Even Gustavo Dudamel is wowed by huge Mahler rehearsal in Caracas

This is going to be big.

When the Los Angeles Philharmonic arrived backstage at Caracas’ Teatro Teresa Carreno for its first rehearsal with chorus and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony Wednesday morning, the first reaction from many Angelenos was a gasp, a wow and a big smile. Then they whipped out their cameras.

A sea of tightly packed children and young singers rose to the roof. The official count was 1,207, but with that many, who’s counting? They were warming up, and it seemed as though the earth itself was singing solfège syllables. The sound was primal. “I’m not sure I knew what I was getting into,” cracked the L.A. Phil’s longtime production director, Paul M. Geller.

Caracas diary: Meeting the youngest musicians of El Sistema

The Los Angeles Philharmonic on Tuesday had a free day from its performances of Mahler symphonies with Gustavo Dudamel in Caracas, Venezuela, and spent it on an excursion to a tropical rum farm outside of town. The media, however, only got as far as a race track at the edge of town.

It's not what you think.

The track, which is surrounded by dangerous barrios, was closed, but not the betting office. That has been converted to the Núcleo La Riconada, and there I met Christhien Diaz, a small, quiet but not shy boy of 13 who is studying percussion. He is one of 2,000 music students here, in one of the largest and oldest of Venezuela's more than 300 núcleos. In them, children, beginning as young as 2 and most often living in poverty, are provided instruments and world-class musical training for free for the rest of their youth.

How Blu sees the MOCA mural episode [Updated]

Today, Italian street artist Blu -- whose MOCA-commissioned anti-war mural on a wall of the Geffen Contemporary was taken down because museum Director Jeffrey Deitch found it insensitive to the neighborhood -- gave his side of the story in an e-mail that was posted online by a New York art blog. He also clarified the timeline of events as he sees it.

An e-mail exchange between graffiti photographer/chronicler Henry Chalfant and Blu was posted on Hyperallergic.com. In it, Blu says he “wasn’t expecting to be censored in ‘real-time’ by MOCA.”  The artist also says he hasn’t yet been paid by MOCA for his work on the now whitewashed mural. 

(When contacted by Culture Monster, Deitch said in an e-mail that "The wire transfer payment was sent to Blu yesterday, immediately after I received his invoice and wire instructions. His fee was paid by me personally, not by the museum. There was never any question as to whether or not Blu would be paid his agreed-upon fee.")

The mural –- which was commissioned in advance of MOCA’s April “Art in the Streets” show -- depicted rows of coffins draped in dollar bills. Deitch was concerned because there is a Veterans Affairs hospital and a war memorial to Japanese-American soldiers in the immediate surroundings. 

In his letter to Chalfant, Blu says he spoke to “many people, including some war veterans, who … liked the mural, founding (sic) it truthful.”

Blu says he was asked by Deitch, over dinner, to paint another mural –- one that “invites people to come in the museum,” Blu wrote in his letter to Chalfant -- but the artist declined. The original mural was whitewashed a day later, which sparked a barrage of alleged censorship claims that heated up the blogosphere for several days.

When Blu returned to Italy, he received an e-mail from Deitch asking him to sign a press release, he says, “explaining the motivation of the cancellation in order to calm down the censorship accusation.” The artist refused that as well. “Signing it would have meant technically ‘self-censorship,’ he wrote in the letter.

"I had no objection to the content or the imagery of Blu’s mural," Deitch said in the e-mail to Culture Monster. "The issue was the context, directly in front of the Go For Broke monument. Blu’s mural will be reproduced in the book that will accompany the exhibition."

[For the Record, 8:20 a.m. Monday: An earlier version of this story referred to Japanese-American soldiers as Japanese soldiers.]

-- Deborah Vankin

Twitter.com/@debvankin

Photo: Blu's mural, depicting military-style coffins draped with dollar bills, is painted over. Credit: Casey Caplowe GOOD

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Art, writing and the pleasure of the right word

The Getty Museum hosted a conversation Tuesday night between actor, writer and art collector Steve Martin and Frederic Tuten, the novelist, critic and former professor. It was moderated by Andrew Perchuk of the Getty Research Institute.

It started with a reading, as Martin and Tuten have new books. Tuten's is "Self Portraits: Fiction," with a Roy Lichtenstein self portrait on its cover. Martin's book, "An Object of Beauty,"  has an art writer as a main character -- its publication date is Nov. 23. Carolyn Kellogg reports on Jacket Copy that although the book is set mostly in New York, it includes a passage, which Martin read, about how frustrating it can be trying to visit Southern California's spread-out art institutions.

