INDUSTRIALIZED CULTURE AT LACMA

A demonstration of ceramic glazing techniques, a tour of a local Victorian house, and a lecture on “The Sex Life of Machines” are among several educational events scheduled in conjunction with two exhibits opening today at the County Museum of Art.

The tandem exhibits, “The Art That Is Life: The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, 1875-1920” and “The Machine Age in America, 1918-1941,” examine the cultural impact of America’s industrialization. These historical shows run concurrently with the Laguna Art Museum’s contemporary exhibition, “Craft Today.” (See Suzanne Muchnic review, Page 3.)

LACMA’s craft exhibit, with about 275 examples of decorative arts, explores the American Arts and Crafts Movement, which was a reaction against the industrialization of the late 19th Century that produced stylistic changes in decorative arts, design and architecture.

Here are some events planned to coincide with the exhibit, which ends Nov. 1:

Sept. 12, 2-3 p.m.: Local ceramist Karen Koblitz will demonstrate glazing techniques.

Sept. 13, 3:30 p.m. : “Greene and Greene: Furniture and Related Designs,” a lecture by Randell Makinson, curator and director of the Gamble House and Greene and Greene Library, USC.

Sept. 20: The West Adams Heritage Assn. offers a preview of its fifth annual tour (Sept. 26 and 27) of 10 local homes including the Durfee Estate and the Salisbury House Bed and Breakfast. Information: (213) 735-9242.

The museum’s machine age exhibit explores the impact of machines on American art between the two world wars. About 300 paintings, sculptures, photographs, textiles and costumes, design objects and automobiles will be on view.

Here are some events planned to coincide with that show, which ends Oct. 18.:

Sept. 12, 1 p.m.: “Beautiful Dreamers: Success and Failure in the Building of Siena, Orvieto, and Florence Cathedrals,” a discussion by Eric M. Frank, assistant professor of art at Occidental College.

Sept. 13, 1 p.m.: “The Sex Life of Machines: Myth Making for a New Age,” a lecture by Dickran Tashjian, a UC Irvine professor and director of the university’s program in comparative culture.

Sept. 27, 3:30 p.m.: “Machines in the Garden: Modernist Architecture in Southern California, 1920-40,” a lecture by Thomas Hines, professor at UCLA’s school of architecture and urban planning.

CULTURAL EXCHANGE: The County Museum of Art’s exhibit of Russian paintings from the Soviet Union ended only two weeks ago. But billionaire industrialist Dr. Armand Hammer, whose initiative and funds brought “Russia, the Land, the People” to Los Angeles, has already begun to ponder what Soviet artworks he might help import next.

At a recent luncheon for Nina Divova, curator of the exhibit, Hammer said that a show of Soviet religious icons may be next on the agenda. Divova is curator at the State Tretyakova Gallery in Moscow, which, with the State Russian Museum in Leningrad, loaned the 19th-Century Russian paintings. (The exhibit, part of an art exchange between the Soviets and Washington’s Smithsonian Institution, was not initially scheduled to come to Los Angeles.)

The Tretyakova Gallery and State Russian Museum are planning to send the icons on a European tour, Divova said through an interpreter. However, she did not specify what period such an exhibit would cover and gave no specific dates for such a tour--still in the planning stages only.

However, Hammer, who also sponsored an East-West exchange last year that brought to this country an exhibit of Soviet Impressionist and modern art, seemed intent on continuing his efforts to promote cultural exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union.

“The key to peace in this world is in the relationship between the two great superpowers,” Hammer said. “It is my great hope that by sharing the works of beauty that our artists have produced, we can be drawn closer to solving the problems that tend to divide us.”

Luncheon guests, including County Museum Director Earl A. Powell, also learned an interesting set of statistics. Divova said that the Tretyakova Gallery (which has only 51 galleries, compared to about 400 at Russia’s palatial Hermitage Museum) owns about 30,000 paintings, in addition to tens of thousands of graphics and icons.

How does that figure compare to the County Museum’s holdings?

Smiling sheepishly across a mahogany dining table, Powell said: “We have about 1,200.”

PICTURE THIS: Patricia Shaw says she was a political activist in the 1960s, but since then, admits she has let her interest wane. Until now.

After spending the last four years photographing American women politicians--the results are on exhibit at the Los Angeles Photography Center--Shaw says her political awareness has been “rekindled.”

“My main goal is for this show to be used to communicate to other women that they should be involved in the political process,” Shaw said.

“There are about 40 black-and-white shots in the exhibit. And they were are all done on the road, candidly--it was catch as catch can. There are congresswomen in their offices, state legislators at conventions and in hearings, and several women at a press conference immediately following the defeat of the equal rights amendment in 1983.”

Among those pictured in “There’s a Woman in the House: American Women in Politics,” are Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus, Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.), New York Democrat Bella Abzug and former Chicago Mayor Jane M. Byrne. “But the show has photographs of all these women from little towns that you and I never heard of,” Shaw said, “and they are the real bulk of women holding political office today.

“I think the exhibit shows a different dimension of a politician. It shows the real humanness of women, their warmth, their candidness.

“One photograph of Lynn Martin, a congresswoman from Illinois for example, shows her sitting in her office with the lamp shade askew and pictures of her kids in the background. She’s just in heaven there, she’s just very real. And by the same token, there’s a shot of her speaking at the ERA press conference. And she’s angry. I mean, you just see it in her eyes, in her gesture, her whole expression is one of anger. Women tend to show their emotions, whereas men don’t.”

Shaw’s photographs will be on view through Sept. 7.

FOR SAFE KEEPING: The J. Paul Getty Trust has awarded the University Art Museum at UC Santa Barbara a $10,000 grant to support a continuing project for conservation of the museum’s 4,000-piece permanent collection.

The first step in the two-part project involves an analysis of each object in the collection, said Museum Director J. David Farmer, after which the museum can design a long-range plan for the care of the artworks.