Representing LA: Pictorial Currents in Southern California Art

Rating:
Summary: A Solid Survey of Representational Art in Los Angeles
Review: REPRESENTING LA is a well-produced catalogue that accompanied an exhibition curated by Gordon L. Fuglie for the Frye Museum in Seattle but then traveled extensively. As a catlogue it ranks with the finest for a multiartist, survey type of exhibition. The key interest here displayed and discussed in Fuglie's fine essay is how important traditional values in painting are reseected in the land of Los Angeles, a Lotus Land considered by many to be the hub of intransigence to anything but the current fleeting trends.

This survey and accompanying exhibition is divided into the following categories: The Artist, Portraiture, Identity and Self, The Body, Narrative, City, Landscape, Still Life, and Spirit. These subdivisions blur in the accompanying imagery but then the attempt to categorize paintings from one period in time is always fraught with such judgment problems. The art varies from excellent to passable, but he content is pungent and there are some reproductions of very important paintings here. The quality of color reproductions is excellent.

For a different 'view' of the art of Los Angeles, this book (74 pages) is highly recommended. Though many of the artists honored in 2001 are no longer producing work and many of the 'neglected/ignored' artists have gone on to become shining lights, this is a solid survey and well worth the art lovers' attention. Grady Harp, February 2005