Today I had a fantastic opportunity to see my favorite Jackson Pollock painting, “No. 1, 1949,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
The MOCA (across the street from the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, seen in the photos below) is running an exhibit featuring a wide variety of other contemporary American artists, including Lee Krasner (Pollock’s wife), Andy Warhol, Franz Kline, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein and Shepard Fairey (creator of the iconic Obama poster).
Without a doubt, the highlight for me was being in the same room with a masterpiece by Jackson Pollock, my favorite artist. It’s hard to put into words how it made me feel. Art has a different impact on all of us — some a lot, some not at all. But, after only having seen his enamel and aluminum paint on canvas in art history books or online, getting to stand right in front of it and take it ALL in was just awesome!
Next, I hopped the shuttle over to The Geffen and saw Art in the Streets which included works by Banksy, Rammellzee and Kenny Scharf. I was just one of more than 200,000 visitors from April 17–August 8, 2011, marking the highest exhibition attendance in the museum’s history. This exhibit pretty much puts to rest the question of whether or not graffiti is art.
Here’s a photo gallery with some of my favorites from both museums.
