cmonstah

[cmonstah]

My encounters with art run the gamut. I’ve been delighted and impressed, stupefied and annoyed. I’ve seen exhibitions that take love as a theme, but rare is the display that leaves me feeling as if I’ve been embraced. Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal, which opened at the Hammer Museum earlier this month, is one of them — a show about an important jazz musician and spiritual leader that is also a moving meditation on love and grief.

Read the rest in my Art Insider newsletter for KCRW.

You can sign up for Art Insider at this link. Art in LA in your inbox every Tuesday afternoon!

[cmonstah]

‘Six Los Angeles Artists’

Classic Kent Twitchell mural in Torrance, painted in 1979.

Intended as an homage to six prominent Los Angeles artists of the era: Marta Chafee Stang, Alonzo Davis, Paul Czirban, Oliver Nowlin, Eloy Torrez and Wayanna Kato.

And because the mural is painted on the side of an unemployment office, the artwork and its title are also a play on the employability of artists.

[cmonstah]

David Cusick’s Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations' was published in 1828. It was the first account of Native American history and folklore written by an American Indian. There is continuing controversy about the extent to which Cusick may have compromised his Iriquois heritage in favor of negotiating a path through contrasting tribal views at a time of massive historical upheaval. Beyond this, the book has been touted as an early influence on Mormonism and as an origin for the Big Foot mythos. The Library of Congress version is missing a couple of illustrations that I think were issued in later editions. [The top illustration is called 'The Stonish People']

via bibliodyssey 2006

[cmonstah]

Links for my talk to New City Critics, October 21, 2024

"Kylie Jenner's private jet is bad for the climate. It's far worse for the residents of Van Nuys," in the Los Angeles Times

"Beyond the 6th Street Viaduct media alarmism. Lessons from a week on the new bridge," in the Los Angeles Times

Guidestar.org by Candid

ProPublic Nonprofit Explorer

Charity Commission for England and Wales

Government of Canada List of Charities

Charitydata.ca

Indiana School of Philanthropy (to talk to experts on non-profit administration and law)

Image credit: John William Casilear, “Study of Woman From Side,” c. 1840-1843, from the collection of the Huntington Library in Los Angeles.

[cmonstah]

How the famous photo of Queen with Diego Maradona was prepared

“I’d like to introduce a friend of yours: Maradona", the phrase with which Freddie Mercury invited Diego Armando to the stage of Velez Sarsfield only served to make the Argentine audience explode once again on that magical night that was March 8th, 1981, when Queen closed their tour in Argentina ( after Mercury’s death, the band would return without their legendary leader in 2008 and 2015), after touring Mar del Plata and Rosario.

Maradona was already a star and youth world champion, in Japan 1979. And his idolatry in the Argentine people grew at the same time as his evolution as a footballer. Carefree as always, at the age of 21 he took the microphone and said: “I want to thank Freddie and Queen for making me so happy”. Immediately afterwards he announced the following song: “ And now, Another One Bites the Dust”.

Queen’s visit, one of the most magnificent rock bands in history, took place in a very special context. Argentina lived isolated from the world because of the military dictatorship that five years earlier had taken over the government. Therefore, international visits were not frequent.

Queen had arrived to open a series of shows with a big concert on 28th February in Velez Sarsfield stadium. The audience exploded once again on March 3rd and after the performances in Mar del Plata and Rosario, the big closing came on March 8th 1981. Football fans like most of the English, Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor wanted to meet Maradona, and in the backstage, waiting to go on stage the band got what they wanted: the national football star. “To have the great idol of the country was like receiving a blessing”, Roger Taylor would remember years later in an interview. The band and the footballer exchanged words of admiration and t-shirts. Maradona posed with a T-shirt in the colours of the British flag (Union Jack), which May wore at the concerts, Freddie’s red silk tie and Taylor’s drumsticks. 

