Nighthawks, Cliff Dwellers and Millard Sheets

Who knew that Millard Sheets created a painting, "Beer for Prosperity", which is strikingly similar to Edward Hopper's famous work, "Nighthawks"?  (Or perhaps it is the other way around.  "Beer for Prosperity" preceeded "Nighthawks" by 9 years.)

Who knew that Sheets painted his own version of George Bellow's 1913 famed work, "Cliff Dwellers", a scene of N.Y. tenement street life in the early 1900s.  Sheets' entitled his 1934 painting "Street People".

And who knew that Sheets for a very brief period of time dabbled in impressionism? (Thank heavens he gave up that style quickly!) 

Millard Sheets is, after all, one of the most viewed California artists even today, over 20 years after his death. Every day thousands of people walk by and admire his huge mosaic murals on the exterior walls of what are now 80 Chase Manhattan Banks in California. (These murals were originally commissioned in 1963 by Home Savings of America.) For most people, the murals and his famous painting "Angels Flight"  at LACMA are the most defining of Sheets' art works.

So the exhibition "Millard Sheets: The Early Years 1926-1944" at the Pasadena Museum of California Art is revealing.  During this time Sheets was a young artist with growing influence whose work, especially his watercolors, came to define California Regional Art. 

One sees an increasing simplification in his watercolors and oils. Fewer details.  More broad strokes of warm, golden colors -- California colors that seen to minimize the negative aspects of his subject matter.  Even his paintings of migrant worker camps in the heart of the Great Depression or Los Angeles tenements are infused with light and a sense of the benign that seems to distance the viewer from what was, no doubt, the harsh and ugly realities of the scenes.  

One other issue:  Sheets was obviously painting to sell to people who wanted art for their homes. And in that era people wanted beauty on their walls. There was plenty of ugliness and harsh realities outside their doors.

The show is worth seeing.  If you are taking the Gold Line, get off at the Memorial Park station in Pasadena.  Their website is http://www.pmcaonline.org/

 A companion exhibition, The Ulysses Guide to the Los Angeles River, is in the back gallery at PMCA.  More about this provocative show to come...

Best Museum in Pasadena

Okay, declaring the Pasadena Museum of California Art to be "Best of Pasadena" is definitely going out on a limb.  There are, no doubt, some who would argue that the Norton Simon, with its sizeable European art collection, is the best.  Others would immediately leap up and shout: "What about the Pacific Asia museum."


But my vote goes to Pasadena Museum of California Art for curating consistently interesting--even provocative--exhibitions of art works by Californians.  Take the Art + Science exhibition last year.  The artists whose work was exhibited often have "day jobs" at JPL or Cal Tech.  And these were not just cute little paintings done by scientists; the art work was good science first of all.  3D photos of Mars.  Art work create on site by pendlums.  Hyper close-ups of insects.  Topping it all: wall shadow/art created by a technology that I really did not understand. 


And that was just one show. 


While the Art + Science show took up the entire exhibition space at PMCA, generally, their space is split up and each of their five galleries is devoted to one artist.   For instance, the most recent exhibitions, for Fall 2009, included a retrospective of Wayne Thiebaud's paintings in the main gallery, prints by Frances Gearhart in the back gallery, and portraits on glass in the Foundation Gallery upstairs.  In all, this show demonstrated a century's worth of work by California artists.


This last Saturday, a new exhibition opened, showcasing the early works of Millard Sheets.  More about it to come...

The Gold Line station closest to the Pasadena Museum of California Art is

www.pasadenaneighborhoods.com/memorial_park_gold_line_station_museums.htm


PMCA is located at 490 E Union, Pasadena CA.  Open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.

A Mystery at the East L.A. Civic Center

Of all the Gold Line Stations on the southern part of the line, the East L.A. Civic Center is the richest from an arts point of view.  There are sculptures, artistic ironwork, and murals at every turn. And one of these murals has a mysterious mosaic within it.

The Roybal Health Center is just across from the Gold Line station.  You can't miss it.  The broad brilliant primary color stripes of tile can be seen for blocks.  Nice colors, you think, looking at the side of the building that faces the station.

Then walk around to the front of the building and you will see a mosaic mural of Mayan pictograms embedded high up in the white stripe.  The series is almost one block long! 

My question is:  were they chosen for aesthetic reasons or do they contain a message? 


Does it say something like "Community Health Care at this location"?  Or "Bring sick people here"? 


Or are these just interesting figures lined up in a row to dramatize the cultural ancestory of most people in the neighborhood?  The color of the tiles in this mural are all the same: brown, blue, white and red.  Is that an artistic or cultural choice or was it simply a budget limitation?

The only thing I have seen that approaches this mysterious use of the Mayan alphabet is at the Heritage Square station, where Mayan characters have been cast in concrete and sited in a bed of plants beside the platform.  And I don't know what they say either.

To see the ones at the Heritage station, go to:

 http://www.pasadenaneighborhoods.com/heritage_square_gold_line_station_los_angeles.htm

More to come

Going Southeast on the Gold Line

I'm a Westside L.A. Lady (now living in Pasadena, I have to confess) who never ventured east of the L.A. River. Well, that's not entirely true, either, but more about La Serenata and Self Help Gallery later.


One day a year or so ago I got onto the Gold Line to go all the way down to Long Beach to meet someone for lunch.  It was a lark--a mini-adventure. Then a new world opened up before my eyes as I saw parts of Los Angeles I had never seen before. (And I moved here in the mid-1970s.) Suddenly I was reminded of my travels by rail in Europe. Los Angeles seemed to be a more urban city, more sophisticated. And the art works at the Metro stations was impressive.


So armed with my Canon digital camera I began to document the art at all the Gold Line stations. It's taken some time now, but I am almost done. There is no page yet for Little Tokyo/Arts District, but there will be soon. My Long Beach friend and I are going to the Geffen. I am encouraging her to take the Blue Line from Long Beach instead of driving her Mercedes and having to deal with traffic and parking.



As I explored the Gold Line, the one station that left me agog is at the East L.A. Civic Center. California golden poppies facing skyward inspired the sun shelter. The art at that Civic Center is amazing. And then there is the lake, a pool of serenity on the eastside.


If you want to see more right now go to:

http://www.pasadenaneighborhoods.com/east_l_a__civic_center_station_metro_gold_line.htm

More to come...