Hammer Museum: Art and Salad

I had this salad at the Hammer Cafe the other day. It was delicious! Butter lettuce, slices of roasted beet, carmelized onions, walnuts and goat cheese with a vinaigrette dressing.

Even better than the salad was the exciting art: Now Dig This! Art & Black Los Angeles 1960 - 1980, one of the shows included in Pacific Standard Time, a broad ranging documentation of art  made in Southern California from 1945 to 1980.

I went to the Museum with Judy Chan and we both came away richly inspired and anxious to get back to our studios. Thank you, Hammer!

Apparitional Visitations, 1973

Suzanne Jackson

 Family, 1967

Samella Lewis

Untitled, 1974-76

John Outterbridge

 America The Beautiful, 1968

David Hammons

I loved the photo negative-like quality of the figure in this image and others by Hammons. They are actual body prints, created by covering his (or another) body with grease or butter, pressing it onto paper and then adding a layer of pigment to the paper, which stuck to the greased areas. After seeing his work, I tried this process at home using my hand for the trials and got some interesting results which I hope to put to use soon.