L.A. visions that burn

ONE of the signature images of Los Angeles isn’t a picture at all. “The Burning of Los Angeles” is all “rough charcoal strokes” on canvas. Stretching horizontally across the top is the city itself -- on fire -- “a great bonfire of architectural styles, ranging from Egyptian to Cape Cod Colonial.” The most striking detail: a mob brandishing baseball bats and torches; a flow of humanity descending, “people who come to California to die.”

This “painting” was fashioned in prose by Nathanael West in his 1939 dark classic, “The Day of the Locust.” It was a creation by West’s struggling protagonist, Tod Hackett, a studio man by day, an artist by night.

The word-image drifted through writer-artist Ray Zone’s imagination. “I always wanted to see the painting,” says Zone, “and what better way to see it than to ask artists to render their interpretation of something that’s been seen only in the mind’s eye.”

Zone got his wish. Zara Zeitountsian, owner of the Black Maria Gallery in Atwater Village, had expressed interest in Hollywood-themed exhibits -- so Zone’s proposal, a competitive invitational, was a hit. “Hollywood Apocalypse!,” which just opened and will continue through April 19, exhibits 20 interpretations of “The Burning of Los Angeles.”

Of the 20, three will be selected for top prizes by a panel of judges -- actors Patricia Arquette and Thomas Jane and curator-publisher Billy Shire of La Luz de Jesus.

The show’s proceeds will go to the Writers Guild Foundation’s Industry Support Fund.

What’s interesting, says Zone: “For these younger artists, Hollywood represents a lot of different things, and that’s reflected in the diversity of the work. . . . It’s about celebrity as much as it is hand-helds and blogs . . . It’s about how the nature and narrative of Hollywood has changed over time.”

--

-- Lynell George