Status Conference Set on Bulldozed Street Mural

A status conference will be held Wednesday in the continuing litigation surrounding the Boyle Heights mural, “Ancient Energies,” which was painted in 1980 by three members of the East Los Streetscapers muralist group. The 1,200-square-foot work, commissioned by Shell Oil for a gas station at the corner of Soto and 4th Street, was bulldozed by Shell in 1988 to make way for a parking lot.

The scheduled conference--at which attorneys for artists George Yepes, Wayne Healy and David Botello will seek either a financial settlement or a jury trial to determine damages to cover the value of the destroyed mural and the costs of replacing it--follows a lengthy trail of precedent-setting litigation centered on whether or not murals are covered under a state law enacted to preserve works of art.

The status conference will be a closed-door session between attorneys for both sides and Superior Court Judge Harvey Schneider, who in 1989 ruled that murals are not covered under the California Art Preservation Act of 1990. However, state Appellate Judge Norman Epstein overturned Schneider’s decision this spring, saying that the act--which requires owners of artworks to give artists 30 days notice to remove their works before they are destroyed--applies directly to murals. The California Supreme Court recently has declined to hear an appeal from Shell, thus upholding Epstein’s ruling and forcing the matter to return to Schneider for a trial or settlement.

“We’re excited, and hopefully we’ll keep the momentum up and try (the case) before a jury soon,” said Amy L. Neiman, an attorney for the artists. Neiman, who said Shell had not offered any kind of settlement proposal, would not disclose how much she was seeking in the case, which is the first to focus on murals’ coverage under the state act.

EXPANDED MUSEUM OPENS: The Martyrs Memorial and Museum of the Holocaust will show off its $1-million expansion beginning today with the opening of the exhibition, “A Day in the Warsaw Ghetto: 19.9.41,” featuring 85 photographs taken in 1941 by German Army Sgt. Heinz Jost.

The museum, which was founded in 1978, now consists of a 6,000-square-foot space encompassing the first two floors of the Jewish Community Building at 6505 Wilshire Blvd. In addition to expanded changing exhibition space, the museum houses historical documents and memorabilia.

Jost’s photographs and accompanying text from diaries of the period capture the experiences of those who lived in the Warsaw Ghetto, where some 85,000 people died of starvation.

NEW DIRECTOR: Historian Terrie S. Rouse has been named executive director for Exposition Park’s California Afro-American Museum. Rouse, who has been director of the New York Transit Museum for the past five years, also spent more than six years as senior curator at the Studio Museum of Harlem, the first African-American museum to be accredited by the American Assn. of Museums.

Rouse, who has master’s degrees in African history from both Cornell and Columbia universities and a bachelor’s degree in intercultural studies from Trinity College, is taking the state-operated museum’s helm at a difficult time. Recent state budget cuts are expected to eliminate about 16% of the museum’s $1.3 million annual operating budget.

ANOTHER “R” VICTIM: Santa Monica’s Andrea Ross is the latest gallery to fall to the recession, and will close its doors Sept. 1. The gallery has shown artists including Carlos Quinto Kemm, Jan Isak Saether, Jerald Silva and Steve Lapin. Ross plans to continue work as a private Los Angeles dealer.

NEW SPACE: The recession hasn’t stopped downtown’s L.A. Artcore Gallery, however. The gallery is opening a second space, Artcore Annex, upstairs in the same complex as the original gallery at 652 Mateo St. The annex will open Sept. 1 with “Newcomers I,” a group show of 10 artists including Carm Goode, Norma Jean Squires and Jan Gillen. Future plans for the space include shows organized by independent curators and exchange exhibitions featuring artists from abroad. Information: (213) 617-3274.

COMING SOON: A five-session course on “Art History: Thirty Centuries of Mexican Art,” will be taught at the L.A. County Museum beginning Sept. 14 in preparation for “Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries,” the mammoth survey exhibition opening at the museum Oct. 6. For information on tuition and registration, call (213) 857-6139. . . . Meanwhile, tickets for the exhibition go on sale at all Ticketmaster outlets Sept. 2. Tickets will also be available at the museum box office beginning Oct. 6, and are $5 for adults, $3.50 for senior citizens and students, and $1 for children 17 and under.

SUMMER BREAK: Santa Monica’s James Corcoran Gallery and Robertson Boulevard’s Margo Leavin galleries are both taking short summer hiatuses. Corcoran will be on vacation Friday through Sept. 9, and Leavin will be closed now through Sept. 3.

EVENTS: Several noted visual artists, critics, curators, playwrights, poets and others will “declare their principles and policies--from the aesthetic to the personal to the inescapably political”--during “Manifesto Night,” a Sept. 6 fund raiser for Forehead, a literary/art publication produced by the Venice arts center Beyond Baroque. Among those scheduled to speak are artists John Baldessari, Liz Larner, Patti Podesta and Raymond Pettibon; gallery owner Sue Spaid, performance artist Keith Antar Mason and theater director Reza Abdoh. Tickets for the 8:30 p.m. event at 681 Venice Blvd. are $10. Information: (213) 822-3006.

“T.V. Tumor,” a collaborative video and performance piece by Marshall Weber and Phillip Patiris, will have its Los Angeles premiere Sept. 2 at 8 p.m. at the amphitheater at Pan Pacific Park, 7600 Beverly Blvd. The work will also be performed on Sept. 4 at 8 p.m. at Barnsdall Art Park, 4804 Hollywood Blvd. The work aims “to provide a creative visual critique of broadcast television in the United States,” and mixes a prerecorded video with performance, live camera surveillance of the audience, and live broadcast TV. Both performances are free. Information: (213) 672-2357.

Video artist Stuart Bender and composer Angelo Funicelli will premiere their music video, “Visitations,” at the Long Beach Museum of Art tonight at 8. The video features L.A.-based new music group eXindigo! and examines the Magnificat--the hymn sung by the Virgin Mary in the Gospel of Luke--as a revolutionary tract. Incorporated in the video are insurgent events such as the Haitian Revolution of 1791 and famous visitations including Juan Diego’s vision of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Tickets are $5. Information: (213) 439-3587.

Because of lighting requirements, Venice’s Marquart Gallery is holding its latest exhibition outside of the gallery. “Remembrances of Failing Memory” a show of recent paintings by 23-year-old artist Terrell Moore, will be held Sept. 5-Oct. 20 in the artist’s studio at 1285 Electric Ave., Venice. During the exhibition, the studio--which has a special lighting system to highlight Moore’s unusually dark, minimalist paintings--will be open for regular gallery hours: Tue.-Sun., noon-6 p.m. Information: (213) 399-2037.

A three-day exhibition and silent auction to benefit the family of Santa Barbara artist Steven Cortright, who died earlier this year, will be held Friday through next Sunday at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Information: (805) 963-4364.

Santa Monica’s G. Ray Hawkins Gallery will hold its annual “Photography Auction XI” at 4 p.m. on Sept. 7. The works will be previewed at the gallery beginning Sept. 4. Information: (213) 394-5558.