artist

Ed Ruscha and the Art of Being in Los Angeles

The Artist Captures the Deeply Two-Dimensional City Like No One Else

Ed Ruscha is expected to reappear in Los Angeles this summer, after having been absent for a decade. Ruscha is the artist who famously didn’t leave, when leaving L.A. for New York became the conventional career move. But Ed Ruscha the artwork is gone. A youthful, fleshy Ruscha, 70 feet tall, casually posed, painted by the muralist Kent Twitchell in 1987 on a wall overlooking a parking lot on Hill Street, was painted over by government contractors in 2006. The loss of Twichell’s Ed Ruscha Monument became the subject of …

By D. J. Waldie |

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Coyote as Clown, Cowboy, and Creator

Artist Harry Fonseca Transformed the Native American Folk Figure Into a Commentary on 20th Century Culture

By Amy Scott |

In 2006, during the last few months of his life, the artist Harry Fonseca often spent Sundays in his Santa Fe studio with the curator Patsy Phillips. His ability to …

Are Replicas Changing the Way We Experience Art?

Precise Digital Reproductions Allow More People to Own and View Masterpieces, Minus the Work’s Soul

By Noah Charney |

You are in the Chauvet cave, 35,000 years old. As you enter, the walkway you traverse winds around spot-lit, saber-toothed stalactites and stalagmites. The rough-skin texture of the stone walls …

Life Lessons From South L.A.’s Most Influential “Rag Man”

Renowned Artist John Outterbridge Has Spent Decades Mining His Surroundings for Material

John Outterbridge has spent more than eight decades noticing, saving, and recombining parts of his surroundings. It’s an artistic method. His sculptures bring together different found materials, and the resulting …

A High Flying Artist Never Forgot the People Working the Land

Among José Montoya’s Abundant Creative Output Are Thousands of Sketches Documenting Chicano Life

When Richard Montoya started organizing an exhibition of his father’s art, he was astonished at the sheer number of sketches he found. He and his co-curator, Selene Preciado, eventually chose …

Did Picasso Have a Higher Purpose?

Art Can Inspire, Challenge, and Entertain. But Does It Make Us Better People?

by Sarah Rothbard |

Do the arts make us better people? If you’ve devoted your life and career to art in one way or another, you may believe the answer is yes. But a …


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