Retrospective Marking Cocteau Centenary Covers 54 Years of Multimedia Art

Long before David Byrne split his time between the guitar and the movie camera, Jean Cocteau established the role of the 20th-Century multimedia artist by splitting his time between the art studio and the theater.

Cocteau first came to public attention in France in the early 1900s with his poetry and poster designs, and later became a driving force in the development of Cubism, surrealism and Dadaism. He collaborated on ballets with Diaghilev and an opera with Stravinsky, and later pioneered the modern French New Wave cinema with his now-classic 1946 retelling of “Beauty and the Beast.”

A major retrospective of Cocteau’s work is under way at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. The collection is sponsored by Irvine’s Severin Wunderman Museum, holder of the world’s largest collection of Cocteau works outside France, and drawn from the museum’s permanent collection.

On display are drawings, sculpture, pottery, paintings and one of his most magnificent tapestries, “Judith et Holofernes.” Video screens around the gallery also broadcast scenes from his “Beauty and the Beast.”

“It’s a total retrospective, covering the artist’s years between 1909 to 1963,” said Tony Clark, executive director of the Wunderman Museum who is curating the Santa Monica show. “And we’ve got almost all the media in which Cocteau worked--except for things like sugar cubes, which have long since disintegrated.”

Organized as a tribute to the 100th anniversary of Cocteau’s birth, the exhibit is part of an international celebration of the artist’s centenary, including special programs at UC Irvine (and other UC campuses), as well as retrospectives in Germany’s Museum of Baden-Baden, Israel’s Tel Aviv University and a restaging of Cocteau’s last ballet at the London Festival of Ballet.

The exhibit continues through July 23.

Santa Monica Museum of Art, 2437 Main St., Santa Monica. Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays through Sundays.

FOOD, ART AND CHARITY: “The Fine Art of Helping,” the second annual art auction to benefit Los Angeles’ homeless families, will take place Thursday at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel.

Organized by the Spare Change Project Committee (a fund-raising arm of the Los Angeles-based Family Assistance Program) and Galerie Michael owner Michael Schwartz, this year’s auction will feature works by more than 150 artists.

Last year’s auction raised $30,000 for the Family Assistance Program. With more than 150 works to be auctioned this year, including etchings, prints, sculpture and original oils by artists such as Rembrandt, Renoir and Picasso, as well as such contemporary California painters as David Hockney and Carlos Almaraz, Schwartz hopes to double that figure for the 1989 auction.

The evening will be sponsored by several local restaurants, including the Authentic Cafe, Jacopo’s, Nicky Blair’s, II Giardino, Pane Caldo, Yanks, East India Grille, Patout’s, Fino, Angeli and Food on the Move.

Co-chairing the event are Vincent Price, Stephanie Beacham, Elke Sommer, David Hockney, Sally Kirkland and Whoopi Goldberg.

Tickets for the Spare Change Auction are $25. For information, contact Linda Ford at (213) 550-6771.

IRISH EXPRESSIONIST: A major exhibition featuring works by Patrick Graham, one of Ireland’s leading contemporary painters, is under way at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Los Angeles.

Singled out as a prodigy in his teens, Graham, 46, was awarded a scholarship to Dublin’s National College of Art at 16. Graham’s large-scale paintings have only recently come to critical attention in the United States, with a 1986 group exhibition presented by Northeastern University, Boston College and the 1986 Contemporary Art Fair in Los Angeles. His first American gallery exhibition in 1987, at the Rutberg gallery, was also accorded critical and popular response.

The Graham exhibit, consisting of monumental paintings and smaller-format works, continues though July 29.

Jack Rutberg Fine Arts Gallery, 357 N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles. (213) 938-5222. Open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.