Noah Purifoy: Junk Dada

Welcoming entrance to Noah's Mojave installations

Noah Puifoy with his sculpture "The Bridge" - 2000 - Polaroid T-55 Film - 

©2000 Jim McHugh

Thanks to my friend Joe Lewis, artist and educator,  I was able to photograph Noah Purifoy at his open air studio /museum in the desert in 2000. I also acquired a piece of sculpture from Noah personally, which has remained in the Mojave until a few weeks ago. After he was gone, perhaps I was uncomfortable disturbing what Noah had created. What a pleasure it was seeing the beautiful exhibit at LACMA, celebrating his life and work. Up thru September 2015.

Noah Purifoy (1917-2004) lived and worked most of his life in Los Angeles and Joshua Tree, California. A founding director of the Watts Towers Art Center, his earliest body of sculpture, constructed out of charred debris from the 1965 Watts Rebellion, was the basis for 66 Signs of Neon, a landmark group exhibition about the riots that traveled to nine venues between 1966 and 1969. LACMA

In the late 1980’s, after eleven years of public policy work for the California Arts Council, where Purifoy initiated programs such as Artists in Social Institutions, bringing art into the state prison system, Purifoy moved his practice to the Mojave desert. He lived there for the last fifteen years of his life, creating ten acres of large-scale sculpture constructed entirely from junked materials. LACMA 

"Heavy Metal" is an apt title for this 9' lead and wood sculpture which I brought to Los Angeles a few weeks ago. "Heavy Metal" exudes a powerful presence which I was completely overtaken with the first time I saw it.

 

LACMA EXHIBIT

Los Angeles Street Artists

Los Angeles Street Artists

Big Sleeps

Defer

Fishe

Gajin Fujita

The Phantom Street Artist

Joe "Prime" Reza

ESMoA (link)

Jim McHugh

LOS ANGELES: 40 ARTISTS

The Getty Museum 

Pacific Standard Time 

Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Beverly Hills 

Graffiti Art Print at LAArt Show 2015

"Scratch" Triptych Debuts at LA Art Show 2015

"Scratch" - 195x40-inch triptych

About The Print

"Scratch," a photo collage of the recent graffiti installation at El Segundo Museum of Art, debuted at the LA Art Show 2015. Measuring nearly 17 feet in length, “Scratch” was photographed over a period several months. It includes many separate images of both individual artists and graffiti walls. The photograph includes such artists as Phantom, Axis, Cre8, Defer, Eyeone, Fishe, Miner, Gajin Fujita, Big Sleeps, and Prime. Jim McHugh considers this picture an artist group portrait. He has used these multiple images to go beyond the normal single-point perspective limitations of the camera, allowing for expansion of time and maximization of detail.

Joe "Prime" Reza, Big Sleeps, Defer & Jim McHugh

ESMoA Exhibition

In 2013, LA’s leading graffiti artists responded to a 16th Century manuscript from the vaults of the Getty Research Institute called a liber amicorum (book of friends) by contributing works on paper to be bound into a single book, thus creating the Getty Graffiti Black Book. Street artists have used black books for decades to create a visual memory of drafts and to serve as a vehicle for the exchange of ideas. The extraordinary competition that occasionally arises among artists can also lead to respect, as rivals invite each other to “hit” their black books with original works. The contributing artists gave the Getty Black Book the title “LA Liber Amicorum” to capture the transformational spirit of rival “writing crews” creating a Los Angeles Book of Friends. 

ESMoA and the Getty Research Institute subsequently invited Getty Black Book artists Axis, Cre8, Defer, Eyeone, Fishe, and Miner to co-curate those crews of creative friends from the LA graffiti art community and turn ESMoA into an open black book. With the “Scratch” installation, graffiti and tattoo artists transformed the space into a cathedral of urban art for the first public presentation of the LA Liber Amicorum.

Jim McHugh with Brian and Eva Sweeney of ESMoA

Brian and Eva Sweeney (left & center) of ESMoA

LA Art Show 2015

In January of 2015, the LA Art Show celebrated its 20th Anniversary. The 200,000-square foot art fair has grown from its inception as a small regional event featuring 14 galleries to an international showcase for fine art, attracting 120 galleries from 22 countries. 

In a major departure from art fairs of the time, the LA Art Show was the first and only event to strategically incorporate galleries representing diverse art genres, broadening its audiences to include enthusiasts of: modern, contemporary, historic and traditional works, as well as works on paper, sculpture and installations, in one art fair. This show format was specifically selected to meet the needs of the LA market. And, it has paid off with attendance and galleries increasing year over year. This out-of-the-box thinking has been a hallmark of the show production team, which has consistently developed programming and special exhibition content, that following its debut at the LA Art Show, has grown to acclaim in the international art world.

In recent years, the LA Art Show has become the most internationally diverse art platform in the Western world, bringing in the largest groupings of Korean, Chinese and Japanese galleries outside of Asia. Beginning in 2010, the LA Art Show has actively developed its international gallery offerings to provide collectors with a unique opportunity, to spot international trends and zeitgeist through art, a medium that has the ability to transcend language. This keen focus has been a hallmark of the show.   

With my daughter Chloe and wife Johnna

ESMoA (link)

Jim McHugh

LOS ANGELES: 40 ARTISTS

The Getty Museum 

Pacific Standard Time 

Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Beverly Hills 

Chevalier's Books - Book Signing

 

Chevalier's Books, the oldest independently operated bookstore in Los Angeles, invites you to meet photographer Jim McHugh, signing his book Let's Get Lost, a collection of award winning photographs of LA's Golden Era.

