Alec Lautanen
Editor-in-Chief
Abstract art is a polarizing genre. Reactions range from condescending to fawning and viewers either scoff at the basic simplicity of some pieces or revel at the cryptic mastery of others. “Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void” falls somewhere in between, and the works varied from eloquent to casual.
To the common gallery patron, “Destroy the Picture” will be amusing based on the weirdness of its eclectic pieces alone. The collection fails, however, to incite an overall appreciation for the artwork and the technical skill. Certain works are interesting, but as a whole, the group begs the question of whether or not it actually belongs in a museum.
The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, or MOCA, is hosting the exhibit, which showcases works from the time period of 1949-62. The focus of the exhibition is the artistic reaction to World War II, as well as the crisis of humanity that resulted from the dropping of the atomic bomb.
Aside from these themes, pieces also focus on literal attacks on the “picture plane” in the form of slashed canvases and singed edges. Destruction is a prevalent motif throughout the exhibit, as is emptiness.
The main highlight of the collection is how strange some of the pieces are, as well as their artists’ methods for creating them. Upon first walking into the exhibit, viewers are treated with a work titled “Entrance,” by Japanese artist Saburo Murakamia. “Entrance” is essentially a large piece of canvas that has been torn apart and hangs in the entrance ways of the different gallery rooms.
In the first of 11 rooms, patrons see paintings by the Italian Lucio Fontana that take the form of canvases that have been stabbed with an awl in circular patterns. These are complemented nearby with layers of newsprint painted black, works by American artist Robert Rauschenberg. Although all of these paintings are meant to convey post-war destruction and emptiness, they come across as only somewhat artistic and don’t represent true merit.
Artwork is often deeper than just the finished product, though, and the processes that painters went through to produce their pieces are interesting facets of the exhibit themselves.
Japanese artist Shozo Shimamoto suspended himself from ropes and painted with his feet to make his abstract representations of the Hiroshima atomic blast, and French painter Niki de Saint Phalle attached plastic bags of multi-colored paint to her canvases and then invited people off the street to shoot at them in order to create her vision of German brutality and oppression during the Holocaust.
The best pieces in the whole exhibit, though, are part of a collection of paintings by British artist John Latham, entitled “Skoob” (“books” spelled backwards). The works are essentially signed books glued to a canvas and painted over in a haphazard and sloppy manner. Meant as a protest against censorship, “Skoob” presents a common theme of the exhibit in an extremely novel way and goes beyond the canvas to demonstrate the motif in an innovative, visually enticing manner.
Overall, “Destroy the Picture” is worth going to for the eclectic factor alone. Most of the pieces have to be seen in person to truly appreciate their oddity. Although some of the art is interesting, a majority of the pieces leave viewers confused. “Destroy the Picture” will be on exhibition at MOCA until Jan. 14 for $12.
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