Hockney at LACMA, Broad Collection

David Hockney's small portrait of Celia Birtwell, protagonist of his 1971 masterpiece with then-husband Ossie Clark, mounted on a terra cotta painted wall at LACMA.  Link  

For painting of the hand, not till later did I notice the reference.

At the Broad, Murakami's ink jet mural from 2014,  In the Land of the Dead, Stepping  on the Tail of a Rainbow.

Though traditional scrolls emphasize emptiness, Murakami packs a full composition a la Wang Meng.

Murakami from afar, for scale.

Detail, Strips of Earth's Skin, El Anatsui, 2008

The larger view

Jeff Koon's Jim Beam - JB Turner Train, 1986, stainless steel and bourbon and Blue  Balloon Dog, 1994-2000, in background. 

Roy Lichenstein's Reflections on "Interior with Girl Drawing," 1990, a beautiful painting.
Something I enjoy about private collections is the portrait that emerges of the collector, in this case concerns with flat, perfect surfaces, mediation and technological processes. The collection is mostly male.

The juiciest painting on display outside of some Terry Winters works on paper: Boss by Ed Ruscha, 1960.

Looking light and watercolor-inspired, Sam Francis' Big Orange, 1954-55,  oil, 118 x  76 inches. 

Summer #1 from 1957 by Sam Francis.

Grey, Sam Francis - 119 x 76.

Blue and Yellow, 1954-55, 76 x 51 inches. The Broad's website as collection archive, is easy to reference.

Early, classic Christopher Wool.

At last a woman: Kara Walker's laser painted cut steel installation Burning African Village Play Set With Big House and Lynching, 2006, and African't, 1996, cut paper on wall given their own room - much appreciated.

Basquiat, Untitled, 1981, 81 x 69.25, acrylic, oilstick, canvas.

Basquiat, Obnoxious Liberals, 1982, 68 x 102 inches.

(Not All) Ten Views of a Lingbi Stone at LACMA

David Brody's May 26th article, A Tunnel of Roses on the Lower East Side: Justen Ladda and His Scholars Rocks (Link) inspired me no end, not only for Ladda's ongoing cultivation of a Chinese garden in the middle of New York but the exhibition mentioned--Ten Views of a Lingbi Stone--on view at LACMA . 

Strolling Ladda's garden, I admired the subtle relationships and scale between the rocks Ladda sent from China and the plants and flowers surrounding them.

The garden is on Allen St.

Traveling to LA, I was able to see Ten Views of a Lingbi Stone on its final exhibition day.  Museum Link

These strange spirit stones, like scholars rocks, emblematize landscapes as scholars rocks do at larger scale.
"Winds give birth to stone grottoes,
Clouds arise from the foot of mountains"
is inscribed on this stone. The poem is by Six Dynasties poet Yu Xin (513-581). 

One gets lost in athe cumulus clouds of summer,  hiking, landscape...

Taihu Stone, by Tang dynasty poet Bo Juyi (722-846)
From afar one sees the crests of old peaks,
up close one sees cliff's strange ridges.
Its lofty height--eight to nine feet!
Its deep, empty valleys like the Cave of Floriate Yang,
Layer upon layer, like the peaks of Lofty Mount Lu.
Remote! Separated like the Immortal's Palm,
Ha! Yawning wide as Sword Gate.
Its form spans present and past,
Its vital energy penetrates to the clear sky.
When Autumn approaches, one hears the soughing of the wind,
When rain approaches, it's dripping wet!
Its natural beauty truly extraordinary,
(Yet) its usefulness cannot be employed.
For sharpening knives, not as good as a whetstone;
For fuling silk, inferior to a fuller's stone.
So what must the owner be thinking,
Valuing it as worth ten thousand in gold?
And how it is that its Creator (the Dao)
Alone can understand my heart?"

Trans. Stephen Little, from LACMA Didactic panel

1945, Leung Kui-ting--Guangdong Province. Zak Zak Zen, 2007, ink on silk

Wu Bin's Ten Views of a Lingbi Stone, handscroll, 1610, comprising ten views of a the unusual stone owned by collector Mi Wanzhong. Wu Bin was a celebrated landscape painter, according to the didactic panel.

Much like unfurling a scroll, the various perspectives on one object reveals variable interstices and spaces.

More info about the stone and its story is linked here: About the project and the book - LINK

Yau Wing-fun, b. 1990. Clouds Enveloping Strange  Peaks, 2014.
Portrays the 'three distances' of horizontal, high, and deep distances elucidated by Song dynasty painter Guo Xi (1020-1090). The painting possesses Guai, or strangeness, prized by Chinese literati, according to the didactic panel.

Zeng Xiaojun, b. 1954, Beijing. Untitled, 2012. Zeng uses traditional materials to depict old trees, stones and landscapes and collects stones and scholars objects. This one-room exhibition was beautiful and I feel so fortunate to have read David Brody's article and discovered its fortuitous timing.