Current Exhibition

Civic Virtue: The Impact Of The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery And The Watts Towers Arts Center

SAVE THE DATE

OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2011

Exhibition Dates: December 15, 2011 to February 12, 2012
Guest curator: Pilar Tompkins Rivas

Website for Civic Virtue >

Civic Virtue: The Impact of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and the Watts Towers Arts Center showcases the work of the artists, curators, and community activists whose contributions enhanced the culture of our city and helped to define Los Angeles as an international artistic center. Included in the exhibition, which spans close to a century of art history, are more than 130 works by artists who shaped Southern California’s destiny as an art capital.

For a complete description of the exhibition, click here >

From its inception by the freethinking Aline Barnsdall, who first brought Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, and Rudolf Schindler to Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park was dedicated to “bringing an enjoyment of art into the reach of every person in the city.” The story of the Municipal Art Gallery is inextricably tied to a complex social history that links the role of civic government to the development of the arts in Los Angeles.

For more than fifty years LAMAG has been the City of Los Angeles’s primary exhibition venue for visual art. Before LACMA and MOCA, the gallery was the only venue in the city that consistently presented the work of emerging local artists. From architectural plans by Frank Lloyd Wright from the 1920s, modernist artworks scrutinized under McCarthyism and early citywide festivals celebrating diverse artists like Karl Benjamin and David Hammons to works by iconic and influential artists like John Altoon, Billy Al Bengston, Vija Celmins, Guy de Cointet, Llyn Foulkes, Ed Kienholz, Suzanne Lacy, John Mason, John McLaughlin, Ed Moses, Bruce Nauman, Betye Saar, Julius Shulman, and Patssi Valdez, Civic Virtue showcases work by more than fifty creators across eight decades.

FEATURED ARTISTS
Robert Adams, Peter Alexander, Martha Alf, John Altoon, Don Bachardy, Billy Al Bengston, Karl Benjamin, Edward Biberman, William Brice, Morris Broderson, Hans Burkhardt, Vija Celmins, Robert Chuey, Guy de Cointet, Corita (Sister Mary Corita Kent) , Connor Everts, Lorser Feitelson, Judy Fiskin, Llyn Foulkes, Harry Gamboa Jr., Joseph Glasco, Joe Goode, David Hammons, Maren Hassinger, Maxwell Hendler, Boza Hessova, Utagawa Hiroshige, Ulysses Jenkins, John Paul Jones, Matsumi Kanemitsu, William Kienbush, Edmund Kohn, Helen Lundeberg, John Mason, Norman McLaren, John McLaughlin, Bruce Nauman, Senga Nengudi, Franklin Parker, Seymour Rosen, Betye Saar, Julius Shulman, Edmund Teske, John Valadez, Patssi Valdez, DeWain Valentine, Andy Warhol, June Wayne, Rex Whistler, Charles White, Robert Wilhite, Emerson Woelffer, Frank Lloyd Wright, Lloyd Wright

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SPECIAL EVENTS
Panel Discussion – Civic Virtue: Action and Irony

Sunday, December 18, 2011, 2 p.m.

Moderated by guest curator Pilar Tompkins Rivas, this discussion features three of the most interesting scholars on Los Angeles’ cultural history, Dr. Sarah Schrank, Cal State Long Beach, and Susan D. Anderson, UCLA and essayist D.J. Waldie addressing the question: In Los Angeles, how has the municipal government participated in shaping the cultural image of the metropolis?

Roundtable Discussion – Civic Virtue: Working Together

Sunday, January 15, 2012, 2 p.m.

Moderated by art critic and writer Suzanne Muchnic, this discussion centers around Josine Ianco Starrels, curator and former director of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in conversation with artists whose work she supported during her years at LAMAG including Betye Saar, Harry Gamboa Jr., Don Bachardy, Sarah Perry and Connie Jenkins.

Free Family Art Workshop: – Cool School L.A.

Saturday, January 21st, 1-3 p.m.

Families will learn about the “Cool School” modern art movement of the late 1950s-1960s where artists used both traditional and industrial media in unexpected ways. Families will create their own “Cool School” works of art using a variety of exciting materials.

Gallery Hours:
Public Hours: Thursday – Sunday 12 – 5 pm
Special Evening Hours 5 to 9 PM: December 22 and 29; January 5 and 19; and February 2