LACMA

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA, is best known by the general public for its beautiful light display outside the museum on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, but step inside one of the many galleries and you will find works of art from all over the world. Being an art history major at UCLA, I have had the opportunity to be led around the museum by professors and curators, as they explain the museum process and how they decide what to display. Basically, this place is an art lover's dream. Here are a few snapshots of paintings or artworks I really enjoyed. 

The infamous LACMA light display, located outside the museum and visible from the street. Also seen in movies like "No Strings Attached" and "Valentine's Day," Urban Light by Chris Burden, constructed in 2008, has become a famous hallmark of the Los Angeles landscape.  

Soap Bubbles by Jean Simeon Chardin from c. 1733 is one of my favorite pieces. The delicate nature of the bubble being blown, seemingly ready to pop, expresses a snapshot of an exact moment in time. The viewer from behind the young man blowing the bubble is waiting in anticipation to see how large it can get before it pops, adding a sense of suspense to the painting, which Chardin captures perfectly while commenting on the nature of time as fleeting. 

The Perfect Accord by Antoine Watteau from c. 1719 displays an allegory of love common in many pieces created at this time, with a couple leaving the scene, deep in conversation, while a young man in the foreground of the painting is seemingly trying to persuade the young woman, who is holding the flute player's music, to join him on their own stroll. 

The exactness to reality and the manner in which the painter depicted varying textures with such realness is what struck me most about this whimsical still life. 

Created by one of my favorite sculptors of all-time, Seated Voltaire was sculpted by Jean-Antoine Houdon in Paris c. the late 1800s. Admired today and during his lifetime for capturing the essence and nature of his subjects, Houdon was commissioned to sculpt famous American historical figures such as George Washington, now on view in Washington D.C. at the National Portrait Gallery. 

Brilliant use of shading and light to create depth and interest while done in a monochromatic manner. This is an excellent example of grisaille, a painting technique, which is always monochromatic, meant to present the subject matter to appear like sculpture. 

Something I have learned from the last 3 years of studying art history at UCLA is to always question the size of paintings/artworks when they are presented on a computer screen or replicated in print. For example, this painting may appear to be medium sized when in fact what makes it enticing is that it is done in miniature, (about 3" by 3") but with detail and exactness in showing a small Netherlandish town and its fog. 

I always enjoy looking at the detail of the frames created for paintings as well as noticing if there is a signature anywhere. Whether or not the painting is signed is based on the time period and location the painting was made and says a lot about when the piece was created, by whom, and for what purpose. This specific painting and signature is from Renoir. 

I love looking up close at Monet's impressionistic paintings. The further back you view them, the more of a complete picture they become -- as you get closer, the more visible the brushstrokes are and the more difficult the imagery is to understand. Perhaps an allegory of the way we need to step back and evaluate our lives at times to see a more clear and cohesive picture? 

I was struck by the beautiful coloring and thick texture of the brushstrokes and paint of this painting entitled Nympheas by Claude Monet from 1897. 

As was (and is) common practice, artists often created cartoon mockups of the paintings they were going to create. This unfinished mockup was quite enjoyable to view as you could see the process of these cartoons come to life. Although over 100 years old, I was surprised by how similar the sketch was to modern comic books. 

I couldn't help but photograph this painting called Harlequin by Pablo Picasso, made in France in 1923. However, as soon as I snapped this picture (without flash of course) a guard came over and told me it was a gallery that photography of any kind was forbidden, and I sadly stopped taking pictures, but I was glad to get this image.