Los Angeles, "A City of Fakes"

Having lived in LA for three years, the character of the city continues to evade me. I expect to find something with which I am familar in other cities. Not so. On February 2, 2013, I attended a program hosted by the Photo Friends of the Los Angeles Public Library,  "A City of Fakes," which began to unravel this mystery for me. I quote from the program announcement. "Most cities build monuments out of stone. Los Angeles builds them out of fantasies. From backlots to theme park, L.A. has long been a city of imaginary worlds. There are Mayan temples that show movies, cruise liners that bottle Coca-Cola and Babylonian palaces that manufacture tires." Presenters, Zed Adams and Eric Lynxwiler provided an excellent, affectionate and thorough documentation of their thesis. I will attempt to offer  a brief summary along with some personal embellishments.

Knott's Berry Farm (See above) calls itself "America's first theme park;" for
Adams and Lynxwiler, it is seminal. They see the entertainment midways of late
19th and early 20th century world's fairs as the progenitors of theme parks and for
them, theme parks have left an unmistakeable imprint on the visual character of the city of Los Angeles.

From my perspective, I do not deny that theme parks and Los Angeles have a symbiotic relationship;  however, I see it a little differently. At the beginning of the 19th century, when the Industrial Revolution was in full swing and transforming cities in  Europe and the United States, a variety of public entertainments were conceived and marketed to both the expanding bourgeoisie and the "unwashed" masses of factory workers populating the new metropolises. Many forms of public entertainment with which we are now familiar (museums, theaters, symphony orchestras, public parks and gardens) were created to entertain the middle and upper classes. However, ubiquitous circuses, vaudeville theaters and side show midways provided entertainments for the lower class multitudes. The term "honky tonk" aptly describes the Paris' Place Pigalle (See first image below) with its army of prostitutes and The Bowery in 19th century New York. (See second image below) were hosts to those seeking thrills and diversions. Guided tours of New York's Chinatown's opium dens were high on the list of entertainments being offered to the haute bourgeoisie.

Coney Island in New York (See below) was the prototype of amusement parks across the country with their signature signature roller coasters and parachute jumps. Generally, these amusement parks were located on the fringes of urban centers; the availability of inexpensive mass transit made these amusement parks accessible to the masses.  Urban midways, honky tonks and Coney Islands were enclaves within urban centers manifesting their own ambiance. When you entered their precincts, you were transported to another world. That world had social and psychological boundaries and did not impinge on the rest of the city.



I am going assume, from the perspective of Adams and Lynxwiler, that they saw these amusement parks as being different from those rising in the Los Angeles area. Coney Island was not a theme park; it was a conglomeration of individual enterprises offering distinct experiences.

For Adams and Lynxwiler,  Knott's Berry Farm was seminal in the development of theme parks because it demonstrated that it was possible to attract mass audiences to a world of fantasies.

http://www.google.com/search?rlz=&q=history+of+knott%27s+berry+farm+theme+park&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=HDYPUcivNI2A2QWJkICwAw&biw=969&bih=836&sei=lDYPUfvsBcPi2gXX4IHYDQ#imgrc=g3sZb0VuFybJXM%3A%3BVs4bMAoZCKtOTM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.socalhistoryland.mysite.com%252Fimages%252Fknotts_ad%252C_ca_1930_250x208.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.socalhistoryland.mysite.com%252FHistoric_Knotts.html%3B250%3B208

Although influenced by Knott's Berry Farm and having adapting some of their basic principles to his concept of the theme park experience, they view Walt Disney as the grand master of the theme park world. In the heart of Los Angeles, they cited Clifton's themed cafeterias (See below) as urban domestications of themed environments. What does this have to do with the average Angelenos' views of their city? For them, perhaps the lines of distinction between reality and fantasy were blurred? Adams and Lynxwiler believe that seeing something outrageous in the midst of urban Los Angeles was  neither unusual nor startling for Angelenos.

Adams and Lynxwiler reported that the remnants of the set for D.W Griffith's "Intolerance" (See below) remained standing at Hollywood and Highland for two years after production was completed. Today, Hollywood and Highland is a massive entertainment complex of movie theaters, restaurants, bars, gift shops, clothing stores and one of the largest indoor parking garages to be found anywhere.

