Hammer Contemporary Collection, Part I
UCLA Hammer Museum
Jan. 16 ““ April 8
The Hammer Contemporary Collection is state of the art ““ pun intended.
Part I of the exhibition, unveiled Jan. 16 and on display until April 8, is the first public presentation of a selection of artwork from the Hammer Contemporary Collection. The two-room exhibition spotlights Southern California artists of the current decade, capturing the here and now of the Los Angeles art world.
Composed of abstract drawings and photographs of landscape and portraiture, artists include John Baldessari and Ed Ruscha, who have been essential to the development of art in Los Angeles.
Newer artists to the Los Angeles scene whose work is featured include Rodney McMillian, Walead Beshty, Christopher Williams and Sharon Lockhart.
Many of the photographs, such as Williams’ two shots of the Department of Water and Power general office building and Roy Arden’s piece photographed in a Wal-Mart aisle, frame the mundane to define the modernist landscape we live in.
Other pieces invoke dialogue with the viewer through their shock value.
Catherine Opie’s “Pervert,” a chromogenic color print named for the word tattooed across a naked woman’s chest, hangs adjacent to “Self Portrait,” an image of the same woman holding a child and posing as a modern rendition of Madonna and child.
Above her sagging breasts, her chest bears the scar of her surgically removed tattoo.
Although at first glance the pieces within the collection appear to lack a cohesive theme, each of curator Gary Garrels’ selections draws attention to our unobserved surroundings.
Whether they depict landfill, suburbia, small-town children or the view out of Rudolf M. Schindler’s studio-house, the pieces selected for the gallery provoke meditation about the world we have shaped for ourselves, with special emphasis on Los Angeles.
The exhibition at the Hammer is much like a yearbook, underscoring the range of works the museum has collected.
The Hammer Museum has acquired 300 works in the last two years, of which approximately 50 will be exhibited.
Many have been selected from previous Hammer Projects, a series of exhibitions that focus primarily on the work of emerging artists.
Part II of the Hammer Contemporary Collection will open in mid-April with a focus on works in a variety of mediums, including painting and sculpture.
This selection, with its greater range of works in terms of subject and medium, will be more narrative and psychologically intense.
With the new Contemporary Collection, the Hammer Museum comes full circle.
When the institution first opened to the public 17 years ago, it housed old master paintings from Dr. Armand Hammer’s collection and a gallery of Honoré Daumier’s 19th century caricatures.
Though still renowned for its trademark paintings by Rembrandt, van Gogh and Degas, the museum has broadened its reputation to incorporate modern tastes.
The new addition enables visitors to see the world through the eyes of artists 100 years apart, arousing juxtaposition between the museum’s historical foundations and the revolutionary ways technology and ideas have allowed us to perceive our surroundings in the present day.
Consisting of acquisitions and past Hammer exhibitions, the collection will grow as gifts are received and purchases made.
The current show highlights two donors in particular, Werner and Sarah-Ann Kramarsky, who have given 60 drawings, and Patrick Painter and Soo Jin Jeong-Painter, who have given 74 works.
Part II will most likely include two or three works donated by Los Angeles television executive Dean Valentine and his wife, Amy Adelson.
Few institutions have the ability to house the intersection of retrospective and prospective art created by established and amateur artists under one roof, but the premiere of the Hammer Contemporary Collection establishes a precedent to guide future public programs and exhibitions in a refreshing direction.
E-mail Wong at jwong@media.ucla.edu.