.      LA and also more recently San Francisco, have become centers for the creation of the new psychedelic rock and roll music. LA has long been a major recording and distribution center for popular music, however, and the recent trends only serve to reinforce the importance of music in this area. Rhythm and blues occupies another major position in the music worlds of LA and the USA.

4.      Non-scheduled events, or better, "locations," supply some of the more far-out experiences (essentially aesthetic) to be found in the LA area. In addition to the well-known Sunset Strip, there is the new focal area on Fairfax (late at night), Forest Lawn, Topanga Canyon with its Hippie community, Decker Canyon with its even further-out psychedelic tribe, and of course, Watts.

5.      Aesthetically radical scheduled (although on occasion impromptu) events of particular interest during recent months are associated with the Guerilla Theater, specializing in street pieces, and on a larger scale, activities of the LA Provo--modeled on the Amsterdam group. The Provo form perhaps the most historically significant movement in the arts in America today, extending their aesthetic concepts into the realms of politics, and into Life in general. Bearing more than an incidental relationship to the Dada tradition started in Zurich during the First World War, and perhaps also to the Surrealist ac­tivities, they will be essential participants in the Festival of Experimental Arts to be held at UCLA at the end of April. Avant-garde activities in many of the above fields will be represented there; and it should be a watershed for the whole development of the arts in LA.