“During a barbecue the president of Velez Sarsfield , offered in his country house to the band and a small group of guests, a controversy was generated. When Mercury commented that he was going to come up with the national team’s soccer jersey, the journalists argued vehemently that this was probably going to cause a rejection in the audience because in those times, soccer and rock were not compatible terms. Freddie listened attentively to the arguments of the locals and explained his position, of which he was fully convinced.  He thanked the opinions but finished the subject, it was a taken position,” recalled Juan Manuel Cibeira (editor of the specialized magazine “Pelo”) about the idea of linking football with rock. Brian May had arrived at the meeting wearing the Argentinian team shirt.

That night, the night of the last concert, Mercury finally wore the Argentine national team shirt. It was one of the first approaches between two worlds united by passion: music and sport.

“I remember that I accompanied my father to buy a national team shirt in a local shop in Buenos Aires. It was bought as a gift from the EMI company as they were English and football fans. It was left in the hotel room because the musicians were with the shows in Rosario and Mar Del Plata. Freddie was the first foreign artist to wear the "sky-blue and white” in a show. Now it’s a common.thing. Legend has it that Maradona gave it to him, but in reality it was my father without the intention of it being shown at the concert,“ said Lisandro Ruiz, son of Roberto Ruiz, who in 1981 was responsible for the Anglo sector of the label and later president of it.

The members of Queen with the EMI staff. Roberto Ruiz, the first from the left (Photo- Ruiz Family Personal Archive).

Due to the context of the country, the great moment of the British band and Diego’s presence in Argentina, the meeting between Queen and Maradona became a unique event, which could only have taken place because the planets aligned at the right time. It was, without a doubt, a kind of magic.

@natromanxoff​​, @mephisto92, @moviestorian​​, @x5vale​​, @39-brian​​, @onegoldenglance​​, @crosmopolitan​​, @an-abyss-called-life​​, @his-majesty-king-mercury​​, @i-live-for-queen​​, @brian-39-may​​, @toomuchlove-willkillyou​​, @brimaymay​​, @sail-away-sweet-sister​​, @drummerqueenrmt​​, @old-fashioned-roger-boy, @briianmaay​​, @inui-mycroft​​, @deacytits​​, @iminlovewithrogscar​​, @drowseoftaylor​​, @brianmayislongaway​​, @balticlover​​, @astrophysicist-guitar-god​​​, @miez-lakatz​​, @brianmayoucease​​, @jesus-in-a-life-boat​​,  @roger-taylors-car​​, @silapril​​, @sherrifanciesfriskyfreddie​​, @tenderbri​​, @brianmydear​​, @thosequeenboys​​, @millionairewaltz-carpediem​, @painandpleasure86​​, @bribrifrenchfry​​, @xlucylennonx​​, @a-night-at-the-abbey-road​​, @inthedayswhenlandswerefew​​, @madformeddowstaylor​​, @queenrogertaylorfan​​, @let-roger-get-a-lunch​​, @queen-for-life​​, @rethought​​, @drivenbybrianmay​​ @mymakeupmaybeflaking​​, @old-but-still-a-child​​, @let-roger-get-a-lunch​​, @warriorteam1924​​, @funnydressesweirdhairanddance​​, @painkiller80​​, @thefanhuman13​​, @yourtieddownmother​​, @hgmercury39​​, @brimi-stardust​​, @thefairyfellermercury​​,  @retroromantics​​, @sailawaysweetbrimi​​, @sophiaintheskywithdiamonds​​, @holybrianmaywritingbear​​, @lydiannode​​, @39-yellow-daffodils​​ , @ure-gonna-loveme-when-u-seeme​​, @kaykaybeachgirl​​, @foxmonkey​​, @deakysgurl​​@redspecialandclogsandcurls​​, @briansrainbowsocks-deactivated2​, @delilahmay39​​, @ohmybribri​​, @bless-the-queen​​, @sketchiesscketches, @everythingaboutfreddie​​, @doitforthevine67​​, @recordsoftheseventies, @rhysjoejoshtomfarisblog​​, @tenementfunsterwithpurpleshoes​​, @drummah-in-a-rocknroll-band​​, @beatlegirl1968​​, @maylorsqueen​​, @autumnscenemcyt​​, @gralto​​, @alittlepeoplemagic​​, @rainbowsockbrian​​, @frejudy​​, @drivenbybri​​, @yourlocalmusicalprostitute​​, @saik-ava​​, @omb-xx​​, @sassymaylor​​, @somekindofroger​​, @starlightmay​​, @freddiemercuryismylife​​, @sunshine112​​, @chrysochromulina​​, @glitteryloveravenue​​, @deakyislife51​​, @0-primejive-0​​, @just-a-skinny-lad​​, @bluewillowmom​​, @sassiesillie​​, @stesichoreanpalinode​​, @farrokhbulsaramercury​, @tayloredmay​

