ARCO SATELLITE GALLERY TO CLOSE

The Southwest Museum will close its Arco Plaza satellite gallery in downtown Los Angeles Saturday when the exhibition of prints by Mexican artist Jose Guadalupe Posada comes to an end.

In a prepared statement, museum director Patrick T. Houlihan said that economic pressures were the reasons for the move. “We close the Southwest Museum at Arco Plaza with mixed emotions. It has offered the museum a wonderful space in the commercial center of Los Angeles and we are truly grateful to Arco for its support there over the past two years. At the same time, the effort to maintain the exhibitions and programs there were very taxing on the resources of this institution. The decision to close this satellite space was not an easy one.”

Albert Greenstein, manager of media relations for Arco, said the company regrets the museum’s decision and added that Arco has no immediate plans for the use of the space. Arco has underwritten the cost of the gallery space since November, 1984, when the company stopped operating its Arco Center for Visual Arts in the same location.

A symposium arranged to complement the “George Inness and the New Landscape Style” exhibition takes place Saturday at the County Museum of Art.

Starting at 9 a.m. with opening remarks by the museum’s curator of American art, Michael Quick, the event features talks by Peter Birmingham, director, Museum of Art, University of Arizona, Tucson; Nicolai Cikovsky Jr., curator of American Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Karen Crenshaw, conservator, the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Scheduled to run through the afternoon, the symposium’s two-hour lunch break allows time for docent tours of the exhibition, offered at 1 p.m.

The care and preservation of works on paper will be the subject of a symposium sponsored by the Art Dealers’ Assn., Monday, 8 p.m., at the Jack Rutberg Gallery, 357 N. La Brea Ave.

Victoria Blyth Hill, senior paper conservator at the County Museum of Art, will moderate a panel of four experts who will discuss the latest methods, ideas and technology for the conservation, storage, and protection of drawings, prints, Persian miniature illuminations and photographs.

A question and answer period will follow. Admission is free but reservations are mandatory: 938-5222.

LACMA’s Art Museum Council holds its 24th annual Art and Architecture Tour next Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Six Los Angeles sites, selected for the quality of their collections, architecture and design, will welcome visitors who contribute $50 per person for the tour, arranged to benefit the museum’s acquisition fund.

The structures, designed to suit individual needs of occupants, include: a five-year old Johannes Van Tilburg house in West Los Angeles, built for a couple on the site of an old estate; the traditional Beverly Hills home of Harriet and Alan Lederman, designed by Mrs. Lederman with Milton Williams; the Brentwood home of Mandy and Cliff Einstein, built by Ron Goldman with interiors by Gere Kavanaugh; the Arroyo house of Karen Simonson and Barton Phelps, designed by Phelps; the home of Lisa Specht and Ron Rogers, with interiors by Waldo, and two floors of the Executive Life building in West Los Angeles, built by Gensler and Associates with interiors by Stanley Felderman. For reservations and information, call 857-6214.

Performance artists Eleanor Antin and John White will hold premiere performances of new works at L.A. Contemporary Exhibitions’ Performance Gallery next weekend.

Antin will present the last chapter in the life and adventures of “Eleanora Antinova, the once celebrated black ballerina of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russe,” Saturday and next Sunday at 8 p.m.

“Help I’m in Seattle,” places the young Eleanora back in her native America during the Depression years. Victimized by racism, illegal labor practices, bad art and loneliness, she struggles to survive in a decrepit theater during the fading days of Vaudeville.

John White’s “Second Stories” are dedicated to LACE’s new facility; they incorporate visual documentation and movement based on several visits to the new facility before and during construction. White’s performance is set for Friday at 8 p.m.

LACE’s new facility is at 1804 Industrial St., ((213) 624-5650. Admission is $7 general and $5 for LACE members.

Artist David Hockney will be the keynote speaker for the County Museum of Art’s Graphic Arts Council “Contemporary Print Symposium II,” May 17, from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. in the museum’s Bing Theater.

The daylong event which celebrates the acquisition of 800 works from Cirrus Editions will present panels of experts addressing issues such as “Contemporary Print Publishing,” “Status of the Contemporary Print Gallery” and “Collaboration Between Artist and Printer.”

Among authorities set to take part in the proceedings are Barry Walker, curator, department of prints and drawings, Brooklyn Museum of Art; Brooke Alexander, Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York; Sid Felsen, Gemini G.E.L.; Jorg Schellmann, Editions Schellmann, New York; Richard Solomon, Pace Editions, New York; Jacki Brody, editor, Print Collector’s Newsletter; Patti Caporosi, Castelli Graphics, New York; Kimberly Davis, L.A. Louver Gallery; Karen McCreedy, Crown Point Press, Oakland; Bill Van Straaten, Van Straaten Gallery, Chicago; Pat Gilmour, curator of international prints and illustrated books, National Gallery, Canberra, Australia; Jack Lemon, Landfall Press, Chicago; Toby Michael, Angeles Press; Jean Millant, Cirrus Editions, and Garner Tullis, Garner Tullis Workshop, Santa Barbara.

Symposium proceeds will be used for the acquisitions of contemporary prints and drawings.

General admission is $45, $35 for council members and $15 for students with ID. Reservations are encouraged. Information: 857-6075.

“Marvels of Medieval China: Those Lustrous Song and Yuan Lacquers” showcases part of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco’s important collection of Chinese Song and Yuan period lacquer objects, through July 29.

Ancient lacquer crafts reached new heights of elegance, simplicity and decorative detail during the Song and Yuan period (10th-14th centuries). With the rise of the literati class came a greater demand for lacquerware objects, associated with the life style of the elite.

In conjunction with the exhibition, an international symposium on “Lustrous Lacquers of Asia” is scheduled for Friday and Saturday at the museum in Golden Gate Park. Information: (415) 387-5675.