Los Angeles – Matthew Langley Artblog

Double Standard: Ed Ruscha & Mason Williams 1956 – 1971 (Part 1) at Alden Projects

Published September 21, 2015

This exhibition explores the early dialogues, collaborations, and the creative relationship between Ed Ruscha and Mason Williams. Williams a life-long friend of Ruscha’s since fourth grade in Oklahoma City, moved from Oklahoma to Los Angeles with Ruscha in the mid 50’s.

This exhibition focuses on a small, but extraordinary body of art by Mason Williams as well as selected early highlights of Ruscha’s earlier work. Of particular interest is Williams 36 foot long Bus (1967)—a life-size, silkscreened image of a Greyhound bus (see above) and folded like a map—conceived around the same time as Ruscha’s silver-covered Every Building on the Sunset Strip (which also unfolds to over 27 feet).

William’s and Rucha’s interests intersect on co-mingle in ways during this show I had half a feeling that really the whole show was by Ruscha, clearly that was more of a daydream of my own, but the thought remains and I have a hard time getting away from it. While this is stuck in my head, don’t let that distract you from both a physically interesting and highly cerebral show.

Alden Projects
34 Orchard Street
New York, NY

Exhibition Dates: Thursday, September 10–Saturday, October 18, 2015

Glam Rock, Los Angeles, Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco and Star Magazine – The Magazine for the Hollywood Groupie scene

Published March 16, 2011

I’ve recently discovered a new guilty pleasure – pretty much all of it is listed in the headline. Frankly it all makes a bit of sense if you follow the Warhol scene and go west. Going west being the penultimate thing that americans do.

Would I call it art? No, but I’d call it “Relational Aesthetics”.

The short lived Star Magazine (not to be confused with the current Star Magazine) was the most subversively notorious of all of it. Found in the grocery store next to magazines like Teen, Tiger Beat, Teen Beat and all the rest, Star would openly discuss the whole groupie scene – but would be able to stay on the PG-13 side of it. No easy feat.

The downside that Star gave the LA “groupie scene” was a new shot of youth – probably the last thing the existing girls wanted was a bunch of desperate, attention starved, thirteen year old girls who relished in the fact that they were jail-bait – and could care less. The most common knock against the “older” girls was exactly that – being called old. Star’s greatest moment was the “Sunset Strip Groupies” article in which Sable Star and Queenie call the other girls old – the other girls were all of 23.

“You couldn’t trust the new LA groupies, who were desperate, discouraged, groveling ego seekers. The love of music had become secondary to preening in Star magazine, standing next to Anybody In A Band. It was scary out there. It was fictitious and haunted.”

– Pamela Des Barres

Star magazine despite it’s over use of the word foxy is an amazing time capsule. Routinely featuring it’s own comic called Groupies, monthly columns; The Beauty and the Fox, an always amazing letters page, record reviews, etc. Great articles like: Chain Gang High School, Guys Who’ll Use You, Get Him Back- On His Knees!, Olga Korbut Goes Foxy, Nose-Job Diary, The Black Foxy Lady Look, will certainly keep you reading.

You might be wondering were you can find issues of this rare and short lived magazine. Go here: star1973.com. Ryan Richardson has turned his appreciation into a great web site with all 5 issues of Star.

Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco was pretty much the ground zero of the LA glam world and there are enough stories floating around to keep anyone amused for at least a few days. I’ll let you do some research on that one.

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Things always have a way of working out…

Published August 3, 2010

Broad Museum Could Get Millions Via Developers

The Los Angeles financier Eli Broad may get millions of dollars back on the $100 million museum he is planning to build as part of the Grand Avenue Project, a development of condominiums, cultural sites, stores, offices, and a hotel in downtown Los Angeles, reports Carol Vogel for the New York Times via the Los Angeles Times.

A deal approved last month by the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles calls for Broad’s museum to receive millions of dollars as the Grand Avenue Project moves forward. The redevelopment agency requires developers––in this case Related Companies––to pay one percent of their project’s design and construction costs to create public artworks or to support cultural sites in the neighborhood where they build. The deal, which was approved on July 15, includes the Broad Collection at Grand Avenue and Second Street as the cultural facility that will fulfill a large amount of Related Company’s percent-for-art obligation.

If the Grand Avenue Project costs its estimated $3 billion, the one percent requirement would generate $30 million for arts and culture and Broad’s museum would receive about a third of that under the plan approved last month.

Via Artforum.com