Balenciaga: In the Pink

Last week the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco opened Balenciaga and Spain. LACMA is contributing five gowns to the show, and it was my job to get them ready for their trip up north.

Cristobal Balenciaga, Women’s Evening Gown and Cape, 1963, gift of Mrs. Edward W. Carter

One of the LACMA-owned dresses in the exhibition is a bright pink silk evening gown with matching cape. Before sending it off, we wanted to know what would happen to the beautiful color while on view. We all know that overexposure to sunlight can be damaging to skin—well, it can harm fabric, too, causing its colors to fade. One way to test the light fastness of an object is to conduct a microfading test. The test uses a strong lamp and fiber optic cable to expose a miniscule area of the object (250 micrometers!) to a very strong ray of light. The exposure is measured, and the results are analyzed to determine how long an object can be illuminated before it begins to show signs of fading.

Here I am adjusting the position of the fiber optic cable prior to testing the gown.

Setup for lamp (on right) and computer with software (SPEC32) to capture measurements.

I tested the gown in several places and compared the results to standardized rates of fading known as the blue wool system. After analyzing the results we cautiously determined that the dress had been exposed to very little direct light in its lifetime (it is an evening gown after all), and can have a maximum exposure of 95,600 hours of UV filtered illumination. This means that in its lifetime the dress can be on display in a museum for 9,560 days, or 2.6 years, before there are perceptible signs of change. Fortunately, the dress will be exhibited in San Francisco for three months, with the lights on only during public hours.

Spectrum depicting fading of colors; the lower curve is the faded curve. This graph shows that the reflectance of the red in the gown’s pink dye will fade the most over time, and the yellow and blue reflectance will increase in visibility.

Armed with this information we will be able to tailor the duration of each future exhibition period, thus ensuring its survival for many generations of museum visitors. 

Nicole Bloomfield, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, Textile Conservation

(Many thanks to Frank Preusser, Senior Scientist, Conservation, for his microfading tutelage and invaluable help with analyzing the test results.)

Installing David Smith: Q&A with Brenda Levin of Levin and Associates Architects

David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy opens at LACMA this Sunday (on view starting tomorrow for members). Curator Carol S. Eliel calls Smith one of the greatest American sculptors of the twentieth century—we’ll have more from Carol next week on Unframed. First, we asked Brenda Levin of Levin and Associates Architects for a sneak peek at her design for the installation.

David Smith installation at LACMA

In what ways did Smith’s work inspire your design?

Our design was inspired by Smith’s own exploration of space and form. He often layered the placement of his sculptures in relation to each other to create a new art form through photography and what he called collages in space.

Geometry is an important theme in this exhibition. Does it play a role in the installation design as well?

Smith wanted to exaggerate and exploit the pictorial quality of his geometric sculptures when he placed them in groups. We attempted to replicate that experience.

The scrims are a notable feature of the design. How are they intended to affect the visitor’s experience?

The scrims, in effect, create the context of landscape, sky, and light that Smith used to explore these techniques of producing three-dimensional collages, documented in his photography and drawings. We looked at these same
ideas through the use of the translucent scrims in a naturally lit space, creating the illusion of sculptures layered in space.

After having such intimate access to Smith’s work, what’s your impression? Anything you would suggest a visitor look out for?

Make sure you study the photos and drawings… they are a wonderful surprise.

Photos courtesy of Yosi Pozeilov

The Engineer Who Saved Watts Towers

One evening last month I drove to a neighborhood near Otis College to visit Bud Goldstone and his wife Arloa in hopes of retracing Bud’s long history with the Watts Towers.  To give you a sense of Bud’s relationship to Simon Rodia and Towers, he is the proud owner of Rodia’s gas fitter pliers, which the artist used to build his sculptures!

Who wouldn’t want to meet a man who concludes every email with the following signature: “Bud Goldstone; OSU, Purdue Aero Engr; AIC Pro. Assoc.-retired; Apollo Engineering, ‘The Los Angeles Watts Towers’, pub by Getty Museum & Conservation Institute; “Secrets of Watts Towers”; SPACES Archives”

Bud Goldstone

In order to understand what all of that means, I sat in their kitchen enjoying Bud’s passion for the history of the Towers. Trained as an aeronautical engineer Norman J. “Bud” Goldstone had been in Los Angeles for about ten years when he read an article in the paper about Rodia’s sculptures. Bud was “not so impressed by the towers” and, at first, didn’t get caught up in their artistic mastery; it was more that the published quotes by his colleagues—other engineers—were to his way of thinking just not accurate. He felt that the engineers “didn’t know what they were talking about,” and he wanted to see for himself what was going on. It was this desire for professional accuracy that first urged him to drive to 107^th Street in South Central to see what these monuments were about and what the engineers were saying. Ultimately, he saw ways in which he might make a contribution to the project.

Bud had no idea that this first visit would eventually lead to a lifetime of devoted advocacy and work for Simon Rodia’s environment. Made of concrete, metal, and miscellany, Bud discovered what he likes to call “a three-dimensional doodle.”

