MOCA and Postwar Art

NOT long ago I snuck over to the Museum of Contemporary Art for the exhibit of its permanent collection. Am I crazy, or is this - dedicated to the years from 1940 to '80 -- one of LA's best shows of postwar art in the last few years?

The exhibit, of course, comes at a time when MOCA has just survived a major financial crisis that led to the resignation of its longtime director. Now, in the period right before the post is assumed by the New York gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch, a show dedicated to the museum's permanent collection could just be a place holder -- or like being invited to a dinner party and served leftovers. But it's an eye-opening tour of the first few decades in which the U.S. -- and the West Coast in particular -- became an important capital of  contemporary art.

What I liked about the show is that besides a few obligatory pieces -- a Pollock drip painting, familiar Diane Arbus photos -- it's full of pieces that even a frequent museum-goer will not be sick of. Part of this is because of a leaning toward West Coast artists -- Diebenkorn, Ruscha, Robert Irwin, Wallace Berman -- who are rarely overexposed ever in West Coast museums.

But I won't lean too hard on California defensiveness here -- this show is catholic and intriguing no matter what one's geographic or generational orientation. My wife particularly likes the Adrian Piper piece, which was a bit hermetic for my taste, but I was glad to catch a sample of the artist's work.

(The only downside of the visit was that my favorite downtown eatery, the beer-and-sausages joint called Wurstkuche, was so entirely packed we had to move to a (perfect decent) Japanese place down the street.)

The show I took in is up in the museum's main space, on California Plaza, across from Disney Hall; I think it may move out of that space in April. I'm looking forward to returning to see the second half of the permanent collection, of work from the '80s to the present, in the more expansive Geffen Contemporary space.

Happy Birthday Junot Diaz (and Happy New Year to You)

TODAY is, by most accounts, the end of a decade -- and a mostly bad one at that. But it gives us here at the Misread City some pleasure to nod to a writer of the oughts who we're hoping will be an even bigger figure in the 2010s. Today is the 41st birthday of Junot Diaz, author of the story collection "Drown" and the Pulitzer winning novel "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao."

I spoke to Diaz here about his love of science-fiction -- like me, a passion he chased for several years as a kid but gave up when adolescence hit hard. Writing "Oscar Wao" -- about a "ghetto nerd" who aimed to become "the Dominican Tolkien" -- brought Diaz back to sf in his mid-30s. (Why I returned at about the same time I can't quiet explain, but I think fewer people are asking.)

In any case, the novel is kickass and manages to wrap humor, a coming-of-age story, and critique of immigrant culture into an international history lesson like nothing I've seen.

I also wrote about Diaz in a Sunday essay about cultural hierarchy -- the division between what's long been considered high and lowbrow art, literature, music, etc., and why those categories seem to be breaking down. (It's a long piece, but  one of the best read things I've written, for what that's worth.)

Wishing the novelist Junot Diaz -- who also had the good sense to teach in '09 at my alma mater -- a good 41st.

And to readers of The Misread City, thank YOU for your interest and attention, and a Happy New Year to All.

Einstein vs. Picasso

ONE of my favorite pieces of my own, one that sent me on a real intellectual journey, explored the similarities between albert einstein's breakthroughs in physics and the ferment in modernist art and literature.

the artist einstein is usually likened to is cubist-era pablo picasso. these two unconventional bohemians were engaged in what scholar arthur. i. miller calls "the same problem," as einstein shattered newtonian physics and picasso shattered the picture plane.

sunday is picasso's birthday, so i'm posting my story, which was tied to a very fine show at the skirball cultural center.

i hope it proves as mind-blowing to read as it was to research and write.

fun fact: for this story i spoke to a freud scholar named michael roth, who at the time ran a school in california but is now the president of my alma mater, wesleyan.

ps. i also love the modern lovers song.