LA BLOGitude: Late Night at LACMA

So the party didn’t stop after the daytime Caddyshack Bocce Party in Roxbury Park in Beverly Hills hosted by Panama Yirko. As the sun set behind the sky scrapers in Century City everyone spun off to their respective homes to rest and relax until the after party. Kate never stirred after laying down for a disco nap so I rallied and electrified the Prius and headed out to pick up Yirko and Ethan.

Late Night at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art aka LACMA is an annual party that occurs after the museum has closed and gives you the opportunity to have a few drinks, rub up against some artwork, and then head over to Canters for a late night snack.

We pulled into the garage got a front row spot and made our way to ground level where the party was slowly reaching its climax. Rope stanchions, security guards, techo, German DJ’s, people spasming in the dance area, mood lighting, projected videos, puppet making, random people from the 1980’s who were cryogenetically frozen all greeted us. I flashed my secret service badge and we blew through security and into the hot pants of the event and hot pants we definitely saw.

So we wandered around the party for a while and then went to see some art. As we made our way to the Broad Contemporary Art Museum aka BCAM we saw this huge line in front. It was like the art museum had literally become The Viper Room circa 1989 and all the losers were waiting behind the velvet rope to be screened and admitted by Johnny Depp himself. Of course we thought this was ridiculous so we crashed to the front of the line and asked Johnny what was up. He said if we wanted to use the “stairs” we could just go in. What? All those people were in line for the giant elevator? Los Angelinos are so funny! They love their elevators.

So we made our way to the very serious exhibition Art of Two Germanys and comedy met tragedy as we wandered through the exhibition. We broke off into small talk about the art, Germany, and Nazis and then made our way to the shoes and gloves. This is a rather depressing work that is basically the display of lost and castoff shoes and gloves circa WWII. The shoes and gloves were found in an abandon railway station in the no-man’s land in Berlin after the Wall went up.

The fascinating thing is that this was the most guarded artwork I have ever seen. Since it’s displayed on the ground the chance of drunken yuppies from Brentwood stammering through the galleries and onto the artwork is at 100%. It was a sad sight to see as the security lashed out at the drunken follies of the clueless but, endearing to see them protecting the artwork so stoically. We watched as the security strictly enforced an invisible wall around the shoes and gloves and it was a humbling experience for all of us. At one point we debated leaving our own shoes behind in solidarity.

After Art of Two Germanys we spun through BCAM 3 which houses some of the Broad’s heavy hitters from their collection: Jeff Koon’s very dusty blue dog, Andy Warhol soup cans, and Rauschenberg combines. There is even a work by Barbara Kruger in the elevator that I’m sure nobody noticed called: Shafted. So after the art we gazed upon the magnificence lights of Park La Brea and descended the reverse running escalator back to the dwindling party.

Here are some pictures from the evening that I didn’t take. . .