The ultimate cup holder

AT the UCLA Hammer Museum in Westwood, one installation that has been turning heads isn’t in a gallery but is around the construction area where a 288-seat theater is being built.

Palm Springs artist Jim Isermann filled the temporary chain-link fence with 40,000 plastic cups in a two-tone Greek key design intended to complement the museum’s postmodern architecture and marble exterior. The result is “Untitled (Greek Key) (0106),” composed of 20 sections of 10-foot-long fencing.

“One of the tropes of postmodernism is looking back at Greek and Roman architecture,” Isermann says.

The colored inserts are called Put-In-Cups and are produced in Fort Worth. A sleeve of 50 pieces sells for $9. The Hammer installation notwithstanding, the company’s website (www.putincups.com) confirms that the cups aren’t exactly a staple of high culture, but usually are used to depict corporate logos and school mascots.

Isermann’s design will be in the museum’s courtyard until at least mid-August. A bonus: Admission is free through Sept. 3. The museum is at 10899 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles; (310) 443-7000.

-- Leslee Komaiko