Jean Baudrillard, the French post modernist philosopher, wrote extensively about the
phenomena of simulacra and simulation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulacra_and_Simulation

As a current phenomenon, he states that simulation has replaced reality and cites as an example the simulation offered to visitors at the Lascaux caves' site in France. Allowing armies of visitors inside the original caves where ancient paintings are to be found, would destroy them. As a consequence, a replicated visitor experience is offered. (See below)

Baudrillard states that most people are as content with the replica as they would have been with the original. Now, there are virtual tours offered on line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hiFqqqjTxQ

What Baudrillard proposed, offers a methodology for evaluating many current experiences, such as visits to Disney theme parks, where visitors often see the simulations being offered as preferable to the originals.

Hate it or love it, one cannot deny the significance of the Disney theme park experience and its imitators. It has embraced three continents: North America, Europe and Asia.
Not a fan of the Disney experience, I recognize its impact.

I wrote an article for the Arts and Leisure section of The NewYork Times,  that appeared on Sunday, October 30, 1988, entitled:"Can Museums Learn from Mickey and Friends?" I stated that:
"As theme parks encroach upon the  turf of art museums, some museums look to Disney for ways to entertain." I further stated that "... distinctions between museums and Disney have become increasingly blurred - the Metropolitan Museum of Art has replicated a Ming Dynasty Scholar's Courtyard and Disney has built a half scale replica of Beijing's Temple of Heaven ..."

So, what does this have to do with what one sees on the streets of Los Angeles?
LA was Disney's home turf. The Disney way, whether you call it "fakery," "simulation," "entertainment," or "business," has made its mark here. People don't appear to care about the difference between the original and the fake. I doubt that many people have heard of Baudrillard or French post-modernist philosophy; they simply accept what is offered to them as reality and don't question it. An acquaintance told me that she went to France at Epcot, the Disney park in Orlando, Florida. For her France at Epcot was more a reality than the country itself.

In an urban setting like Los Angeles, what is real and what is a fake? I have already stated the distinction between what is real and what is fake is vanishing. Perhaps calling something a fake is a matter of personal judgement?

Having been inspired by Adams and Lynxwiler, I have created a list of Los Angeles fakes that I have experienced. What are my criteria? Without question, they are derived from my personal experiences in cities like: New York, Paris, London, Rome, Milan, Basel, Bogota, Vienna, Bejing, Zurich and other cities that I know. Here's my list:

1. The Getty Center

This overwrought marble cultural citadel sits atop a mountain overlooking the Interstate 405 freeway,  one of the busiest highways in the world. Access to the main campus is via a funicular like tram that climbs slowly up the mountainside offering spectacular views of the congested traffic below. I ask myself, is this supposed to be a 21st century (Disneyized) imitation of the Masada Experience in Israel?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masada
Masada, the site of a First Century BCE battle between Jews and Romans invaders, is no now reached by a spectacular trip in a cable car that leads to a historic fortress overlooking the Dead Sea. This is reality.

Perhaps more significant is what one sees on arrival at the Getty Center. There is little "art" of consequence to be seen. Not to be minimized, there is an outstanding photography collection. However, in the world of encyclopedic art museums, to which The Getty aspires, the needle hardly moves from zero. Beyond photography, the Getty Research Institute is a humanities library in the making. There are other Getty Foundation programs housed at this campus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getty_Center

2. The Getty Villa

Here we have a fake where fakery is honest and really works. It is like the recreation of a Chinese garden at The Metropolitan Museum in New York. This garden is a simulation of a garden that might have existed in one of the Imperial Roman villas along the Bay of Naples. The villa design was inspired by the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum and incorporated additional details from several other ancient sites. There is a collection of dubious merit which is tainted with a long history of trafficking in designated national treasures that were illegal to export.
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/videoDetails?segid=3729

3. Guelaguetza, a Oaxacan restaurant



This is a real fake that has no equals. Guelaguetza is located in a former Korean restaurant in Koreatown. The original Korean restaurant replicated Korean architecture.
When the Mexican restaurant occupied the space of the Korean restaurant, the
Oaxacan owners saw no need to change the exterior. Having spent a week in the city of
Oaxaca, I could not detect anything that remotely resembled the food that we had
there and much admired.

