Event #3 - Hammer Museum Exhibitions

I'm at the Hammer Museum!

The Hammer Museum is a gem of Westwood which includes the Armand Hammer Collection of Art. Occasionally there are new limited time exhibitions for viewing. From September 29, 2013 to January 12, 2014, there is the James Welling: Monograph exhibition and from September 29, 2013 to January 5, 2014, there is the Forrest Bess: Seeing Things Invisible exhibition.

James Welling: Monograph Exhibition.

James Welling is a professor at the UCLA Department of Art and has created beautiful photographs operating in the hybrid ground between traditional photography, painting, and sculpture. He shifted between certain issues and ideas - some really abstract while some straightforward beauty. I had mainly positive reactions from this exhibition. Welling's photography is amazing in technique. His architectural and artist photos used contrast and shadowing well and his use of parallel lines to direct the viewer's attention was smart. Welling enhanced textbook photography techniques. His Diary of Elizabeth and James Dixon piece intrigued me. It was a motion through the diary of the past and picture of the present. Viewing this piece felt like jumping between those two times. My eyes rolled, however, at the more abstract works; I couldn't see the appeal or the message of them.

Forrest Bess: Seeing Things Invisible Exhibition.

Forrest Bess was an interesting fellow. He had hallucinations and visions and incorporated them into his paintings. He had more than 50 small scale visionary paintings of bio-morphic shapes and abstracted landscapes. He used a palette knife and mixed in sand to the paint. I enjoyed looking at the texture of the paintings, but what got my mind running was the evolution of his paintings. They began as symbols of what he thought was the answer to ancient and universal truth. But as time passed by, one can see that he became fixated on his thesis of eternal life and meaning, starting with the hermaphroditic paintings. Bess believe that to achieve this, people need a balance between male and female functionality. Thus, he performed at least two surgeries on himself. The bottom line was that the evolution of his paintings and his mind were disturbing... but interesting. That's the only word I can think of to describe the feeling.

 Apartments, West Los Angeles, 2003 by James Welling.

Bodies of Little Dead Children by Forrest Bess.

These two exhibitions are great simply because one would be able to view a contrast of different styles. Welling's pieces incorporated math and technology through his uses of lines and Photoshop while Bess's pieces allows us to view some medical technology art through pictures of his surgeries. These exhibitions are direct supplements to this course and the material we are learning.

Yours truly,

Calvin Cam

Works Cited

“Forrest Bess: Seeing Things Invisible.” Hammer Museum, Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/detail/exhibition_id/242>.

“James Welling.” James Welling, Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://jameswelling.net/>.

“James Welling: Monograph.” Hammer Museum, Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/detail/exhibition_id/241>.

“Los Angeles.” James Welling, Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://jameswelling.net/projects/36>.

“The Paintings.” Forrest Bess, Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://www.forrestbess.org/paintings.html>.