The recent LA Legends panel at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica was billed as the first collaborative arts initiative between the Broad and Sotheby’s Institute of Art, ‘bringing the living history of southern California art to the stage'. What it really became was a hilarious roast and toast of four 20th century ‘Cool School’ artists, who had come together to reminisce, reflect and tease one another with eyewitness tales and memories.
On stage were Ed Moses, silver-haired and bearded in a wheelchair; Larry Bell, cowboy-hatted and crusty; Ed Ruscha, first dour and then amused by his peers' ‘alternate facts’; and provocateur Billy Al Bengston in a floral jean jacket. (Only Robert Irwin, the beloved watercolour teacher at Chouinard, the pre-cursor to CalArts, was a no-show, due to back problems.) In the star-studded audience, Irving Blum, a director of the late, great Ferus Gallery, stood up to respond to Ruscha's query about how much Andy Warhol’s soup cans actually went for ($100).
These rock stars of art tripped over one another to wittily dispute memories as waves of laughter rippled through the packed house. Times were frugal. Their parents were worried. Of his practical decision to paint, despite working under the tutelage of ceramist Peter Voulkos, Bengston said, ‘You got more money for a painting than for a pot.’
Ed Ruscha (left) and Billy Al Bengston trade quips
Back in the 1960s they all had day or seasonal jobs that informed their practice. Ruscha worked personalising gift items (like a Ma and Pa Chopper Hopper false-teeth holder) and saw the power words could have. Bell worked in a frame shop and saw the power cheap, perfect glass and mirror could have.
Bengston raced motorcycles and learned how air-brushing techniques could be applied to canvas. (He also helped cut and stretch Warhol’s silver Elvis series, which arrived at Ferus in a roll since it was ‘cheaper to ship that way’.) Bell welcomed 'three ‘suits’ to his studio, only to learn, belatedly, that Marcel Duchamp, having a retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum, was among them. (‘Marcel, didn’t you do something like that,’ said one suit, blowing his cover).
The four legendary art icons regaled the audience with personal tales
Of Ed Kienholz, the founder of Ferus Gallery, Moses recalled, 'Kienholz was always sitting on his haunches, cleaning guns.’ Working in New York did not appeal. ‘Our hair froze,’ said Bengston.
‘I didn’t have it in me to live in that city,’ said Ruscha, reminiscing about hitching to the Big Apple with Joe Goode. ‘California was sparkly. Chicks in cars.’ Warhol saw Ruscha’s first book on LA gas stations and said, ‘I love it. There’s no people there.’ And on it went, playfully stage-managed by moderator Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, who wrote the excellent history, Rebels in Paradise, on this period.
From left, Ed Moses, Larry Bell, moderator Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, Ed Ruscha, and Billy Al Bengston
It was, in the end, a ‘guy’ night. (One hopes this will be addressed in the next Sotheby’s-Broad collaboration scheduled for autumn.) The men invoked Eve Babitz, but only as the woman who played chess with Duchamp ‘buck naked’ at his retrospective. Nevertheless, it was a thrill to have these artists assembled in one place – all are still practicing and exhibiting – to remind us of the important role of Los Angeles in the counter-narrative to east coast abstract expressionism.
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Broad Stage website and the Sotheby’s Institute of Art website
ADDRESS
Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center
1310 11th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401
-
Pharrell Williams’ latest Louis Vuitton show celebrates a ‘friendship for life’ with streetwear legend NigoLouis Vuitton men’s creative director Pharrell Williams looked towards his long friendship with BAPE founder Nigo to create a collaborative A/W 2025 menswear collection shown in Paris this evening (21 January 2025)
-
Think small, think electric, as Hyundai attempts to revolutionise the classic Indian three-wheelerHyundai’s Micro Mobility strategy, in collaboration with Indian manufacturer TVS, has revealed two conceptual takes on small electric urban transport in a bid to cut the country’s crushing pollution issue
-
‘Just beneath the surface there’s another world’: How David Lynch used hair and make-up to create his singular universeFrom Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive to Twin Peaks, David Lynch used hair and make-up in his films as a narrative device, writes Laura Havlin
-
Sundance Film Festival 2025: The films we can't wait to watchSundance Film Festival, which runs 23 January - 2 February, has long been considered a hub of cinematic innovation. These are the ones to watch from this year’s premieres
-
What is RedNote? Inside the social media app drawing American users ahead of the US TikTok banDownloads of the Chinese-owned platform have spiked as US users look for an alternative to TikTok, which faces a ban on national security grounds. What is Rednote, and what are the implications of its ascent?
-
Architecture and the new world: The Brutalist reframes the American dreamBrady Corbet’s third feature film, The Brutalist, demonstrates how violence is a building block for ideology
-
‘Gas Tank City’, a new monograph by Andrew Holmes, is a photorealist eye on the American West‘Gas Tank City’ chronicles the artist’s journey across truck-stop America, creating meticulous drawings of fleeting moments
-
Intimacy, violence and the uncanny: Joanna Piotrowska in PhiladelphiaArtist and photographer Joanna Piotrowska stages surreal scenes at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
-
First look: Sphere’s new exterior artwork draws on a need for human connectionWallpaper* talks to Tom Hingston about his latest large-scale project – designing for the Exosphere
-
Marc Hom reframes traditional portraiture in Cooperstown, NY‘Marc Hom: Re-Framed’ has taken over the grounds of the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, planting Samuel L Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow and more ‘personalities of the world’ into the landscape
-
Alexander May, founder of LA studio Sized, on the joys of creative polymathyCreative director Alexander May tells us of the multidisciplinary approach that drives his LA studio Sized and its offspring, a 5,000 sq ft event space and an exhibition series