4. Americana Mall, Glendale

It's a shopping mall that is not supposed to look like a shopping mall. It
is supposed to look like someone's imagination of a street in Paris. To
humanize the environment, they have built apartments above the mall
shops. So, it is a cluster of apartments with mall stores. This is a fake
shopping mall that really is a shopping mall. It is fake apartment buildings
that really are a shopping mall.

Below is a description of The Residences.

Living in style is more fun than ever at The Residences, The Americana at Brand's collection of 242 luxury apartment homes. Enjoy a vibrant urban lifestyle, plus superb services and designer home finishes that make daily life a pleasure.

• • Lush Pool & Spa Deck, state-of-the-art gym and more
• • One-Call CONCIERGE^® Services;
• • Beautiful park with kids play area and weekly yoga
• • Year-round outdoor concerts and entertainment
• • Dynamic shopping, dinning and entertainment district
• • Close to Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Fresh & Easy
• • Minutes from downtown, Hollywood and Burbank entertainment employersLiving in style is more fun than ever at The Residences, The Americana at Brand's collection of 242 luxury apartment homes.Enjoy a vibrant urban lifestyle, plus superb services and designer home finishes that make daily life a pleasure.• Lush Pool & Spa Deck, state-of-the-art gym and more• One-Call CONCIERGE® Services;• Beautiful park with kids play area and weekly yoga• Year-round outdoor concerts and entertainment• Dynamic shopping, dinning and entertainment district• Close to Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Fresh & Easy• Minutes from downtown, Hollywood and Burbank entertainment employers

5. Walt Disney Concert Hall

Although much admired, I find something basically dishonest in the use of a flamboyant skin of stressed metal that camouflages a traditional structure beneath it. So, I would describe this as fake architecture.

6. Hollywood Forever Cemetery Film Showings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Forever_Cemetery

Is this a cemetery or an outdoor movie theater?

7. The Hollywood Sign 

Not a fake in a city of fakes!

7. The Fake Factories 

The motion pictures industry has been in LA for a century. The studios have been called
"dream factories." I prefer to call them "fake factories." In the 1950s, television shows
were added to their proeduct line. There is no question that a considerable portion of the
Los Angeles population is engaged in "the industry." If people generate fakery as a
profession, they will be prone to accepting it as normality in their everyday lives. Films and
television programs are made in other cities, but those cities do not appear to have been
altered in the same way that it has affected Los Angeles. Rather than speculate on its
origins or its logic, I prefer to accept fakery as a fact of life in Los Angeles.

First below: Paramount Studios at Melrose and Gower. Second below: You Tube /The NBC Universal Studios Experience.




http://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/attractions/the-nbcuniversal-experience/

MY CONCLUSION

Is Los Angeles more prone to fakes than any other city today?
The boundary between what is fake and what is real has become
a matter of subjective determination. As Baudrillard has indicated,
transference of reality to imitations is endemic in our society as a
whole; however, I have found something different in LA. While
other places might tolerate fakery, in LA, there is a long tradition
of practicing it. In fact, there is almost a worship of it.

MoMA Gains Treasure The Met Also Coveted

The above headline appeared on a recent front page article in The New York Times;
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/arts/design/moma-gains-treasure-that-metropolitan-museum-of-art-also-coveted.html 
It signifies a recent episode in a  battle of titans.

Above: Robert Rauschenberg,"Canyon," the work of art in question.

http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/history-of-the-museum/main-building

In 1880, The Metropolitan Museum of Art was opened in its current location with
an extensive collection of antiquities. Gradually, it began to acquire wide ranging
historical collections that embraced virtually every culture of the world.  Contemporary
art, especially contemporary American art, never appeared among its priorities. In 1949,
director Francis Henry Taylor, hired Robert Beverly Hale, an instructor at the Arts
Students League, to be curator of contemporary American art. At one point, MoMA
contemplated giving some of its modern masterpieces to The Met so that it could
concentrate on more recent developments.

 In the 1960s, Met director James Rorimer, appointed Henry Geldzahler, curator
 of contemporary art, and later curator of 20th century art. At that point, The
Met began to acquire a visible presence in the modern art scene. Geldzahler, was
a high ranking member of the Warhol inner circle.

