This Weekend at LACMA: Legendary Mexican Film, Jazz and Classical Performances, Stellar Exhibitions, and More!

November 15, 2013

There’s only one way LACMA knows to enjoy a weekend—with live music, stunning film, and world-class art—and this week is no exception. On Friday the Tom Rizzo Group takes center stage at Jazz at LACMA. Guitarist Tom Rizzo helms this bebop-based jazz group, recognized by their dulcet tones and pulsing rhythms. Jazz at LACMA is, as always, free and open to the public. Then, in the Bing Theater, the brief but beautiful film series The Image of Mexico: Multiple Visions presents works by Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa and his legacy, as seen in the exhibition Under the Mexican Sky: Gabriel Figueroa—Art and Film. See Redes at 7:30 pm, a fascinating and influential artifact, and Let’s Go with Pancho Villa at 8:45 pm, a production with epic proportions.

Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Gabriel Figueroa reviewing light tests for the film Sonatas, directed by Juan Antonio Bardem, 1959, Gabriel Figueroa Flores Archive, © Estate of Manuel Álvarez Bravo Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Gabriel Figueroa reviewing light tests for the film Sonatas, directed by Juan Antonio Bardem, 1959, Gabriel Figueroa Flores Archive, © Estate of Manuel Álvarez Bravo

On Saturday museum patrons are invited to join any of the half-dozen free tours offered throughout the day, including a walk-through of one of our newest exhibitions See the Light: Photography, Perception, Cognition—The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection. While you’re exploring the collection, don’t miss David Hockney: Seven Yorkshire Landscape Videos, 2011, Lingering Dreams: Japanese Painting of the 17th Century, and Down to Earth: Modern Artists and the Land, before Land Art. In the evening, The Image of Mexico film series concludes with the hallucinatory ¡Que viva México! at 5 pm, and then the tribute documentary Multiple Visions—The Crazy Machine at 7:30 pm (both screenings are free).

Image: © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Image: © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Finally, on Sunday families are invited to join in this week’s edition of Andell Family Sundays beginning at 12:30 pm. For the month of November children and their parents are looking at and creating their own interpretations of animals in Japanese art in the form of scrolls and screens. Later in the day, Sundays Live presents the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra with pieces from Arvo Pärt, Darius Milhaud, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Topping it all off, Film Independent at LACMA hosts a free members-only screening of Eastbound & Down, the HBO television comedy about to reach its finale. This is what we call a weekend done right.

Roberto Ayala