Hammer Museum

On Saturday, October 6, 2012 the Hammer honored two remarkable creative forces---artists Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman. Actor, author, and musician Steve Martin gave a tribute to Sherman and MSNBC anchor and author Rachel Maddow toasted Kruger. The Gala featured a special performance by singer/songwriter Katy Perry. (Run time: 2 minutes, 36 seconds, no sound)

In conjunction with the retrospective Richard Artschwager! on view at the Hammer Museum through September 1, LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division), and the Hammer Museum along with The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas present a citywide installation of Richard Artschwager's blps - a word coined by the artist (pronounced "blips") in the late 1960s which consists of black lozenge-shaped marks meant to inspire focused looking and draw our attention to the places and things around us that often go unnoticed. Visit www.blp.la for details (Run time: 2 mins).

5/2/2013---As the Chinese government tightens already strict controls in Tibet and Tibetans set themselves on fire in protest of Chinese rule, leading experts Robert Barnett and Tsering Shakya explore what can be done to save Tibetan culture and identity. Barnett is director of Modern Tibetan Studies at Columbia University. He is a frequent commentator on Tibet and nationality issues in China for the BBC, CNN, NPR, and other media. Shakya is the Canadian Research Chair in Religion and Contemporary Society in Asia at the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia and he also reports for Radio Free Asia (Run time: 1hr 25 mins).

4/27/2013---Dancing with the Art World convened a working group of artists, choreographers, curators, and historians to structure a space for critical reflection on the recent interface between dance and art. The Lives of Dances features renowned dance figures Simone Forti and Yvonne Rainer in conversation with Julia Bryan-Wilson, Professor of Art History, UC-Berkeley. Organized by Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly, MFA candidates, Interdisciplinary Studio, UCLA Department of Art with faculty advisor Andrea Fraser. The symposium was co-organized by the Hammer Museum and the UCLA Department of Art. The program was sponsored by grants from the UCLA Arts Initiative Fund and University of California Institute for Research in the Arts (UCIRA), and was funded by the UCLA Campus Programs Committee of the Programs Activities Board (Run time: 1 hr 16 min).

6/18/2013---As an essential player in a new approach to planning and architecture, A. Quincy Jones considered all his projects to be a way of reinventing domestic life and the making of architecture. Examples include the cooperative community of Crestwood Hills, Jones and Emmons's pioneering work on system-built Eichler Homes, and innovative open plans such as Jones's own steel house, Jones Steel House #2 (Run time: 1 hr 8 mins).

6/23/2013---Los Angeles-based art luminaries John Baldessari and Ed Ruscha discuss the work of Richard Artschwager. Baldessari is known for his conceptual work that often intersects artistic genres and media. His work has been featured in more than 200 solo exhibitions and more than 1,000 group exhibitions in the United States and Europe. Ruscha's work encompasses painting, drawing, photography, and artist's books. He has been the subject of numerous international museum retrospectives. This discussion is moderated by Bob Monk, director of Gagosian Gallery's Uptown Gallery, New York (Run time: 1 hr 6 mins).

3/6/2013---Marc Freedman, the founder of Civic Ventures, and Tim Carpenter, the founder of EngAGE, discuss how older adults are contributing to cultural, educational, and social services organizations to meaningfully engage in the next phase of life. The conversation focuses on innovation, sustaining work later in life, creativity, lifelong learning, and more. Moderated by Joanne Webb of The Actors Fund (Run time: 1 hr 33 mins).

6/5/2013---As media monopolies grow and the fate of the Los Angeles Times remains uncertain, former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Reed Hundt, Center for Governmental Studies CEO Tracy Westen, and veteran Los Angeles Times reporters Kevin Roderick and Henry Weinstein discuss the future of the public airwaves. While at the FCC Hundt was guided by two principles: to make decisions based on the public interest and to write fair rules of competition for the communications sector. Tracy Westen is CEO of the Center for Governmental Studies, which develops model laws and media solutions to improve governance and civic engagement. Roderick is the creator and publisher of the award-winning website LA Observed. Weinstein teaches media law at the UC Irvine School of Law.