 Above, Andy Warhol, Below from left to right: Henry Geldzahler, David Hockney, David Scott

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Geldzahler. He curated a landmark exhibition,

New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970, which included his favorite
contemporary artists and became the talk of the town. This exhibition established
The Met, for the first time, as a major player in the New York modern art museum
scene.

Prior to that, from the mid-1930's until the mid-1960's, the Museum of Modern
Art totally dominated the interpretation and presentation of modern art in New York.
Founding director, Alfred H. Barr. Jr., developed his Eurocentric interpretive
modern art canon which was visualized in the presentation of MoMA's collections.
These galleries influenced the way in which at least two generations viewed the
evolution of Western European modern art from the late 19th century to the mid-
20th century. Below, is a diagram accompanying MoMA's 1936 seminal exhibition,
Cubism and Abstract Art, which elucidates Barr's theory. Although some avant garde 
American artists of the post-1913 Armory Show generation were represented in 
MoMA's collections, they were viewed as peripheral according to Barr's thesis. 

In the wake of Post World II abstract expressionism,  MoMA presented a series 
of "discovery" one-man exhibitions of emerging American artists. At the end of 
1956, there was a Jackson Pollock exhibition. Alfred Barr called Jackson Pollock
the most important American artist of his day. MoMA's authority and supremacy
were never questioned.

During the 1960's, New York was a  seething caldron of new American art.  There
was "pop art," "op art," "minimalism," "fluxus" and more. Grace Glueck, art critic of  
The New York Times, said to me, "it seemed as though a new art movement was 
born every day." A new generation: Warhol, Johns, Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg,
Oldenberg, Judd, Indiana, Samaras, and Segal, among others, were being shown 
in midtown and downtown galleries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Gallery

When Alan Solomon, director of The Jewish Museum, presented a series of major 
one-man shows of this new avant-garde, the established museums were caught off 
guard and scrambled to catch up. It was at this point that fierce competition between 
the major museums erupted. Frank Lloyd Wright's recently completed Guggenheim
Museum joined the fray. 

Although an earlier generation of abstract expressionists obviated Alfred Barr's 
canon, he embraced them - possibly because they were following the painterly
path of Western European art tradition. However, the next generation rejected
that tradition, utilizing a bewildering array of materials and techniques, such as 
Rauschenberg's combine which is at the center of the recent Met/MoMA flap.

While The Met was beginning to embrace modern American art in the late1960s,
a serious rivalry with MoMA was yet to erupt. Geldzahler was replaced by Thomas
Hess, who, in his brief tenture, broadened the scope of The Met's  contemporary art
collection and exhibition policies. Following him as head of the Department of
20th Century Art, was William S. Lieberman, a former curator at MoMA.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/03/arts/design/03lieberman.ht

A sometimes mentor and good friend for many years, Lieberman was a brilliant
curator of early 20th century School of Paris art. Lieberman had been a protege of
MoMA's founding  director, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. In 1979, after William Rubin had
been appointed Director of the MoMA's Department of Painting and Sculpture,
Lieberman decided to abandon MoMA for The Met. During his years at MoMA,
Lieberman did what all curators do - develop a coterie of major collectors whose
collections eventually come to your museum. Bill was extremely adept at this.
He was trusted and admired by major collectors.

Lieberman brought masterpieces of modern European art from two major private
collections to The Met.  Florene May Schoenborn (Mrs. Samuel Marx) left 18
works of masterpiece quality, including Picasso's 1915 " Guitar and Clarinet on
a Mantlepeice," (below) to The Met.
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/28/arts/a-surprise-and-then-a-collection.html

In 1998, Natasha and Jacques Gelman donated 47 paintings and 3 bronzes by
major School of Paris artists to The Met. Philippe de Montebello, Director of
The Met, said, "This outstanding collection, the most generous and significant
to the Department of Modern Art - in fact one of the most important gifts of
art ever bestowed on any area of the Museum ..."
http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/press-room/news/2001/inauguration-of-gelman-galleries-places-collection-of-20thcentury-treasures-on-view-at-metropolitan-museum


Pierre Matisse, "The Young Sailor," 1906

Thomas Campbell, the current director at The Met sees modern art as an important
area of focus. He has proposed that The Met utilize the Whitney Museum's soon-to-
be vacated Breuer building on Madison Avenue to house its modern art collections
and to present exhibitions.

