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

Maxxi ~ Thoroughly Modern Rome

MAXXI 

National Museum of 21st Century Art

Designed by Zaha Hadid

This museum opened only weeks after my previous trip to Rome! It's Italy's first national museum of contemporary art and architecture. I vowed to go back and see it, just to experience the unique and fantastical modern architecture.

The museum was awarded Royal Institute of British Architects 2010 Stirling Prize for architecture. 

The inside is open and light and very exciting. Everywhere you look makes you feel you have entered a new piece of modern art. It also reminds me of a spaceship where stormtroopers would feel at home! What could better? ;)

Architecture is really about well-being.

I think that people want to feel good in a space...

On the one hand it's about shelter,

but it's also about pleasure.

~Zaha Hadid

You are actually getting two museums in one. One for art and the other for architecture.

Just in case you were wondering, yes, you can take an elevator.

There was a very cool exhibition by William Kentridge going on at the museum when I was there. Since it was an installation I couldn't really take pictures ...

Here is a little video, which is partly in Italian, but the artist speaks English and the you can see some of his art, and and bits of his installations and films.

After going to the Capuchin Museum and Crypt that morning, then Santa Maria del Popolo, I was beginning to get hungry. Most museums these days have some sort of café and if they are art museums, it usually a pretty good bet that the food will be good.

It took me a while to figure out that the museum restaurant was across the courtyard. There were some people in line ordering paninis and vino.

But then I saw ... a buffet! 

And it looked good.

I ordered a glass of wine ...

And then I dug in to the buffet.

Tons of antipasti  and salad, and a variety of pastas in the hot food containers. I was trying to be low key about photographing the buffet. For some reason it felt extra silly taking picures here. Maybe it was the ultra sleek atmosphere and my little aqua colored point and shoot. I don't know.

That didn't stop me from photographing my own food, of course. My Italian teacher would have had a fit, that I piled it all on one plate, American Style. (Or at least, my style.) After all those stairs, in the museum, I was tired and just wanted to sit instead of getting up between every course. Besides, I knew I'd be getting up again ...

 ... for a cheese course! Oh, above at the top of my plate was this formed pasta thing with some kind of cream and cheese ... omg. Oh, and you see I did get salad and veggies, as well as penne and couscous.

Yum!!!! (I'm not doing dairy at the moment, so this photo, below, is killing me!) That's a pear sitting up top and if you look closely,  you can spy the banana in the top left corner that I threw in my purse for later. 

And then, I had to have dessert! I'm not so much of a dessert person normally ... just a chocolate person, but I really couldn't resist. I guess, that's obvious. 

The thing that looks like scrambled eggs, was actually some kind of custard thing, I think ... then I tried the raspberry dessert (up top) and whatever yummy mysterious confection that was in the front. 

It was all very yummy and I was happy to have splurged a little on the buffet. It was still less than my touristy pasta I had my first night in the city!

I was very happy I made it up there. What a building! It was pretty easy to get there too. I was already at Piazza del Popolo, just south of the Flaminio Metro Station. 

If you are at the Metro A Flaminio stop, at the north side of Piazzale Flaminio, there is an outdoor tram that takes you north to the Apollodoro stop. Then you are at Via Guido Reni. Head west a short distance, in a cute neighborhood, and you are there. 

If you are worried about missing the stop, do what I did and ask a nice Italian girl, and she'll signal you when to exit. The tram was very nice, by way.

Here's a video of the opening of MAXXI, and the awesome woman architect, who designed it - Zaha Hadid. Love her!

For more on MAXXI and how to find it, click here for their website.

One of the things I feel confident in saying we can do

is bring some excitement, and challenges, 

to peoples lives.

We want them to be able to 

embrace the unexpected.

~Zaha Hadid

architect of MAXXI