Itinerary: Barnsdall Art Park

Aline Barnsdall was, by most accounts, an odd bird. Heir to an oil fortune, she could afford to be described as freethinking, eccentric, radical, temperamental. Or, maybe those were just the words folks used 80 years ago to describe women who lived so independently.

She came to Los Angeles from Chicago with dreams of building an artists’ colony. She hired Frank Lloyd Wright to build a house atop Olive Hill, now Barnsdall Art Park. That residence, Hollyhock House, was to be the hub of theaters, studios and guest houses. But after only two guest houses were built (one since demolished), Barnsdall turned the 11-acre park over to the city. She kept the land surrounding the hill, however, and during the Depression posted billboards supporting leftist causes such as the Spanish Loyalists and Upton Sinclair’s run for governor.

The park and the house are about to get major renovations--both cosmetic and seismic. Hollyhock House will close for more than two years, starting in April. In June, the whole park will close for landscaping and road work, and won’t reopen until early 2001.

The entrance to Barnsdall Art Park is at 4808 Hollywood Blvd., just west of Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz. Take a look at this urban oasis before its hiatus.

Thursday

Barnsdall was very into experimental theater, so she’d probably have approved of “Six Day-Play” tonight at 8 in the Gallery Theatre. It’s by Hermann Nitsch, a leader of Vienna’s Actionist art movement, which embraces the idea that art is the act of art-making, not the product.

“Six Day-Play” was acted out on the castle grounds at Prinzendorf, Austria, in August 1998 by 100 actors and 180 musicians. The whole thing was filmed and will be shown on six large monitors and a projection screen ($10). Afterward, Nitsch will discuss the work with local artists Paul McCarthy and Barbara Smith. Information: (310) 317-4261.

Friday

Take a tour of Hollyhock House, where Barnsdall lived briefly from 1921 to about 1926 with her daughter and 12 dogs (notice the animal kennels). The home gets its name from Barnsdall’s favorite flower. A geometric rendering of the hollyhock has been integrated into the design of the house, in the columns and around the doors and windows.

Some see the design as Mayan-inspired, or pre-Colum-bian, but it also seems a transition between Wright’s Prairie Houses and the textile-block houses that he would build in the Hollywood Hills in the 1920s. Tours ($2; $1, seniors) are hourly, noon to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays.

Saturday

The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (open Wednesday through Thursday and Saturday and Sunday, 12:30 to 5 p.m.; Friday, 12:30 to 8:30 p.m. $1.50. [213] 485-4581) was built in the late 1960s to replace a temporary structure Wright designed. Two shows are at the gallery until March 26. The first, titled “. . . and someone said ‘where,’ and another said, ‘there,’ and then s/he pointed a wan finger--an index, and we followed that direction to where we needed/wanted (sometimes) to go . . .” is a group show of works whose meaning points toward something else. “Shimmer” is also a group show of abstract paintings by Los Angeles painters.

In the Junior Arts Center Gallery, “Tomfoolery: Sounds, Songs & Stories by Tom Jenkins” surveys 25 years of work by Jenkins, a storyteller, songwriter, performer, painter and junk sculptor. Jenkins will discuss his work from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free.