He curated the exhibition in collaboration with Roger Gastman and Aaron Rose, both longtime promoters of graffiti art.Īrt in the Streets was timely, given the recent explosion of interest in graffiti and street art among artists, museums, the media, and the general public. Art in the Streets was the first exhibition organized by the recently appointed director of MOCA, Jeffrey Deitch, whose New York gallery, Deitch Projects, had previously represented a number of the featured artists. There, further commissioned paintings and murals intermingled with re-creations of historically significant installations, paintings, a skateboard park, photographs, films, an illustrated timeline, and more. The exhibition began with a series of commissioned pieces in the plaza outside the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and extended through the interior. In its weaker moments, the show was more of sociological or anthropological interest than artistic and raised questions of aesthetic standards and the museum’s role. Less familiar artists were introduced, and distinctions between fine and popular art were eroded. At its best, the exhibition expanded definitions of art, revealing meaning and beauty in the most humble circumstances and paintings and sculptures enriched by the energy and gritty rawness of the streets. ![]() ![]() Not surprisingly, it drew impressive crowds. The exhibition succeeded in large measure and was at once raucous, thought provoking, and illuminating. museum exhibition devoted to exploring the history of graffiti and street art, it took any number of risks with regard to the challenges it posed to conventional notions of museum art. Major art and architecture exhibitions are presented in skylit galleries leading off the sunken court.Issues of high and low-fine art versus popular culture-ran rampant through Art in the Streets, organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA). The sole compensation for the CRA’s stupidity is this jewel-like cluster of geometric forms, clad in rough-textured red sandstone, hunkered down amid the office towers. MOCA remains an oasis of low-rise tranquility with a deliberately different layout from traditional museums. At its opening, critics derided the building’s windowless, blank wall along the Grand Street sidewalk, but Isozaki deliberately designed the building to face inward towards the California Plaza development. East Asian traditions were referenced with the play between positive and negative (building and courtyard) space. Isozaki chose forms and shapes for the building that were vaguely traditional, but mostly abstract. Only four of its seven levels are above the street level.Īdministrative offices are located at the level of Upper Grand Street under a barrel-shaped roof. Under and around the courtyard are the public galleries. The entrance is marked by an arch leading to a subterranean terraced courtyard. Japanese architect Arata Isozaki created a contrast to the extreme heights of the Bunker Hill glass-and-steel high rise towers by designing MOCA as a sunken, red sandstone-clad space. ![]() ![]() In addition to private donations, funds for MOCA came from a 1.5 % allocation of budgets from Bunker Hill development projects required to go towards public art. When the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA) opened its permanent quarters at California Plaza in 1987, Bunker Hill was a multi-level landscape of sprouting skyscrapers. © Installation view of URS FISCHER, April 21–August 19, 2013, at MOCA Grand Avenue, courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, photo by Brian Forrest Text by the Architects / MOCA
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