Saturday afternoon - Dec. 20 - 3pm until 5pm

126 N Larchmont Boulevard - LA. 90004

The Gallery at Chevalier's - exhibited photographs from Let's Get Lost.

Opening night celebration of Chevalier 's recent remodel, dedicated to Los Angeles architectural heritage.

Orpheum Theatre and Lamppost on West Boulevard  from Let's Get Lost

Chevalier's Books - historic Los Angeles bookstore 

Chevalier's Books, founded in 1940 by Joe Chevalier, is the oldest, continuously operating bookstore in Los Angeles. In 1990, Filis Winthrop, a retired LA high school teacher, purchased the business from Joe Chevalier. The disappearance of these independent, local bookstores is well known. This year it changed hands again to Bert Deixler and Darryl Holter, two passionate, dedicated bibliophiles. Chevalier's underwent a major remodel in November, keeping the cozy, neighborhood feeling of the store created by my wife, designer Johnna McHugh. Today Filis still continues to operate the store - with more books, and added technology but the same devotion she has given for over 25 years. Chevalier's, an enduring, longstanding businesses on Larchmont, is a cultural marker for the community,  It is my great pleasure to participate in the legacy of this landmark bookstore.  Jim McHugh

The first building to be constructed on Larchmont Boulevard in 1924, it was originally a bank. The bank's 
vault remains to this day,  Filis Winthrop and Chloe McHugh with the vintage 1920s bank vault behind.

 

Jim McHugh - Let's Get Lost 

Book Signing - 3pm until 5pm - Saturday afternoon - Dec. 20, 2014

Chevalier's Books

126 North Larchmont Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90004

323.465.1334 

www.chevaliersbooks.com

  

McHugh represented by

Timothy Yarger Fine Art - Beverly Hills
http://www.yargerfinearts.com/#!jim-mchugh/c1k46

 

Experience 11: Scratch – El Segundo Museum of Art

LA Artists & The Getty Research Institute - Graffiti Black Book

Artists Defer & BIG Sleeps at SCRATCH opening - El Segundo Museum of Art - ESMoA

Jim McHugh - 8x10 Deardorff camera  -

Portrait of "KING CRE8" made with IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT 8x10 instant film

Experience 11: Scratch (Jun 8 until Sept 21, 2014)

Many of LA’s most influential graffiti and tattoo artists have covered the walls and floors of ESMoA to publicly launch their 21st century encounter with an artistic tradition: the Getty Black Book. 

 Opening Night - 06-06-14

KCRW's Edward Goldman and ESMoA Director Eva Sweeney with artists Fishe and Miner during the installation



Hear KCRW art critic Edward Goldman discuss this exhibition in his popular Los Angeles art series "Art Talk: (audio)

In 2013 more than 150 of LA’s leading graffiti artists responded to a 16th century manuscript from the vaults of the Getty Research Institute called a liber amicorum (book of friends) by contributing works on paper to be bound into a single book and created the Getty Graffiti Black Book. Street artists have used black books for decades to create a visual memory of drafts and to serve as a vehicle for the exchange of ideas. The extraordinary competition that occasionally arises among such artists can also lead to respect as rivals invite each other to “hit” their black books with original works. The contributing artists decided to give the Getty Black Book the title, LA Liber Amicorum, to capture the spirit of its transformation of rival ‘writing-crews’ into a Los Angeles Book of Friends.

Now, ESMoA and the Getty Research Institute have invited Getty Black Book artists Axis, Cre8, Defer, Eyeone, Fishe, and Miner to co-curate those crews of creative friends from the LA graffiti art community and turn the art laboratory of ESMoA into an open black book. Graffiti and tattoo artists will transform the space into a cathedral of urban art for the first presentation of the LA Liber Amicorum to the public with SCRATCH.

Graffito is old Italian slang for “a little mark,” and graphein in Ancient Greek meant “scratch, draw, paint” long before it meant “to write.” Graffiti artists craft letterforms, draft perspective, and merge line, color, and form with the same techniques employed by Renaissance masters like Albrecht Dürer.

Axis, Prime, Fishe, Getty Research Institute curator of rare books, David Brafman, CRE8, Phantom, Eyeone and Patrick Martinez

 
The first edition of Dürer’s landmark book on perspective was just one of the many rare books that the artists viewed at the Getty Research Institute in the process of creating the LA Liber Amicorum. Some of those jewels in the history of calligraphy, engraving, and emblematic symbolism from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, as well as sixteenth-century painted friendship-books that inspired the project, will be installed in the space surrounded by the graffiti-writers’ art. iPads will be mounted, so visitors can ‘e-flip’ through the books and not only share the artists’ own creative experience and response to the impact of viewing these rare books, but also continually co-curate the space by choosing which page-openings will be in dialogue with the art on the walls and floor.

Rare manuscripts on view 

Getty Research Institute curator of rare books, David Brafman

The SCRATCH art experience is curated by GRI Rare Books Curator, David Brafman.

"The viewer can see the inspiration of these rare books on form, shape, and lettering, and see these street artists are part of a long tradition of writing and creativity." 

– Lisa Cambier, Getty Research Institute

ENK

artist Joe Reza -"PRIME" working on a scaffold

ESMoA  a link   

Jim McHugh

LOS ANGELES: 40 ARTISTS

The Getty Museum 

Pacific Standard Time 

Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Beverly Hills
#westernave  instagram
ESMoA  SCRATCH