Does this suggest that The Met and MoMA are on a collision course? Does this
suggest that The Met and the Guggenheim are going to become competitors?
Are there other scenarios unfolding? Unfortunately, there are no solid answers
available at this time. The situation is unfolding and we have to wait and see what
happens.

Channeling the Destruction Wrought by Super Storm Sandy on the Red Hook Winery

The Red Hook Brooklyn waterfront is one of the few extensive vestiges of
original 19th century architecture remaining in New York. The above
undated map illustrates the configuration of the waterfront that has changed
little since the Post-Civil War era when Brooklyn, unto itself, was a thriving
commercial and industrial metropolis. The buildings seen below, called
"stores" served as warehouses for goods shipped to the East Coast along the
Erie Canal. From there, they were transported to American and European
markets. Frozen solid, the Erie Canal was not operative in the winter.
Canalers and their families wintered in Red Hook as seen below.

Although I have spent a lot of time in Brooklyn, mostly Brooklyn Heights,
the rest of Brooklyn has been a mystery. It was not until our son, Abe,
a Napa valley wine maker, began to work with his distributor, Mark Snyder
 of Angels Share Wines, that Mary, my wife, and I began to explore Red
Hook. We had dinner at The Good Fork and loved the food.
http://www.goodfork.com

Mark Snyder,  an excellent distributor,  had a pervasive dream - to create a
 "serious winery" in his native Brooklyn. Abe became a sweat equity partner.
Mark raised the money and created the first Red Hook Winery on the corner
of Dwight and Van Dyke. (See first below.) Not a very inspiring location.
Mark wanted to be in one of the CivilWar era stores. (See second below.)

Mary and I went to the Dwight Street winery for Thanksgiving dinner,
served on the sidewalk.  See first below. Second below: Abe, Mark and
Mary.

Above: Mark at the stove. On occasion," starred "New York chefs would
appear as cooks, often working with Mark and his girlfriend Sandra.
    One year later, we dropped in on another party planned by Mark and
    Sandra; we were invited to stay.

Incredible vibes! Great food! Great wine! Wonderful company!

Never satisfied with Dwight Street, Mark moved the winery to Pier 41,
Door 325, in one of the authentic  Civil War era stores facing the open
ocean. I was there just before they opened to the public in April 2012.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-red-hook-winery-new-york

Above: French oak casks containing two years' vintages of grapes from the
 north shore of Long Island and Seneca Lake in Upstate New York.

What had Mark, Sandra, Abe and the rest of their crew created in The Red
Hook Winery? It was an extraordinary jewel that contributed to the on-
going expansion of the Brooklyn food scene, as well as establishing a new
standard for excellence within New York City's food and wine firmament.
They had released relatively small amounts which were accorded modest praise.
Their serious participation in the New York wine market lay ahead.














It's a twenty-minute trip on the New York Water Taxi from the South Street
Seaport to the pier in Red Hook. One would be transported from the frenetic
pace of Manhattan to another world in Red Hook where quality of life and
of course, quality of wine,  reigned supreme.

It is the nature of great cities to constantly invigorate old neighborhoods and
reconfigure them. In Paris, Le Marais, an extensive area of 18th century hȏtels
(mansions), the Jewish Ghetto and recently the Musée Picasso, is now a lively
and fashionable offbeat neighborhood. In Rome, Testaccio, a mountainous
dump of amphora dating back to the Roman Empire, has recently become a
hub of artistic activity. In London, Canary Wharf, once the locus of Indian-
British trade, was transformed into a vast complex of office towers and
commercial spaces. Incidentally, there is an active vineyard in the Montmartre
section of Paris.
http://www.finedininglovers.com/stories/clos-montmartre-secret-vineyard-paris/

However, Red Hook is not about nostalgia only. There is a huge Ikea store,
a cruise line terminal, a container port, and a gigantic Fairway food market
occupying the ground floor of one of the stores.

