Every year, since I started making my annual list of goals, I have always included "GO TO LACMA." Despite being a native of Los Angeles, I've never ever been to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Well, not until Saturday. I was immeasurable giddy when I got to put my yellow highlight over that item on this year's list, indicating: CHECK!
It was a lovely afternoon and I feel like I only scratched the surface of the museum, so I will simply have to go back.
You're seeing some of my favorite pieces up there, but here is the one I would like to talk about the most:
To be clear, displayed in the museum, it is not a photograph. It is not a painting. It is, literally, glass containers stacked as such. And that is all. The significance is that the designer, Wilhelm Wagenfeld, was an accomplished and admired metal-worker and sculptor, and went on to design several consumer products, like these Kubus stacking containers.
Honestly, I'm not trying to take away from Wagenfeld's body of work. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this beholder stood in front of this art and all I saw was Pyrex. Which I own myself and can stack in several formations of my own creation on any number of occasions. No one pays to walk through my apartment see the stacked Pyrex so after I post this, I am going to reconsider my personal marketing strategy.
I see things like this, like a Rothko painting, which is just two red squares, or a Jackson Pollock (I'm not gonna lie to you - I have never understood the significance of his work), and I feel remarkably insecure. What am I missing? What don't I get?
I guess, if anything, it's evoking a response from me and maybe that is the point...
But seriously, it's just stacked containers, right? I decided I wanted in on this racket.
I call it "Stacked Rubbermaid." I assume LACMA will be calling forthwith.