But the ensuing conversation ranged over many subjects. Read Kellogg's full report on Jacket Copy.

 --Kelly Scott

 

 

Above: Perchuck, Tuten and Martin at the Getty. Credit: Jobe Benjamin/The Getty Research Institute

Muybridge photos questioned by Getty curator

The history of California art is entwined with the history of photography, since the state and the camera both emerged at roughly the same moment in the mid-19th century. Over at the Modern Art Notes blog, both histories are undergoing a fascinating shakeup.

"Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change" is a landmark exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, the first retrospective to examine all aspects of the photographs made by the famous California artist between 1858 and 1893. At least, maybe they were all made by Muybridge -- and maybe not.

I haven't seen it, but during a walk-through of the show with blogger Tyler Green, the Getty Museum's distinguished former curator of photographs, Weston Naef, made some startling observations. Consider two facts: There's no evidence that Muybridge learned the new, technically complicated photographic process in the 1850s or 1860s; yet, highly sophisticated photographs long attributed to him begin to appear almost from the moment he arrived in San Francisco from London in 1866 or 1867.

How could that be? How could a guy start turning out masterpieces right out of the gate, immediately after first picking up a camera (or lugging it, given the size of the machinery of the day)?

Naef's explanation: It's likely that those early Muybridge photographs were published by him but not taken by him.

Instead, they were probably made by others -- most notably by Carleton Watkins, the brilliant photographer whose complete catalog of photographs Naef has long been working on. (The curator's last great Getty show was 2008's "Dialogue Among Giants: Carleton Watkins and the Rise of Photography in California." Here's my review.) If he's right -- and his reasoning is certainly provocative -- the histories of photography and California art are about to be significantly revised.

Modern Art Notes has been unfolding a multi-part interview with Naef, plus Corcoran curator Philip Brookman, over the last few days. It's engrossing, with lots to chew on. The posts begin here.

After the show closes in Washington on July 18, it travels to the Tate Britain in London (Sept. 8-Jan. 16, 2011)  and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (Feb. 26-June 7, 2011). What other photography historians and curators have to say about the dispute will be very interesting to see.

-- Christopher Knight
twitter.com/KnightLAT

Photo: Eadweard Muybridge. Credit: Wm. Vick Studio, Ipswich

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Humor blog takes masterpieces down a notch

A new art-related humor blog is a must-read for anyone tired of the reverence accorded to masterpieces by museums, academics and journalists.

"That Is Priceless" was launched in November by L.A.-based television comedy writer and producer Steve Melcher. Once a day, Melcher spotlights a well-known work of art -- usually a painting -- and gives it an alternate title.

Take for example the above 1896 painting by John William Waterhouse titled "Hylas and the Nymphs." The work depicts a scene from ancient Greek mythology in which Hylas, who is one of Jason's argonauts, encounters a group of the mythical creatures in a sylvan setting.

The blog's alternate title for the piece is -- wait for it -- "Roman Polanski's Version of Events."

Ba-dum-chhh.

Melcher said the idea for the blog came to him while he was visiting the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. 

"At the time, I was looking to do a blog that wouldn't take up too much time and that would use my joke-writing talent," he said.

While at the museum, he saw a painting and "a caption popped into my head and I thought that would work."

10 more GOP senators demand answers from the NEA about teleconference

Ten Republican senators have written to National Endowment for the Arts chairman Rocco Landesman, expressing concern that the Obama administration may have violated federal law by trying to use the agency for political purposes -- something the White House and NEA have denied.

The charges stem from an Aug. 10 teleconference in which the NEA's communications director urged members of the arts community to help Obama's efforts to spur volunteer community service.

Yosi Sergant was subsequently demoted by Landesman, and resigned Thursday. It was accepted effective immediately, an NEA spokeswoman said, adding that Sergant left voluntarily because he thought "he felt he was becoming a distraction for the agency."

Sergant, a former Los Angeles publicist, supported Obama's presidential bid and worked closely with artist Shepard Fairey on his independent "Obama Hope" poster campaign.

At the White House, the special counsel's offfice issued a memo to "White House staff and...agency and department heads," urging all hands to avoid "even the appearance of politicization" during "public outreach efforts" like the teleconference. The White House previously had issued a statement of regret about the incident.