Several weeks ago, I heard Chris Anderson, the geek god retiring editor of
WIRED magazine, speaking on technological innovations. He just bought a
 3d printer for his kids because it represents the next wave in consumer
electronics. How or why this remark slipped into his presentation, I don't
know? He said with clear admiration, "And then there is artisanal Brooklyn."

I, too, admire the spirit and fruits of Brooklyn's artisanal restaurants,
bakeries, salumerias, along with The Red Hook Winery. To me, they
represent alternatives to our global consumer culture which seeks to
homogonize every commodity so that it no longer has any personality,
individuality or taste, which incidentally is what Robert Parker has inflicted
on the global wine market. As a nascent counterpoint,  The Red Hook winery
qualifies as an authentic Brooklyn artisanal phenomenon.

On the evening of Monday, October 22, Super Storm Sandy unleashed its
full wrath leaving a path of destruction along the Atlantic Coast from the
Carolinas to Maine.  The Red Hook Winery, among thousands of other
businesses and residences had the misfortune to lie in Sandy's path; it was
demolished. In Manhattan, Chelsea art galleries experienced destruction of
exhibition spaces, storage facilities and art. Sections of Battery Park City were
flooded. Neighborhoods in Far Rockaways and Staten Island were wiped out.
The full extent of the storm's damage is yet-to-be assessed. Losses at The Red
Hook Winery are estimated to be in the neighborhood of one million dollars.
No flood plain insurance was available. No FEEMA.

While others have seen their worlds shattered,  it is necessary for me to grieve
for The Red Hook Winery on that and other grounds. The intent was to
transform wine making in New York state. Having possibly lost two years'
vintages,  there are no bandaids available, The devastation at The Red Hook
Winery is not just the loss of inventory, or damage to equipment. It is a dream
shattered by an accident of nature. In LA, I weep.

Can and will there be a recovery? I hope so!

Below is a message that Abe sent to his Scholium Project customers.

LA ART MUSEUMS NOW (The Agenda) - WHAT THE FUTURE OFFERS (My Take)

 Zócalo, a floating forum presenting admission-free public programs in venues
throughout Los Angeles, hosted a forum, "How Can L.A.'s Art Museums Thrive?"
on September 7, in the recently completed Grand Park (above), a tragically designed
public space that engenders neither comfort nor pleasure.

The Agenda

Jori Finkel, an arts reporter for the Los Angeles Times, chaired the event. Three
museums were represented: Los Angeles County Museum Director, Michael
Govan, Getty Museum Director, Timothy Potts, and Hammer Museum Director,
Ann Philbin. An invitation was extended to LA MOCA Director, Jeffrey Deitch.
He declined; however, the tribulations of LA MOCA were not dismissed. Michael
Govan expressed his admiration for its ground-breaking historical contributions
to both the LA and national art scenes. He said that it is not unusual for cutting
edge museums to rise and fall, citing DIA as an example. He sees hope in MOCA's
future. There was no mention of why the directors of the new Broad Museum and
the Norton Simon Museum had not been invited.

In answer to Jori Finkel's clear questions, each museum director provided a
succinct description of his/her museum's mission and program, most of which I
assume were already familiar to the audience. Michael Govan and Ann Philbin,
touted their New York credentials. Comparisons were made between New York
and LA in which there was an attempt to define distinctions between the two.
There was an under current of visible admiration for the New York art scene and
New York museums. While recognizing that LA was not its equivalent, there was
no indication of apologia. The Getty's Pacific Standard Time exhibitions and
activities were mentioned as confirmation of an emergent LA art scene.

There was agreement that LA museums, as a consequence of their location
on the edge of the continent facing Asia, had a less Eurocentric orientation
than their New York counterparts. Essentially,  LA's museums have briefer histories
and narrower donor bases. New York art museums were credited with exuding auras
with richer dimensions than their LA equivalents. There was a brief digression into
the potential of Hollywood wealth and its nihilism. It was agreed that there was no
tradition of generational support for LA museums as would be found in New York.
Perhaps this was in reference to some great private collections of modern art which
were sent to auction houses rather than LA art museums.

