From the Technikmuseum I walked up Möckernstraße and Stresemannstraße to the Martin-Gropius-Bau, to see 'Pacific Standard Time: Art in Los Angeles 1950-1980', and 'Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-1935'. I bought a combi-ticket for €12.00 (€2.00 off for oldies) and went in at 14:20.
This is the only European venue for just part of the huge Pacific Standard Time project, which traces the development of the versatile Los Angeles art scene in the post war period, where artists "approached their viewing public as consumers to be courted, constituencies to be rallied and communities to call home", as one caption eloquently put it. The exhibition opened with a display of documentation showing how private shows and art schools provided a closed, tame audience for the LA artists in the early years, plus Public Censure and the Art of Protest in the early 1960s. The Berlin version of the show has added a large collection of the photographs of Julius Shulman (1938-2008) whose strong architectural compositions helped to define LA's image as an alluring and dynamic city of the future.
The large-scale illustrative paintings of David Hockney and Ed Ruscha (think filling stations) were there, and large abstracts of Sam Francis, with the works of Lee Mullican and John Altoon stylistically somewhere in the middle. A section focused on Hard Edge Paintings and Ceramic Sculpture from the 1940s, with unified compositions, rhythmic patterns, balanced shapes and complementary colours: artists included Helen Lundeberg, Frederick Hammersley and Karl Benjamin.
The huge abstract painting 'Berlin Red' (which was on display) by Sam Francis was commissioned in 1969 by Werner Haftmann, Director of the National Gallery in Berlin at the time, for the upper hall of the Neue Nationalgalerie; its references to Japanese Zen gardens came to symbolise freedom.
I find it impossible to document such an exhibition; all I can do is note down some of the artists and images that appeal to me.
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