Anything goes

Published: Monday, March 31, 1997

Monday, March 31, 1997

The L.A. County Museum of Art's eclectic collection of contemporary prints proves that modern art can be about anything a woodcut, a cardboard box or a personal revolution to those willing to not only look at the art but to contemplate the artist's message.By Kristin Fiore

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Contemporary art has never been easy or widely popular it is filled with private symbols and unsettling ambiguities, and it has limitless modes and expressions. Some works are deeply personal and abstruse; some are overtly political and outspoken. None are for the faint of heart or lazy of mind.

Those who would contest this or dismiss contemporary art with the typical "I could've done that if I had thought of it" should make their way to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Their "The End of the Century: Prints Since 1970 From the Collection," on view through May 18, captures the last quarter century of art at its best and worst, highlighting its possibilities and contrasts through some of its most notable artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Willem De Kooning and Julian Schnabel, among many others (though many of the most interesting works are by less well-known artists).

The exhibit may not make contemporary art easier to digest, but its incredible diversity of style and media will prove that modern art has something to offer to nearly every taste and encompasses an unprecedented array of talents. This breadth of scope the installation includes woodcuts, lithographs, mixed media and even greeting cards also makes the exhibit less cohesive. But, ironically, the thread that holds the exhibit together is its very lack of continuity. All of the works are fiercely individualistic and express the modern art credo that there is no set definition of art.

Like any decent modern art exhibit, all of the works challenge viewers and force them to feel and think their way through the works, not to merely look at and admire them. Consequently, many works appeal to the mind more than the eye, and some works that leave you cold and baffled may take the next viewer's breath away. For this reason, it is pointless to dismiss a mutated cardboard box or obscure set of photomontages.

Some works may have more universal appeal, however, because they strike political or emotional chords that resonate with many. Erika Rothenberg's "Greetings," a set of screen prints from 1993, are greeting cards that Hallmark would never have the nerve to print, though their sentiments ring more true than the maudlin drivel on commercial cards. Their brightly colored, almost comical drawings reveal more scathing comments on nativism, war and violence toward women: "Sorry my country bombed your country ... I want you to know that I was against it" and "Something has been bothering me since I raped you ... Are you always such a lousy lover?"

However, most works are more inward and abstract, as are the feelings they evoke. Edward Ruscha's "Two Similar Cities" separates two identical cities, represented only by a sprinkling of lights (white dots), with a horizontal expanse of black night sky, uninhabited land and mountains. An ominous red haze of pollution rises from the horizon and casts the mountains in an eerie silhouette.

In an age of Starbucks franchises and Internet internationalism, cities truly do seem identical. And the loneliness and separation the print evokes as though you were observing the valley from a Mulholland Drive 10,000 feet high recalls the separation people feel within cities as well as without. But the print also brings a sense of peace, a contradiction common among many of the pieces that are simultaneously positive and negative or humorous and disturbing.

As if contradictions within a work weren't enough, most of the art is arranged to contrast sharply with whatever is next to it, even though the works are grouped loosely into categories like "Figure versus Abstraction," "Conceptual and Photo-Based Art" and "The Originators of the Print Boom." Brightly colored works like Frank Romero's explosive "The Closing of Whittier Blvd." hang next to black and white abstract drawings, emphasizing the comprehensive reach of contemporary art. The styles, media, color schemes and messages of the works are as individual as the artists themselves.

Occasionally, one larger, powerful work dominates the room, as with Roger Herman's violent and shocking "Marat," which recreates the famous subject of Jacques Louis David's French Revolution-era masterpiece "The Death of Marat." The sharp slices of red, black and white accentuate the grains of this massive woodcut, whose vivid colors, size and hard medium bring out the violence and chaos of the subject and the turmoil of late-18th century France, as well as the violence and confusion of modern times. Unlike David's romanticized version, this more abstract, biting portrait of a slain revolutionary effuses disillusionment and anger.

Other works refer to earlier paintings but give them a witty, contemporary twist. "Picasso's Meninas" is a "Guernica"-style distortion of Velasquez's "Las Meninas," complete with a three-eyed bull and eerie cameo by Picasso himself as the artist. Richard Hamilton's "Putting on De Stijl" uses the Dutch artist's geometry and color combinations of red, blue and yellow to pay him homage.

Some areas of the exhibit will appeal to more traditional tastes, such as Ruth Weisberg's "Giacometti," which is as soft and emotional as a Renoir and devoid of abstraction, or Frank Stella's abstract yet organized "Sinjerli" variations.

With the vast diversity of the exhibit, it is unlikely that someone will like every piece, but it is less likely that someone will find nothing moving or at least fascinating. From Warhol's "Mao Tse-Tung 10" to Sam Francis' frantic "Meteorite," the exhibit provides an introduction to the "masters" of the last 25 years. But hopefully, museumgoers will come away with something more personal than instructional.

ART: "The End of the Century: Prints Since 1970 From the Collection" is on view at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art through May 18. Admission is $6 adults, $4 students and seniors. For more info, call (213) 857-6000 or visit their Web site at www.lacma.org.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

"Giacometti," by Ruth Weisberg, is on view in "The End of the Century: Prints Since 1970 From the Collection."Los Angeles County Museum of Art

"Bastos" by Robert Motherwell.Los Angeles County Museum of Art

"Sinjerli Variation Squared with Black Ground III" by Frank Stella.