Why are the galleries so spread out in Los Angeles? Why is everything so spread out here? You can’t miss with Hauser Wirth so we started there. Representing legends like Chilida, Guston, Louise Bourgeois and Eva Hesse and living artists like Henry Taylor even their book stores are worth (wirth) fighting the traffic for. They have galleries all over the world now and each is an experience.
In LA there were three valet parking attendants manning a curbside stand in front of the former Globe Mill complex. We found street parking and went inside to the big, open air courtyard. Birds were singing above us as we chatted with the gardener while he trimmed an arugula patch. He told us they grow the greens for their restaurant, Manuela’s, which was just behind us.
British artist George Rouy was showing new work in the front gallery. His paintings remind me of a watery Francis Bacon, nowhere near as sculptural, but almost as intriguing. He clusters figures that appear engaged or entwined with one another but you can’t quite make out what they up to. And their bodies are not fully shown.
In the rear galley space we found David Hammons’ installation, “Concerto in Black and Blue,” big empty, unlit rooms that we explored with tiny blue flashlights. It was a bit like the tunnel at a carnival. The shadows were interesting and there was just enough visual information to find the exits of each room. Maybe if there were more people and an dj inside (like the video) it would have been more engaging.
Their website says Manuela’s “is illuminated and animated by specially commissioned works from artists Paul McCarthy, Mark Bradford and Raymond Pettibon.” We missed those but found a mural by Mary Heilmann and we had lunch while sitting under a beautiful Henry Taylor painting. On the way out we asked if there were other galleries nearby and they told us the next few were about a mile away.
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