This Weekend at LACMA: Van Gogh to Kandinsky and John Altoon Open, Final Day of Kaz Oshiro: Chasing Ghosts, The Conclusion of Orson Welles Film Series, and More!

June 6, 2014

Visit LACMA this weekend to explore masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Cézanne and discover how their work inspired an entire generation of artists—Henri Matisse, Raoul Dufy, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Wassily Kandinsky, among others—in Expressionism in Germany and France: From Van Gogh to Kandinsky. On view first (and free) to LACMA members during Member Previews, the expansive exhibition features more than 40 artists, 90 paintings, and 45 works on paper, telling the story of the extraordinary cultural dialogue that took place among German and French artists in the early 20th century.

Across the way and an excellent pair to Van Gogh to Kandinsky, John Altoon is the first major retrospective devoted to this under-known yet important artist whose brief but significant career unfolded in Southern California in the 1950s and 60s. Seventy paintings and drawings, combining abstraction and figuration, demonstrate Altoon’s post-modernist, erotically charged, and socio-politically conscious work. Members get access first on Friday and Saturday during Member Preview Days, before it opens to the public on Sunday.

Wassily Kandinsky, Sketch I for Painting with White Border, 1913, Phillips Collection, © 2013 Wassily Kandinsky/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris, photo © The Phillips Collection Wassily Kandinsky, Sketch I for Painting with White Border, 1913, Phillips Collection, © 2014 Wassily Kandinsky/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris,photo © The Phillips Collection

For more Friday entertainment, see the latest installment of Jazz at LACMA with the Grace Kelly Quintet at 6 pm in a free, live, outdoor performance at the museum. To the south, visit the Compton Art+Film Lab at Lueders Park for a free screening of Be Kind, Rewind at 8 pm on Friday and learn a new skill during the Composition Workshop on Saturday or the Sound Art Workshop on Sunday. Academy @ LACMA presents the 60th-anniversary screening of On the Waterfront at 7:30 pm on Friday, with the standby line beginning at 6:30 pm.

On Saturday, visit our satellite gallery at Charles White Elementary School for the final Family Day at Kaz Oshiro: Chasing Ghosts (closing Saturday, June 7) from noon to 4:30 pm, with family-friendly tours and hands-on art projects for the kids. At Latin Sounds, legendary Brazilian musician Airto Moreira plays a free outdoor concert at Hancock Park at 5 pm. The final two films from the series The Essential Orson Welles happen this Saturday with Chimes at Midnight at 5 pm and F for Fake at 7:30 pm. Earlier in the day, Wrapped Up—Korean Textile Workshop is fully reserved but offering a standby line at 1:45 pm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twlA_yzagXo

In the galleries, Agnès Varda in Californialand highlights six decades of filmmaking from the “grandmother of the French New Wage,” Sam Doyle: The Mind’s Eye looks at the impassioned artwork of South Carolina–born Sam Doyle, and The Painted City: Art from Teotihuacan draws from the museum’s extensive collection of Art of the Ancient Americas, presenting painted ceramics dating back to the fifth century. By the way, purchase a special ticket to Van Gogh to Kandinsky and you’ll receive admission to Calder and Abstraction: From Avant-Garde to Iconic, featuring exhibition design from Pritzker Prize–winning architect Frank Gehry. Andell Family Sundays begins at 12:30 pm on Sunday and is followed by a free talk at 1 pm, Expressionist Encounters with the French Avant-Garde: Protecting and Crossing Borders with Dr. Christian Weikop, coinciding with the opening of Van Gogh to Kandinsky. The exciting weekend ends with a performance from UCLA Camarades during Sundays Live at 6 pm.

Roberto Ayala