UNTITLED

To find out what the L.A. art scene was like when I was born, I leafed through Art in America recently and found a 1963 commentary by Jules Langsner, which said, “In the space of a half-dozen years, the state of the Los Angeles art community has changed from the nuts who diet on nutburgers to a living and vital center of increasing importance.”

Nutburgers aside, something else happened in 1963 that exemplified L.A.’s rising importance: the Marcel Duchamp retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum, which later became the Norton Simon Museum. Not only because it brought the king of conceptualism out West (where he reportedly discussed art with the Hotel Green’s gardener for hours at a time), but because it happened here and not New York, Paris or anywhere else. “He’s my favorite artist and it was the only retrospective he ever had in his life,” says attendee Dennis Hopper, who claims he stole a sign from the Hotel Green and had Duchamp sign it.

Now the Simon will be celebrating the 45th anniversary of that fabled event with “Marcel Duchamp Redux” (nortonsimon.org; ends Dec. 8). Yet with only 14 objects, it’s hardly a retrospective.

Still, the exhibition does contain a few interesting pieces, including a working “Rotorelief” and a “Box in a Valise,” and it will eventually include a taped interview from KPFK-FM. “We prefer to call it an installation,” says curator Gloria Williams Sander.

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-- theguide@latimes.com