Make your dreams come true this weekend at LACMA with the opening of Fantasies and Fairy Tales this Saturday, September 8. The exhibition explores the role of fantasy and the recurrence of popular fairy tales, myths, and legends in graphic works made around 1900, including a selection of earlier examples as well as more recent works. These works range in purpose, exploring emotional and mental states, visualizing spiritual transcendence, or using familiar fairy tale narratives and characters to unveil individual and collective fears and desires. In all these works, artists present a particular way of seeing that exceeds naturalistic representation and reveal truths hidden beneath the surface of everyday life.
Another exhibition to view this weekend is In the Fields of Empty Days: The Intersection of Past and Present in Iranian Art, closing this Sunday, September 9. Though Iran is often in the news, for most Americans it is little understood. This exhibition, consisting of 125 works of art in a variety of media—photography, painting, sculpture, video, posters, political cartoons, animation, and historical illustrated manuscripts, unveils the multidimensionality of Iranian culture and evokes the past to create new visual metaphors to describe the present. By referencing the past, Iranian artists negotiate the sometimes politically charged issues of governance and faith creating objects both novel and relevant to Iran's present.
If you know someone who has yet to visit LACMA and would love to see these either of these shows, then take advantage and bring them to First-Time Fridays, this Friday, September 7, at 5 pm! First-timers get a warm welcome, special discounts, a gift, and a free poster while supplies last, just make sure to mention it's your first time at LACMA at one of our ticket offices.
Also, mark your calendars for free general admission on Tuesday, September 11, and catch one of our Tuesday Matinees at 1 pm, featuring Cher films all month long! Just a friendly reminder that LACMA is free the second Tuesday of every month and always free to Los Angeles County residents after 3 pm on weekdays (except Wednesdays, when the museum is closed).
Lastly, come groove to the sounds of Jazz at LACMA on Friday at 6 pm with a special performance by Barbara Morrison, voted by All About Jazz as one of the "50 Greatest Jazz Vocalists." Then on Sunday at 6 pm, visit Sundays Live for a radiant and powerfully engaging performance by The Lyris Quartet.