At the MOCA: Free Museum Day L.A.!

By Daniel Corey

MOCA: The Museum of Contemporary Art,
DTLA

I still have a lot of NAMM coverage to get through, but I’m taking a small pause from the music to bring you a culture-centric post.

Also, isn’t that banner photo awful nice? I did that.

Anyway, I headed downtown today to spend the afternoon writing at the Central Library, and, on a whim, decided to pop by MOCA: the Museum of Contemporary Art. Turns out, it was Free Museum Day. They told me that at the box office, and were shocked when I politely replied that I had already made up my mind to visit, whether I had to pay or not. It was quite the scene.

The special exhibit running at MOCA was titled With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972-1983.

Hey! Look, now: anything can be interesting if you give it a chance. I don’t normally care much for quilts, but I decided to be open-minded. This was to be an adventure, after all.

My tolerance paid off: the whole thing was quite nice. Though I never quite got where the With Pleasure business came from.

The Americans, photo collection
by Robert Frank (1958)

First, I perused the general collection, and saw some nice things…

Carpet Angel, by Nari Ward (1990)
Reminds me of that scene near the end of
Silence of the Lambs…
*yeah, now you’re seeing it.*

Cromosaturación, *by Carlos Cruz-Diez*
*Like everyone else, I took a picture of myself*
*in each colorful room. Clearly, red was the most flattering. YOU’RE WELCOME.*

Yes, I’m the jerk that selfies with the Rothko.
Sorry, everyone.
Also, nice family observing the boundaries.

That’s me.
Looking exceptionally cool at MOCA.
YOU’RE WELCOME YET AGAIN.

Then, it was on to the quilts!

Well, it wasn’t really quilt-quilts, like patterned blankets that some nice relative made for you, but…okay, I had no idea, either. Here’s the exhibit sign to explain it all.

Really, though, it was a lot of nice and colorful art.

Painting to Hammer a Nail In, *by Yoko Ono.*
*This work managed to shut down*
*a museum somewhere, I’m sure.*

*Studious Museum Worker*,
*now acting as part of the exhibition.*

On my way out, I created a lovely piece of digital art by taking and editing this photo…

*Location of that big truck wreck at the end of*
The Dark Knight Rises

And — try to contain your jealousy — at the end of the day, I stopped by The Last Bookstore and picked up a copy of the Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome soundtrack on vinyl for $7.99. Listening to it now. Sounds great!