About 8 years ago I decided that whenever I would travel it would be based around viewing art. It seemed a nice idea and provided a good basis for such global peregrinations.
In November 2017 I went and stayed with friends in Hollywood for a 13 day period. I found myself routinely wandering around the streets of Downtown L.A. searching out the homes of literary heroes such as Bukowski, Henry Miller and John Fante and admiring the concrete architecture. The city I found somewhat reminiscent of New York, just smaller in size with equal amount of energy. The homeless situation was pretty daunting with vagabonds and vagrants almost every 50 steps on the pavement, some in tents and others just resting under the sun in the sweltering busy city streets.
I visited regularly two places when I was there: ‘The Broad’ and ‘MoCA’ the Museum of Contemporary Art. The Broad itself is a pretty amazing building with its tessellated architecture and circular indentation into the side of the front facing wall. It’s like a piece of art in itself, which is the no doubt the intention. It was inspirational to see works by Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Cy Twombly, Jenny Saville, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and many more.
Well worth the visit, but just a pain when your own studio is 5,468 miles away and you suddenly want to paint…