[cmonstah]

Scenes from MoMA's "Crafting Modernity: Design in Latin America, 1940-1980," which, unfortunately, has a very limited view of what consists of design in Latin America.

My review in Curbed.

Image No. 1: Luis Montiel, "Untitled (Rooster)," c. 1968

Image No. 2: Michael Van Beuren, Klaus Grabe and Morley Webb, "Alacrán" chaise, c. 1940

Photos by me.

[cmonstah]

There are 14 blank ruled pages in the collection of the Getty Museum. They are bound into two manuscripts. There are 32 other blank pages or half-blank pages, but I didn't get quite so interested in them.

s/o @cmonstah image: a blank bordered page from Historia general del Piru, 1616, at the Getty

[cmonstah]

Unknown (?), Inuit Artist, Sea Monsters Devouring a Whale, 1961, Cape Dorset

[cmonstah]

Los Angeles Pride-"Signs Carried By Heroes-We Carry Their Memory"-- Trailer full of protest signs once carried by those who have deceased (1993)

[cmonstah]

Links for my talk for the Momus Arts Journalism Residency, June 24, 2024

Here's what Sen. Mike Lee got wrong about a Smithsonian Latino museum (Los Angeles Times, Dec. 17, 2020)

New cuts show that SFMOMA seems hellbent on being boring and corporate (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 5, 2021)

SFMOMA layoff statement (SFMOMA Press Office, July 23, 2021)

Can LACMA afford it renovations? A look at the numbers (Los Angeles Times, Feb. 20, 2020)

Guidestar.org by Candid

ProPublic Nonprofit Explorer

Charity Commission for England and Wales

Government of Canada List of Charities

Charitydata.ca

Most recent LACMA 990

Pagan and Christian Scholars debating before King Avenier and Josaphat, 1469, Follower of Hans Shilling, from the Workshop of Diebold Lauber (German). From the collection of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

[cmonstah]

Catalina Parra, "Imbunche gigante (Giante imbunche)," 1977. From the exhibition "Radical Women," on view at the Hammer Museum in 2017. (More details here.)

I've been dwelling on imbunches as I re-read José Donoso's "The Obscene Bird of Night" (El obsceno pájaro de la noche), which features a storyline inspired by this monster of Chilote folklore.

The New York Times reviewed the novel in 1973 after it came out in English.

[cmonstah]

A presentation drawing for "Military Home Barrack No. 1" by an unknown English artist, c. 1880s.

From the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

[cmonstah]

Make the cowboy Mexican again. A man in a vaquero ensemble brands a steer. From a sketch by Franco-American illustrator Edward Jump (1831?-1883), as published in "American Agriculturist," 1870.

Found on the blog JPTAK Science Books.

[cmonstah]

Unknown, Rabbits in waves, edo period

[cmonstah]

Victor Burgin, "US 77," 1977.

From this roundup of Burgin's work published in the Guardian in 2020.

Having worked at Time Inc. many years ago, I deeply appreciate the irony of this piece.

[cmonstah]

The Eyes of Sibiu are the iconic eyebrow dormers on the roofs of Sibiu's houses in Romania. Built mostly between the 15th and 19th centuries, the eyes, which were used as a ventilation system for the houses' attics, have given Sibiu the nickname of "The City Where Houses Don't Sleep"

[cmonstah]

#mood

Jacob van der Heyden, "Feeling," Plate 5, from "The Five Senses," n.d.

As spotted via the Art Institute of Chicago's Chrome extension.