During our visit Bud didn’t spend much time talking about his decisive action in 1959 that ultimately saved the Towers and was the primary reason why they are still standing today (recounted in more depth in The Los Angeles Watts Towers). Set by the City of Los Angeles Building and Safety Department for demolition in 1957, by 1959, a grassroots effort was growing to save the Towers. Because Bud had engineering expertise he was pulled into the effort, which comprised artists, community members, students, and activists. On October 10, 1959 a load test was conducted in front of more than 1,000 people; the experimental stress test used 10,000 pounds of pressure to pull down the Tower. The tower bowed, but did not fall, before the truck and the beam involved with the test started to bend and bow. Witnessing that the Towers were not going to be destroyed, the city defined the test a success for the Preservationists. Engineer Bud was the hero of the day!

Bud told us when the Building and Safety Department voted for the load test, fifteen were against and sixteen were for it.

Bud had the honor and distinction, he said while we sat in his apartment, of meeting the artist, Simon Rodia (1879–1965). Bud recalls taking him to dinner on two occasions and that Rodia was “wonderful,” “lovable,” and that the two of them “had a ball together.” I will remember my evening with Bud and Arloa in a very similar light!

Brooke Davis Anderson, Deputy Director of Curatorial Planning

Free Pics

At a recent workshop, a group of public school teachers asked me what the museum can do to help them obtain high-resolution images of works of art for use in the classroom. We just launched our new online Image Library and I think they’ll be pleased. We started with 2,000 high-resolution images of works of art that we believe to be in the public domain, to download and use for free. Over time, we look forward to continuing to provide even more public domain images of works in our encyclopedic collection.

Digging around, I found a few highlights.

Manuel de Arellano, Virgen de Guadalupe, 1691, oil on canvas, Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund, M.2009.61

This Virgin of Guadalupe was a big hit when we announced its acquisition on our blog back in 2009.  Using the zoomify feature, or by exploring the secondary images included in the entry, you can hone in on the amazing vignettes in the corners—at the lower left, for example, the Virgin appears to Juan Diego and fills his cloak with flowers.

detail, Manuel de Arellano, Virgen de Guadalupe, 1691, oil on canvas, Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund, M.2009.61

Scoot over to the lower right corner and you can see the next chapter of the story.

This sixteenth-century Dutch still life includes tulips, irises, roses, carnations, daffodils, and more.

Ambrosius Bosschaert, Bouquet of Flowers on a Ledge, 1619-1620, oil on copper, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward W. Carter

Lest we get caught up in all of that pictorial perfection, the artist also includes some reminders of real life. Zooming in reveals a bug perched on that luscious white bloom at the left, and a nibbled leaf just below. At the foot of the vase, just to the left, there’s a bee. My colleague Mary Lenihan explained to me that the bugs are about decay—a dose of realism and a reminder of mortality.

detail, Ambrosius Bosschaert, Bouquet of Flowers on a Ledge, 1619-1620, oil on copper, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward W. Carter

The Image Library allows visitors to explore works of art that are not currently on public view. We constantly rotate works of art from our encyclopedic collection, and at any given time, great works of art are in storage or in our conservation labs.

Anonymous, Shinto Sculpture in the Shape of a Seated Fox, Japan, Momoyama period, 1573-1615, wood with white pigment and sumi ink, Gift of the 1993 Collectors Committee, AC1993.40.1

I love this Shinto fox from the sixteenth century with his expressive face and intelligent eyes. He used to guard a shrine. Apparently, he was thought to have special powers, including the ability to read the secret thoughts of humans. There are also some excellent nineteenth-century Japanese scrolls represented in the Image Library. (One of my favorites depicts two boys in the midst of a prank—grinning so wide, their tongues appear to be hanging out of their mouths.) These works of art are light-sensitive and rotate constantly–so the Image Library is a nice complement to the in-gallery presentation, allowing scholars to take a close look at works that may only occasionally be on display.

Giving away high-resolution images is a new undertaking for the museum, driven by our desire to open up access to great works of art at LACMA.  Please comment and tell us how you are using these images. We’re curious to hear what you come up with.

Amy Heibel

This Weekend at LACMA: Fashioning Fashion Closes, Jordan Belson Films, and More

We’ve spent most of this week giving Fashioning Fashion a much-deserved send-off; Sunday is your last chance to see the show! Also closing on Sunday is the installation in the Ahmanson Building, George Grosz, Social Critic, a collection of drawings by the self-described “most depressed man in Europe.”

George Grosz, Coffee House, 1915–1916, the Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies

Our weekend film series Classics from La Semaine de la critique (Critics’ Week) concludes tonight with Barbet Schroeder’s 1969 paean to hedonism, More (featuring a psychedelic soundtrack by Pink Floyd!). This is followed by Trash, the second film in a trilogy by Paul Morrissey, who was part of Andy Warhol’s Factory scene.  

Tomorrow night LACMA is screening a collection of shorts by abstract filmmaker Jordan Belson, “His is a cinematic vision encompassing nothing less than the metaphysical as well as physical universe,” says the LA Weekly in a write-up of the screening.  

Jordan Belson, still from Chakra (1972), © Jordan Belson, courtesy Center for Visual Music

This Sunday’s free Andell Family Day gives kids and parents the chance to make art inspired by our European galleries.  

Later in the evening on Sunday, pianist Joel Fan performs works by Nazaret, Villa-Lobos, and Beethoven for our free Sundays Live series in the Bing Theater.  

Scott Tennent