From Pacific Asia Museum, the Japanese American National Museum, the Getty & the Autry
Whoa, this remarkable cool, comfortable SoCal summer can't last forever, can it? While SoCal Minds will enjoy the clime with a Friday lite posting, take it, too, as a sign for one and all to get out and keep moving around town to take in an array of mind-extending stuff, including:
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In Pasadena, the highly cultivated eye of curator Kalim Winata turns from books on what's made in India and China to how popular culture emerged in 'China Modern,' an exploration and exhibit that opens Friday. Traveling from the late Qing through Shanghai and all about the People's Republic, the show offers a graphic look at how the historic figures like Mao and modern southern beauties get mashed-up to popularize everything from politics to pomades.
How popular culture gets designed in 'China Modern'
- In Little Tokyo, it will be a busy weekend as the museum moves nearer to marking its 25th anniversary, partly by inviting some key players on Saturday to recall how an iconic exhibit got put together. The remembrances of the volunteers who recovered the intern barracks from the desolation and decay of their Heart Mountain, Wyo., site, then will be followed on Sunday by a paid-event that celebrates a century of good eating in the neighborhood, with a tour and tasting of noteworthy eateries.
Click here and scroll down, through for this weekend's events
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It may be aptly provocative in titular fashion. And certainly with the esteemed scholar involved it won't be a case of headline silliness. But the audience for the free Sunday talk up on the hill simply will have to decide if this question gets answered: Why did Italian artists draw? Go explore how the simple presence paper propelled the profound Renaissance revolution in art in the hands of titans such as Michaelangelo, Mantegna, DaVinci and Titian; space is limited, reservations are required. That's a 1518 Pontormo study shown on the right, by the way.
Click here to learn more about, rsvp for talk on 'Why Italian Artists Drew'
- In Griffith Park, courtesy of the folks at Bank of America, this will be a free museum weekend and a perfect chance finally to catch up Sunday afternoon with Laura Skandera Trombley, who not only serves as president of Pitzer College but also is one of the preeminent scholars on the legendary Mark Twain. She has appeared all across the region talking about her new book and its revelations about Samuel Clements' 'Other Woman.' Lots of attention to the famed western storyteller on this, the centennial of his death, including the much anticipated, upcoming release of the autobiography whose publication he barred until long after he was gone.
Click here for more info on Mark Twain lecture
In Westwood, Korean artistic and cultural creations get a spotlight with the opening Sunday of two free exhibitions, one devoted to contemporary ceramics from noteworthy artisans and the other to joyful figurines of clowns, tigers, acrobats and other characters, all of which are used to adorn coffins. Both displays are free and offer insights, curators say, into Korean life -- the ceramics illustrating a creative 'liveliness' even in the approach to every day objects and the dolls expressing both a desire for joy in the next world while appreciating the transience of this existence. And, by the way, in the Mid-Wilshire on Saturday afternoon, those who appreciate art from the peninsula may wish to take in a traditional Buddhist sutra painting lecture and demonstration.
With summer fleeting and the heat lessening some, here's two chances to don some different duds and to step out and into some different aesthetics. In Pasadena tonight, put on those cheongsams, qi pao, ao dai, sari, hanbok and sashay over to an 'Evening in 1930s China,' an event connected with the exhibition, 'China Modern: Designing Pouplar Culture,' for which there will be a special Saturday afternoon tour with curator Kalim Winata (shown in photo at right). On Saturday, get into a whole different thang and garb to dash to the Mid-Wilshire for an evening event that celebrates the manliness of the art of Thomas Eakins and Catherine Opie with some cutting dashing, Victorian Industrial-inspired Ultimate Steampunk Outfits, assisted by the folks at Clockwork Coture.
On the Westside, those who can skirt around the messy 405 Freeway construction will find a Saturday afternoon free screening of a film that may answer a lot of questions for fans of soul legend Bill Withers. 'Still Bill' interviews an all-star array of cultural figures to give context and perspective to the top-selling musical figure who overcame a childhood stutter, caught the barest few lucky breaks when he left the Navy and moved to L.A. to seek a recording career and went on to hit the charts with unforgettable songs like 'Ain't No Sunshine,' 'Lean on Me,' and 'Just the Two of Us.' And, then, because he wanted a real family life, Withers walked away from it all. What was that all about?
