Frank Gehry at LACMA

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, model, 2006-present (in progress)
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Frank Gehry

September 13, 2015 - March 20, 2016

Not every person has the same kinds of talents,

so you discover what yours are

and work with them.

~ Frank Gehry

I wish I could start this post by saying that I have some vast knowledge of architecture and Frank Gehry. I mean, I do love the Disney Hall in downtown L.A. and looking at his buildings in photos, but I also just really love places with air conditioning in September! 

Since LACMA is about 5 minutes from me and fits the bill, on all counts ... it seemed like a really good idea to head to the Miracle Mile and get out of my apartment, which was probably in the 90s.

I have to say, the Frank Gehry exhibition was much more extensive and interesting than I'd expected! In part, because it felt like being in a sculpture exhibition and somehow seeing these buildings in miniature was just really cool. So many of them are just beautiful! Anyway ... here goes!

Above and below, an incredible model of the Louis Vuitton Foundation Building in Paris. (Art museum and cultural center.) I really want to see this one in person!

This video, below, has wonderful views of the finished building but it's in French, so if you can't speak french you can just fast forward it along. ;)

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, model

Bilbao, Spain founded October 18, 1997

Here's a short documentary, in English (!) about the museum in Bilbao.

Walt Disney Concert Hall, Project model, 1989-2003

Los Angeles, California

I know I draw without taking my pen off the page. I just keep going, and that my drawings I think of them as scribbles. I don't think they mean anything to anybody except to me, and then at the end of the day, the end of the project, they wheel out these little drawings and they're damn close to what the finished building is and it's the drawing ... 

~Frank Gehry

Another view ...

The best advice I've received is to be yourself.

The best artists do that.

~ Frank Gehry

There were screens up in the exhibition with photos of the finished buildings ... The screen below was showing the MARTa Herford Modern Art Museum, which opened in 2005, in Herford, Germany.

For me, every day is a new thing.

I approach each project with a new insecurity,

almost like the first project I ever did.

And I get the sweats.

I go in and start working,

I'm not sure where I'm going.

If I knew where I was going 

I wouldn't do it.

~Frank Gehry

Quanzhou Museum of Contemporary Art,

final design concept mode, 2012

Quanzhou, China

(one of my favorite models!)

Creativity is about play 

and a kind of willingness to go with your intuition.

It's crucial to an artist.

If you know where you are going

and what you are going to do,

why do it?

~Frank Gehry

The Ocean Avenue Project,

2008-present

Santa Monica, California

One Model

(120-room boutique hotel, retail and residential space, with open public space and museum complex.)

Nationale- Nederlanden Building, site model, 1992-96

Prague, Czech Republic

Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial,

model, 2009-present

Washington, DC

Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness.

~ Frank Gehry

Philadelphia Museum of Art
Renovation, cross-section model,
2006-present
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
1/4 inch scale

You can look anywhere and find inspiration.

~Frank Gehry

Beach House, model,

2014-present

Marina del Rey, Califonia

1/2 inch scale

Jazz Bakery, exterior model,
2011-present
Culver City, California
1/4 inch scale

Liquid architecture. 

It's like jazz - you improvise, you work together, 

you play off each other, you make something, they make something ...

~ Frank Gehry

Jazz Bakery interior model

8150 Sunset, model
2015-present
West Hollywood, California
1/8 inch scale

8150 Sunset, model

I love that Gehry (based in LA) has so many projects in progress in the L.A. area! This Sunset one, above, the apartments in Santa Monica, the Jazz Bakery, the Beach House in Marina del Ray, and I think there were another couple of residences, as well.

Your best work is your expression of yourself.

Now, you may not be the greatest at it, but when you do it, 

you're the only expert.

~ Frank Gehry

Biomuseo, Museo de la Biodiversidad,
site model, 2000-2014
Panama City, Panama

This is the full documentary on Frank Gehry done by the late Sidney Pollack, in 2007. It was actually playing on a screen inside the exhibition at LACMA. And you can watch it right here! ;)

For some great photos of the LV Building ... Louis Vuitton Building 

The message I hope to have sent is just the example

of being yourself.

~Frank Gehry