Tuesday, February 21, 2012

LACMA, Metropolis II


My old coworker and friend, Dallas Holloway, was visiting from Kansas in January! Sam and I took him to LACMA to see the Pacific Standard Time exhibit. We accidentally found ourselves in the wrong building, but to our pleasant surprise, there was an amazing exhibit to view: Metropolis II! The little autos run Friday through Sunday at various times. Here are some of the photos I got:


 

And there they go!





I love the reflection of the red car in the black building on the left:


From above:

What you see when you leave:


And a few other sights you'll see while at LACMA:


The Japanese Art building:


Noodles:

And lampposts:

  

Friday, February 17, 2012

LACMA, Pacific Standard Time

LACMA's current exhibition right now is part of the Pacific Standard Time exhibitions going on in Los Angeles, to bring attention to some of the amazing art/architecture/etc. that has developed on the west coast. Here are some of my photos from the exhibit. We went the weekend after we saw the Eames house in the Palisades.
So I'll start off with the picture of the Eames living room at LACMA:
The display is set up exactly how it was at their home. All the furniture was their design.

Below is a picture of Ray and Charles Eames in this sitting area being delightful hosts:

 And the rest of the exhibit was equally as fascinating. It started out with a delightful Airstream trailer:

Love this shot:


Graphic prints:


Old photographs:
(in the pictures below you can see the amount of development in LA (specifically an intersection on Wilshire) from 1922 to 1930)

LOTS of amazing furniture!
 
Various architectural draftings and floor plans:

A Studebaker:
 

Some Julius Schulman photographs:

and FASHION!!
 
It was an incredible exhibit. I highly recommend going before they change it out! And right now on the weekends, they're showing the Metropolis exhibit in the bottom floor of the building across from this exhibit, which I'll have to post some pictures of as well. Can only do so much in a single post, though... ;)



Thursday, February 16, 2012

Vivian Maier, street photographer



Vivian Maier was a nanny who hadn't developed most of her photograpy. The undeveloped rolls of film were found at a swap meet a couple years ago, around the same time that she passed away. She's one of the best street photographers I've seen! The exhibit was in LA for a short 3 weeks. I was stoked to get to see it. Here is a link to her website: VivianMaier.com






 




And here is a link to all of her photos that I took pictures of at the exhibit: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150793568222846.504760.527707845&type=1&l=ac7c9a7553

Eames House, Pacific Palisades

I apologize for the delay in posts. I'm several weeks behind, and I have some photos coming up that will be fun to post, so I really need to catch up. I've been busy for sure, and excited to share some of my explorations on the good 'ol blogospere:

The Eames House (click on the panoramas for a bigger view)

Charles and Ray Eames were husband and wife architect/furniture designers. They're probably best known for the mid-century modern Eames chair:

...and their steel-frame case study house overlooking the ocean in the Pacific Palisades:
(The picture above is my favorite from the day) 


The house is available to view by appt for free ($10 suggested donation), as one of the Pacific Standard Time exhibitions going on in Los Angeles right now. 
 

Behind the house, there is a dirt walkway lined with potted plants. It's in line with the second floor of the house, looking down on the patios.


Below is a picture of the empty living room. In addition to viewing the house, you can also visit LACMA to see their actual living room and all the furniture they designed. It's an incredible exhibit as well and I have a few pictures to post from that visit too.

 
One of my favorite parts of the house was the stairway. You can't go inside, but you can see all the exotic design and detail from the outside.

 
The linear design and colored blocks resemble the Neo-Plasticism (a.k.a. "Mondrian") style of art created by the dutch painter, Piet Mondrian.
 

 
Here are some pictures of some of the surrounding beauty:

 
 
 


 
 There are several other homes in the neighborhood that are great architectural gems. This is a home that was photographed by Julius Schulman (not sure who the architect was):

And this is a home designed by Neutra (I love the combination of materials):

The Eames house is definitely one of my favorite Los Angeles treasures!