Timothy Potts, the new director of the Getty, who had just logged thirty-two hours
on the job, was at a distinct disadvantage, but did his best to cite experiences in other
places. Rather than lamenting the impossibility of building encyclopedia collections,
whether historical or modern, they saw exhibitions and activities as rewarding areas
of concentration, thus building audiences with accompanying statistical laurels.

Their agreed upon art museum paradigm was the one that emerged in the late 1960s
and 1970s with its attendant focus of opening museums to wider audiences and
hosting periodic blockbuster exhibitions to spike attendance figures.  The term
"world class institution" did not enter the conversation. From my point of view,
there are no world class art museums in LA.  Although not his Getty museum,
Timothy Potts might want to argue that the Getty Villa aspires to such a distinction;
however, there are dozens of museums in Italy with a similar focus that far outclass
the Getty Villa in terms of the quality and depth of their collections.

Michael Govan said, "It's an exciting time to be in LA." He said that there are more
artists here than any other place. His claim elicits some ambiguity because he did
not define who these artists were. He expressed willingness to embrace Hollywood
with the hope of fruitful collaboration. He did not go into detail regarding LACMA's
new affiliation with the Motion Picture Academy except to say that they would be
neighbors when the Academy moves into the former May Company building adjacent
to LACMA.

My Take - A New Art Museum Paradigm is in the Making

Having played a role in creating the 1960s/1970s art museum paradigm in New York,
I witnessed its birth, its world-wide acceptance and its subsequent bastardizations.

http://www.allonschoener.com/exh_les.htm
http://www.allonschoener.com/exh_harlem.htm
http://www.allonschoener.com/erie.htm

What will the new art museum paradigm look like?
It will operate in the realm of virtual experiences occurring on mobile
devices (iphone, ipad and others yet-to-come) simulating traditional
art museum experiences. Today, everyone wants to jump on the social
media bandwagon. Why not?

I find myself in agreement with Michael Govan's evaluation of LA's potential
(Although we might see it differently.) and believe that a new paradigm could
be created here more readily than anywhere else; there is no burden of history
and there are established mechanisms for merchandising novelty.

As yet, there are no prototypes for this new paradigm; however, on a global
scale, elements of this new paradigm are appearing. Below are some links
demonstrating new technologies being applied to art museums.

The google art project takes you to art collections around the world.
http://www.googleartproject.com/collections/

It is possible to visit the Prado Museum in Madrid and see 14 masterpices
with extreme magnification of detail. Go to: Google Earth, then to Prado 
Museum, then to Masterpieces.

LACMA has a Digital Museum Of Art Treasures.

http://laist.com/2011/03/26/lacmas_digital_museum_of_art_treasu.php#photo-1

The Getty Research Institute offers image research collections.

http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital_collections/index.html

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a Digital Media Department that
services both visitors and staff.
http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/office-of-the-
director/digital-media-department

The Louvre in Paris offers virtual tours of its galleries.
http://www.louvre.fr/en/rooms/salle-des-caryatides

There is a virtual tour of Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/museum/virtual_tour.asp

There is a virtaul tour of the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History.
http://www.mnh.si.edu/panoramas/

Apps are becoming available for museum tours.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/technology/personaltech/09smart.html

The Victoria and Albert has a game app, "Race Against Time."

Where do we begin ? There are myriad possibilities. I am working with
the USC Annenberg School of Communications Innovation Lab attempting
to figure out how to create functional virtual spaces.That is one line of
approach.

Granted that LA museums are saddled with their 1960s/1970s paradigms, what would I
recommend. I see the need for an LA art museum innovation collaborative in which the
museums work in unison to create a new paradigm. This should include embracing the
entertainment industry - film, television and theme parks.

Would they be interested? Just as Intel has discovered that ipads and the cloud
have decimated the market for its processors, the entertainment industry is going to
witness a similar seismic shift when traditional audiences begin to wane.

Clearly, this is a challenge. What will be the products of these new collaborations?
They will be focused on the cloud and the universality of mobile devices. What
would happen to museums burdened with 1960s/1970s paradigms and those that
warehouse physical collections of some valuable and some not-so-valuable art. Like Intel, they would have to reevaluate their future options. That could be the topic for further discussion?

Footnote: I used an ipad for my record of this meeting.