The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art hosted a panel moderated by CalArts honcho Thomas Lawson entitled “Artist Hangouts” that included artists Lita Albuquerque, Allen Ruppersberg and Bruce Yonemoto along with independent art historian Susan Morgan.
Far from an encyclopedic discussion, the afternoon event was a melange of reminiscences of a bygone Los Angeles. A MOCA staff someone introduced Lawson who pointed out the smatterings of forming a Los Angeles art scene at the institutional level. Historian Morgan focused on the Grinsteins, a collecting couple in the 1960s who hosted memorable parties. She read from prepared remarks.
Bruce Yonemoto discussed some happening spots from the 1970s and 80s downtown art scene. He went to great lengths to mention alternative spaces and memorable exhibits, a nice effort.
Allen Ruppersberg discussed his 1969 “Al’s Cafe” a simulted restaurant that functioned as a hangout spot for artists and hippies, contextualizing it as a Beuysian “Social Sculpture” without dropping the name “Josef Beuys”.
Lita Albuquerque reminsced about the founding of MOCA and the role Marcia Weisman, Joan Quinn and Elyse Grinstein played in making art happen as mayor Tom Bradley manifested his dream of a culturally impactful city. She too took the time to mention the seventeen artists by name who formulated an outline of what a museum of contemporary art museum in the city should look like.
If you didn’t know anything about the roots of the Los Angeles art scene, this panel gave some needed, though far from thorough, context. When it came to audience questions one person asked if MOCA was still committed to the original vision of artists being at the forefront of MOCA and the apparatchik of the museum grabbed the mic and gave a robotic corporate response that reassured exactly zero people in attendance. But welcome to 2023, it is as far as you can get from the 1960s and 70s and the more they talked the more I realized we are never going back… but it wasn’t sad and the panel was never nostalgic or mournful. It got a tad wistful but was never sappy.
One can quibble of the necessity of even doing these things. Random recollections beget skipping out important and noteworthy people, place and incidences. But overall it was an informative overview of the halcyon days of what is now an international powerhouse of a city in the context of high culture.
The closest thing to wildness, besides Yonemoto including an amazing Jeffrey Vallance flier for a mid-80s LACE event, was a tacit acknowledgement among the group of how, before MADD impacting the law, drunk driving was more than common, it was almost the norm back then. The kids there seemed entertained and the panel was better than the show at MOCA celebrating those days.
On a personal note it became a series of small victories any time someone mentioned an artist I knew or a place I had heard about. I pestered my poor friend John with whispered snippets of gossip in retort to the official version being delivered – although some good tales were told to all by the group onstage. But I made it up to John by taking a picture of him and Ruppersberg. I didn’t ask for one but did shake Rup’s hand – if I make it to his current mark of 79 years old with a grip half that strong it will have been living well!
As far as panel discussions go, that is about as good as one can hope for and the MOCA theater seats are still the most comfortable in the art world.