Patrick Courrielche, a former employee of Sergant's with his own Los Angeles marketing company, was part of the group phone call and later posted a recording and transcript.  Writing on the Big Hollywood blog, Courrielche said the teleconference was improper political organizing on behalf of the president's legislative agenda. Courrielche also shared his concerns, and parts of the recording, on Glenn Beck's Fox News program.

NEA chairman explains communications director's demotion

"Loose lips sink ships" was a watchword in the U.S. Navy during World War II. In today's culture wars, what got scuttled was a former Los Angeles publicist's brief tenure as communications director of the National Endowment for the Arts, although he remains on the federal arts-grant agency's communications staff.

Rocco Landesman, the new NEA chairman, issued a written explanation today "to clarify the issues" surrounding an Aug. 10 conference call in which Yosi Sergant, representing the NEA, invited representatives from the arts world to get involved in President Obama's United We Serve volunteerism initiative. The teleconference got blogged about as an attempt to enlist artists on behalf of the White House's agenda, prompting Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) to issue an open letter to the president expressing alarm over the politicization of the NEA, and suggesting that "this episode appears to merit congressional hearings and sustained oversight."

Landesman's statement reiterated the NEA's previous response that the purpose of the teleconference was supposed to be to inform the arts community of opportunities to take part in volunteerism programs, and "not a means to promote any legislative agenda."

The 'Kitsch' effect

Concrete pink flamingos.  A TV-shaped salt and pepper shaker that moonlights as a photo holder. A hot dog cookbook circa 1968. And a straw purse in the shape of a crab. Yes, they all exist in their kitschy glory. Not convinced? One need only visit songwriter-artist-video director-designer Allee Willis’ blog, Kitsch of the Day, for a daily sampling of kitschy-ness from her massive private collection.

But for the kitsch lovers who wish to share their own kitsch treasures, you’re in luck!

The Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch opens today. There’s no entry fee. Crowds won’t be a factor.  And photography is encouraged. This museum lives online.

The virtual depository -- see it for yourself at www.awmok.com -- gives social networking the kitsch effect. A selection of items from Willis’ colossal private collection will be showcased. Taking the virtual experience a step further, visitors can submit digital images and descriptions of their own kitsch treasures, which Willis will curate and add to the museum’s collection. And over at the aptly titled “Kitschenette” section, kitsch aficionados can interact with other like-minded kitsch lovers including Willis, live from her home, or the “kitsch command center.”

Her Valley Village home is a visual wonderland that is so overwhelming it requires double — sometimes triple — takes. Willis, whose compositions range from Earth, Wind and Fire’s “Boogie Wonderland” to what she calls the "very kitschy" “Friends” theme song, purchased the 1937 MGM “party house” in 1980 after her first hit record “September,” another Earth, Wind and Fire diddy. Multicolored bowling balls lie in the cactus garden. In the downstairs rec room are a Bobby Darin and Scripto pen promotional set (four songs, eight ink cartridges and one pen for $1.39) and a quartet of talking Monkees dolls.

“I just always loved old stuff,” Willis said. “I loved the fact that stuff was owned by other people.... I’m more interested in what the object does to the person than I am in the object itself.”

You can read more about the museum here. In the meantime, keep reading for a list of contemporary items Willis deems worthy of induction into the kitsch hall of fame (or is it shame?):

Texas senator warns Obama against 'politicization of the NEA'*

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) issued an open letter Wednesday asking President Obama to "take the necessary steps to ensure that the NEA and the American arts community it supports remain independent from political manipulation by the White House."

Cornyn's letter followed a blogger's critical report about a telephone conference last month in which the National Endowment for the Arts combined with the White House Office of Public Engagement to enlist artists on behalf of the administration's "United We Serve" volunteer service initiative.

Posting the letter on his official website, Cornyn said that "steering the arts community toward a pro-Administration political message" would violate the NEA's nonpartisan mandate. The endowment's main purpose is disbursing federal grants to nonprofit arts organizations.

Cornyn cautioned that NEA involvement in recruiting artists for a presidential initiative could suggest that "NEA grant opportunities ... may be tied to artists' willingness to use their creative talents to advance your administration's policies." He added: "this episode appears to merit congressional hearings and sustained oversight."

Responding by e-mail Wednesday, White House spokesman Shin Inouye said the Aug. 10 teleconference "was not meant to promote any legislative agenda -- it was a discussion on the United We Serve effort and how all Americans can participate."