L.A. STORY
Hauser & Wirth West Hollywood is pleased to present the group exhibition “L.A. Story”.
September 12, 2024 – January 4, 2025
Featuring Carlos Almaraz, Kevin Appel, John Baldessari, Mark Bradford, Chris Burden, Vija Celmins, Eric Fischl, Mark Grotjahn, David Hockney, Luchita Hurtado, Friedrich Kunath, Florian Maier-Aichen, Catherine Opie, Hilary Pecis, Ken Price, Richard Prince, Calida Rawles, Jennifer Rochlin, Allen Ruppersberg, Ed Ruscha, Paul Sietsema, Henry Taylor and Lesley Vance.
The movie “L.A. Story” endures as Martin’s love letter to Los Angeles, where he lived for many years and continues to work on projects today. Fittingly, Hauser & Wirth’s exhibition suggests a loosely cinematic narrative echoing that of the film in which Martin plays ‘wacky weekend weatherman’ Harris K. Telemacher, a TV personality searching for love and the meaning of life amid LA’s continuous sprawl.
Famously clichéd as devoid of both culture and even weather itself, the Los Angeles that Harris traverses is nevertheless replete with wonders. These include bona fide art treasures he revels in so that we, the film’s viewers may, too: When Harris roller-skates through the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the petals of painted Van Gogh sunflowers wave as he passes; when he expounds on the sensual figurative elements, he alone detects in a definitively abstract red Color Field painting by Helen Frankenthaler, that we can almost see them ourselves.
Though often pretending intellectual incuriosity, Harris K. Telemacher secretly longs for the magic he sees in the masterworks of great artists in L.A.’s museums. Steve Martin himself is a noted collector and longtime champion of the arts, particularly in Los Angeles, where he has been a friend to many artists and institutions. Martin played a curatorial role in the Hammer Museum’s critically admired 2016 exhibition ‘The Idea of North,’ the first major survey of paintings by Canadian artist Lawren Harris, and has loaned important paintings from his personal collection to other significant museum exhibitions.