Latest news with #UndertheTable
Time Out
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Even more oversized tables and chairs are coming to the Broad
Next to Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Room—The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, the most photographed piece in the Broad museum's collection of contemporary art just might be Robert Therrien's Under the Table. You know the one—the giant table and chairs that you ask your friend to snap a photo of as you stand underneath, looking upward. Well pull up a chair, we've got great news: Later this year, an entire exhibition of the late sculptor's works is coming to the museum. In 'Robert Therrien: This is a Story,' expect more huge housewares and striking works, plus some intimate drawings and surprises. Here's what you need to know. Chicago-born, L.A.-based artist Therrien, who passed away in 2019, holds a special place at the Broad—he was one of the first L.A. artists to be included in its collection. His work explores memory and perception by experimenting with scale and material and finding inspiration in seemingly ordinary objects. 'The most important thing to know about Therrien is that he can evoke a sense of wonder,' says Broad curator Ed Schad. And visitors will be able to experience even more of that wonder in the show, the largest-ever solo exhibition of the artist's work. More than 120 pieces that Therrien created over five decades will be on display, from his signature enormous sculptures to more intimate drawings of snowmen, birds and chapels. Many of the pieces, including some the artist completed just before his death, have never been shown in museums before. You'll be able to walk underneath another humongous dining set, a way-larger-than-life beard and a stack of plates that appear to be in motion. You can also expect 'full-sized rooms full of surprises and encounters that are a hallmark of the artist's practice.' Therrien's Downtown L.A. studio—which was located just a few miles from the Broad—will also be partially re-created as part of the exhibition. The show will display the fun and playful but also the serious aspects of Therrien's oeuvre. And more than that, you'll be able to look beyond his works as mere photo ops to discover the creative process and meaning behind his eye-catching creations. 'Robert Therrien: This is a Story' will open November 22 (so after the current special exhibition, the joyous ' Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me,' closes) and will run through April 5, 2026. The show will fill the first-floor galleries and be a specially ticketed exhibition (read: not free like the rest of the museum). Pricing has yet to be announced, but if the Gibson exhibition—which costs $15 but is free to visit on Thursday nights—is any indication, there might be some chances to see the Therrien exhibition for free, so stay tuned. And expect a full slate of special programming that coincides with the show. Tickets will be available this summer at
Los Angeles Times
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The Broad to open the largest-ever Robert Therrien show: L.A. arts and culture this weekend
The sculptor Robert Therrien had a deep connection with the Broad museum. He was among the first L.A. artists that founders Eli and Edythe Broad began collecting almost half a century ago, and the museum holds 18 of his works in its collection. Those pieces, along with more than 100 others, will go on view at the Broad beginning in November in 'Robert Therrien: This Is a Story,' the largest-ever solo museum show of the artist's work. Therrien, who died of complications from cancer in 2019, is best-known for his monumental sculptures of everyday objects. His sculpture of a giant table and chairs, 'Under the Table,' is among the Broad's most photographed — and Instagrammed — pieces. Intimate work — drawings of birds, snowmen and chapels — will be on view, as will a reconstruction of Therrien's downtown L.A. studio. The Broad's founding director Joanne Heyler once told The Times that Therrien's studio was among the most fascinating she had ever visited. In an email shortly after Therrien's death, she described the ground floor as 'the ultimate tinkerer's den, with endless tools, parts and found objects awaiting their role in his work, while upstairs were these perfectly composed galleries, every surface painted a warm, creamy white, including the floor, which charged the sculptures, paintings and drawings he'd install there with a dreamy, floating, hallucinogenic effect. That studio was his dreamland.' Like his studio, Therrien's work exists in a liminal space — where memory fades into time. Standing beneath one of his giant tables evokes vague recollections of what it feels like to be a very small child in a world of legs and muffled adult activity above. A ruminative melancholy arises when viewing a precarious stack of white enamel plates. Therrien's artistic voice is at once singular and universal — and specific to art history in L.A. Exhibition curator Ed Schad summed up Therrien's importance to this city in an email. 'Los Angeles is one of the most dynamic places in the world to make sculpture, and for 40 years, Robert Therrien was vital to that story while also hiding in plain sight,' Schad wrote. 'From the spirit of experimentation and freedom in the 1970s, to the rise of fabrication and the expansion of scale in the 1980s and 1990, to Los Angeles's ascendant presence on the global stage of contemporary art in recent decades, Therrien's work has not only mirrored every shift but also has maintained a singular, unmistakable voice. This exhibition aims to show both the Therrien people know and love — his outsize sculptures, tables and chairs, and pots and pans, rooted in memory — and the Therrien that is less often seen: the brilliant draftsman, photographer, and thinker, whose work in these quieter forms is just as enchanting.' I'm arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, remembering the time I spent an entire meal hiding under a table in Nogales, Ariz., when I was five. Or was that a dream? Here's this weekend's arts headlines. Times theater critic Charles McNulty sat down in New York City with the directing powerhouse Michael Arden, 42. In a wide-ranging profile, McNulty discusses Arden's path to becoming among the most sought-after directors on Broadway — and why his latest Tony-nominated musical, 'Maybe Happy Ending,' is the season's 'most surprising and heartwarming.' He also writes about Arden's new company, At Rise Creative, which he founded with scenic designer Dane Laffrey. Their production of 'Parade' begins performances at the Ahmanson Theatre on June 17. McNulty also checks in with L.A. Theatre Works, which celebrated its 50th anniversary and has found fresh opportunities for its radio plays through the rise of podcasts and on-demand streaming. 'Currently, LATW's program airs weekly on KPFK 90.7 in Southern California and on station affiliates serving over 50 markets nationwide. But the heart and soul of the operation is the archive of play recordings,' writes McNulty. This archive has almost 600 titles that can be accessed via a recently launched monthly subscription service. Times art critic Christopher Knight examines the curious case of the art museum that wasn't. Despite having a social media presence and a webpage, the Joshua Tree Art Museum has not manifested as an actual space for art. This is because, writes Knight, 'the charitable foundation sponsoring the project was issued a cease and desist order two years ago by the California attorney general's office. All charitable activity was halted, a prohibition that has not been lifted.' Along with other organizations across the country, the Huntington recently lost its National Endowment for the Humanities grants. The money funded the Huntington's research programs, and the institution is nonetheless determined to honor its awards to this year's recipients. The Huntington will welcome more than 150 scholars from around the world this year and next, granting nearly $1.8 million in fellowships — a notable achievement in a climate of shrinking opportunity for research and innovation. 'Supporting humanities scholars is central to the Huntington's research mission. Here, scholars find the time, space, and resources to pursue ambitious questions across disciplines. The work that begins here continues to shape conversations in classrooms, publications, and public discourse for years to come,' Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence said in a statement. Skirball Cultural Center has announced its 2025 season of Sunset Concerts. The popular series began in 1997 and takes place at the Skirball's Taper Courtyard. This summer will feature two acts each night, including Brazilian singer-songwriter Rodrigo Amarante, the Colombia-based all-female trio La Perla and the Dominican band MULA. Click here for the full lineup and schedule. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles announced that it has acquired Cynthia Daignault's 'Twenty-Six Seconds.' The artwork is a series of frame-by-frame paintings based on Abraham Zapruder's famous 26-second 8mm color film capturing the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Through 486 painted frames, Daignault's work further interrogates the tragedy, imbuing it with modern context. This past weekend I took my daughter to the Summer Corgi Nationals at Santa Anita Park. It was more adorable and more ridiculous than you could imagine — with the short-legged dogs racing for the finish line in a chaotic competition that sometimes found contenders chasing one another back to the starting line.
