I Love LA Series (Part I): Los Angeles County Museum of Art

I have been thinking about launching the I Love LA Series for a while now, and finally decided to do so in order to draw your attention to two very important exhibitions at LACMA currently on view. For any modern day Caravaggisti, or for those who want to learn more about the revolutionary style of the great Italian Baroque painter called Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio)- I urge you to go see this show. The show, entitled Bodies and Shadows: Caravaggio and His Legacy, is on view through February 10, 2013.

Martha and Mary Magdalen (c. 1595-98) Detroit Institute of Arts (Source)

According to LACMA, "Bodies and Shadows: Caravaggio and His Legacy introduces the work of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610), one of the most popular artists of the past, rivaling in fame both Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. The stories of Caravaggio's life are legend, more myth than history, describing traits of personality, including passion and brutality, that came to describe the unique qualities of his work. The exhibition, made up of 56 works in all, including a record eight works by Caravaggio himself, covers the evolution of his style. Caravaggio's legacy is expressed in work by about twenty artists from Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands who carried into the late 17th century the strangeness, beauty and raw emotion of his work."

2001: A Space Odyssey Set Photo (1965-68) (Source)

Another show not to be missed is the extraordinary Stanley Kubrick Exhibition on view through June 30, 2013. 

According to LACMA,"Stanley Kubrick was known for exerting complete artistic control over his projects; in doing so, he reconceived the genres in which he worked. The exhibition covers the breadth of Kubrick’s practice, beginning with his early photographs for Look magazine, taken in the 1940s, and continuing with his groundbreaking directorial achievements of the 1950s through the 1990s. His films are represented through a selection of annotated scripts, production photography, lenses and cameras, set models, costumes, and props. In addition, the exhibition explores Napoleon and The Aryan Papers, two projects that Kubrick never completed, as well as the technological advances developed and utilized by Kubrick and his team. By featuring this legendary film auteur and his oeuvre as the focus of his first retrospective in the context of an art museum, the exhibition reevaluates how we define the artist in the 21st century, and simultaneously expands upon LACMA’s commitment to exploring the intersection of art and film."

Must-see exhibitions!