4/26/2013---Douglas Crimp presents the keynote address at Dancing with the Art World. This conferences convened a working group of artists, choreographers, curators, and historians to structure a space for critical reflection on the recent interface between dance and art, consider its historical precedents, and debate its effects on artistic and institutional practice. Organized by Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly, MFA candidates, Interdisciplinary Studio, UCLA Department of Art with faculty advisor Andrea Fraser. The symposium was co-organized by the Hammer Museum and the UCLA Department of Art. The program was sponsored by grants from the UCLA Arts Initiative Fund and University of California Institute for Research in the Arts (UCIRA), and was funded by the UCLA Campus Programs Committee of the Programs Activities Board (Run time: 1 hour 9 mins).

1/10/2013---Dan O'Shannon is an executive producer and writer of the ABC show Modern Family and author of "What Are You Laughing At? A Comprehensive Guide to the Comedic Event", which presents an entirely new approach to comedy theory. As a writer and producer, he has made significant contributions to some of the most acclaimed network comedies of the past 25 years such as Newhart, Cheers, and Frasier. His various awards include but are not limited to three Emmys, two Golden Globes, five WGA awards and an Academy Award nomination. O'Shannon has also lectured in classes at UCLA, USC, and taught a course on writing at Cleveland State University, where he holds an honorary doctorate. (Run time: 1 hr, 26 mins.)

Llyn Foulkes discusses serving in World War II and the effect it had on his work. The extensive career retrospective LLYN FOULKES, devoted to Foulkes's groundbreaking and diverse body of work, is currently on view at the Hammer Museum through May 19, 2013. LLYN FOULKES travels to the New Museum, New York (June 12 - September 1, 2013) and to Museum Kurhaus, Kleve, Germany (December 6, 2013 - March 2, 2014) (Run time: 1 min 45 seconds).

3/21-3/24/2013---Over the course of four marathon days, the Los Angeles-based artist Fritz Haeg worked in the Hammer Museum with volunteers and visitors to crochet discarded textiles into the traveling Domestic Integrities rug. A display of edibles, medicinals, and herbals fresh from Haeg's Los Angeles garden, including offerings of produce and herbal tea infusions, were presented on the rug. The rug of local textiles is a charged site for testing, performing, and presenting how we want to live. These spiral-stitched circular rugs gradually expand as they travel from city to city. The European edition traveled to Budapest, London, and Vienna before arriving at a yearlong installation at Pollinaria in Abruzzo, Italy. American editions started at Mildred's Lane in Pennsylvania and the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, coming to the Hammer from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, before continuing to the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (Run time: 1 min 23 seconds).

3/30-4/21/2013---First performed in 1970 in New York City's downtown Soho neighborhood by Trisha Brown and Carmen Beuchat, 'Floor of the Forest' consists of a sculptural steel frame holding up a web of ropes that have been threaded with colorful used clothing. Placed at eye-level, this horizontal plane becomes a soft platform for two dancers to negotiate. Climbing onto the apparatus, the dancers weave their way across the structure by putting on and then taking off the clothing, occasionally pausing to allow gravity to pull their bodies toward the floor while the clothing acts as a cocoon or hammock. Dancers from the UCLA World Arts and Cultures (WAC) program performed the piece during a Hammer installation that took place March 30-April 21, 2013 (Run Time: 3 mins).

1/23/13---Sebastian Copeland is an award-winning photographer, extreme athlete, filmmaker, author, lecturer, and environmental activist. As an international speaker on climate crisis for more than a decade, Copeland has been featured on television and radio and has given keynote addresses to audiences at the United Nations, the World Affairs Council, and the General Assembly on Climate in New Orleans. He is the recipient of the International Photography Awards' 2007 Professional Photographer of the Year award for his book Antarctica: The Global Warning. (Run time: 1 hr 21 mins.)

The Hammer is participating in the My LA2050 Challenge. $1,000,000 is on the line to shape and build the future of Los Angeles. Arts ReStore LA: Westwood is an urban renewal project by the Hammer that proposes to tap into the thriving Los Angeles creative community to revitalize neighborhoods throughout the city, starting with Westwood Village. On Westwood Boulevard, the main thoroughfare in the Village, and adjacent to the Hammer, nearly half of the storefronts are vacant, earning Westwood Village the highest retail vacancy rate in west Los Angeles. Follow the link on our home page to vote by April 17, 2013.