COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART SAYS ‘OH, WHAT A FEELING’

A $500,000 gift to the County Museum of Art from Toyota Motor Sales USA will be used for the museum’s planned Pavilion of Japanese Art, projected to become an international center for the study and exhibition of Japanese art.

“We are pleased to support an endeavor that so strongly promotes the cultural understanding between the United States and Japan. We eagerly anticipate the completion of the Pavilion and the rich cultural experience it will offer to thousands of art lovers,” said Yukiyasu Togo, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, in a prepared statement.

The new building will house the noted Shin’enkan collection of Edo period paintings as well as Japanese ceramics, sculpture lacquerware, screens, scrolls and prints.

The 32,000-square-foot pavilion will be linked by a curved walkway to the Times-Mirror Co. Central Court, a three-story, partially roofed interior court serving as the grand promenade which architecturally unifies all elements of the museum. Scheduled to open in 1987, the Pavilion was designed by the late Bruce Goff with working drawings developed by Bart Prince, Goff’s associate.

The Shin’enkan collection, considered by scholars to be the most outstanding repository of paintings of the Edo period (1615-1868) in the Western hemisphere, is rivaled only by the holdings of the Emperor of Japan. Highlights of the collection, including some recently added masterpieces, will be seen for the first time in the U.S. in a preview exhibition, Feb. 23 to May 18 at the museum.

The Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art has decided to lease or sell its present space on Robertson Boulevard and search for a location better suited to its growth and changing goals. Board chairperson Judy Spence states in a press release, “Many of the programs we are planning take LAICA far beyond the physical confines of any location. The process of presenting contemporary art is not wedded to a particular site.”

Long time board member and current treasurer Murray Gribin points out that, “LAICA is continuing to work on its already improving financial picture. A new location will simply add to this momentum.”

“This forward step provides an excellent opportunity to adopt a more flexible and publicly accessible location,” adds director Ben Marks.

Programming schedules apparently will not be affected; upcoming shows include a sculpture exhibition in two parts, and a project by Kate Ericson and Mel Zeigler. Several fund-raising events are planned: a “Fashion Show and Clothing Sale” in February and a performance/music event in May. A workshop focusing on collaborations between artists and architects is planned for 1987.

An exhibition presenting a cross section of current Japanese illustration is on view in the Doizaki Gallery of the Japanese-American Cultural and Community Center through Jan. 18.

“JACA ‘85,” a competitive exhibition which contains examples of work by 46 of Japan’s top illustrators, is held annually in Tokyo to showcase the best creative efforts in graphic design and illustration and to promote an international exchange of ideas by sending the show each year to one site outside Japan. Works in the Los Angeles show have been selected from 2500 submissions. Past “JACA” exhibitions have been held in Cologne and Rome.

Concurrently at the center is a 20-year retrospective survey of 40 posters by Tadanori Yokoo, who is also the “special guest artist” of this year’s exhibition.

Yokoo achieved international recognition in the early ‘60s, with his Pop Art collage posters which incorporated Western motifs into traditional Japanese graphics.

His first U.S. exhibition was held in 1972 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and his works are in the permanent collections of several major museums in the U.S. and Europe.

Roger Workman has been named dean of Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design.

Workman, 35, has been associated with the New School for Social Research, the parent institution of both Otis/Parsons in Los Angeles and its New York affiliate, Parsons School of Design.

A native of Salt Lake City, Workman received his BA in 1973 from Whittier College and his MA in psychology in 1975 at the New School’s Graduate Faculty’s Political and Social Sciences.

Workman started his career as assistant to the director of personnel at the New School in 1975. He subsequently served as director of financial aid at Parsons and then as the university’s director of undergraduate financial aid. In 1980 he joined Otis/Parsons as dean of students and became associate dean for student services and director of admissions in 1984.

He was named acting dean last July when Dean Michael Pittas resigned to become the first recipient of the university’s Urban Scholars’ Fellowship.