Books: Honest Ed

By Michael Webb

Various Small Books: Referencing Various Small Books by Ed Ruscha. Phil Taylor. (The MIT Press, $39.95); Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles. Alexandra Schwartz (The MIT Press, $29.95); Ed Ruscha and Some Los Angeles Apartments. Virginia Heckert (J. Paul Getty Museum, $24.95).

David Hockney defined the light and color of southern California, as Matisse did for the Côte d’Azure, but Ed Ruscha is the quintessential LA artist. Like most keen observers of the local scene, Ruscha is an immigrant (from Nebraska and Oklahoma) who drove to LA in 1956 and stayed on. In those six decades he has addressed the urban landscape, and created iconic images of the Hollywood sign, the 20th Century Fox logo, gas stations, commercial strips, and the geometry of city boulevards. The man and his art are perfectly matched: laconic, deadpan, infused with irony. The simplicity of his paintings and prints is deceptive; Ruscha is a true original and a master of his craft.

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Workbook: New York State of Mind for PUMA

Nathan Lee Colkitt's design for PUMA's SoHo store captures the city's spirit and remains true to the company's brand. Photograph Garrett Rowland/Courtesy Colkitt & Co.Architect Nathan Lee Colkitt’s relationship with PUMA goes back nearly a decade. “I moved to LA in 2004, working for Stephen Kanner, the architect who came up with the initial design for the first PUMA stores in world,” he recalls. Hired initially to work on high-rise projects, economic realities put those on hold. “I got moved into the retail department and assigned to the PUMA account. I had never seen that side of things. It was fast paced—the closest thing to instant gratification you can get in architecture.” Colkitt became the department head in short order and traveled around the world as the brand expanded. He ultimately struck out on his own, establishing Colkitt & Co, but kept in touch with PUMA.

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Showroom: South American Inspiration for Jiun Ho's New Collection

For his new furniture collection, Jiun Ho looked to the landscapes and architecture of South America. Image courtesy Jiun Ho.Seven years ago, designer Jiun Ho made his first trip to South America. Since, then he has made several visits, extensively photographing the stunning landscapes and structures he returns to time and again—the Atacama Desert in Chile, the salt flats of Bolivia, the ruins of Peru’s Machu Picchu. 

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Set Design: Magical Realism at the Broad

Jenny Okun's photographs provide the backdrop for a production of Dulce Rosa at the Broad Stage. Image courtesy the Broad Stage.

By Michael Webb

For visual spectacle it would be hard to top the sets for Dulce Rosa, a new opera that is receiving its first performances at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica through June 9. In fact, there is only one physical set: A broken arch, some flats and a flight of steps, but these serve as projection screens. As the action moves from back streets to a hacienda, a guerrilla outpost in the jungle, and a family chapel, the scenes shift seamlessly as though we were watching a movie. Most opera productions make do with a single versatile set or resort to heavy lifting during long intermissions. That’s another kind of spectacle—prominently featured in the Met Live productions—as troupes of stage hands roll one vast construction into the wings to replace it with another.

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Book Review: From Art to Architecture

By Michael Webb

Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Architecture After Images. Edward Dimendberg. (The University of Chicago Press, $65).

A timely and penetrating study of a firm that has surged to prominence on the strength of two headline projects in New York: its imaginative transformation of Lincoln Center and the High Line (in association with Field Operations). In both, the architects were highly respectful of existing structures and that augers well for an even greater challenge: extending the Museum of Modern Art without destroying the American Museum of Folk Art. MoMA outraged the architectural establishment by threatening to demolish its next-door neighbor. It will require all of DS+R’s skill to integrate Tod Williams & Billie Tsien’s unique building into the new structure, and convince an overbearing institution to reconsider its threatened act of vandalism.

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