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Laemmle’s Art in the Arthouse Presents “Archiving Hesse” at the Monica Film Center

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Recently, there’s been a lot of commotion surrounding the seminal artist EVA HESSE, including a recent exhibit at the Whitney, a current show in DTLA at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, and of course, the opening of the film EVA HESSE at four of our venues. Directed by Marcie Begleiter and produced by Karen Shapiro, the documentary is the first feature-length examination of Hesse’s life and work.

Barbara Brown_edit_lr
Barbara Brown, photographer

In addition to all this, our fine arts program, Art in the Arthouse, has jumped into the fray with ARCHIVING HESSE an exhibit at the Monica that includes photography featured in the film.  It showcases the work of photographer and raconteur, BARBARA BROWN, who, from 1962-1965, chronicled Hesse and the other luminaries that made up the Canal St. scene of New York’s Lower Eastside.

Unfortunately, most of Brown’s negatives were destroyed in a bizarre train fire and eternally lost. But we are pleased to present some surviving photos that capture the artist in particularly revealing moments. Interwoven are two images from Hesse’s 1968 solo exhibition at the Fishbach Gallery taken by NORMAN GOLDMAN.

The Archiving Hesse photo exhibit opens this Thurs. night at the Monica Film Center (where the documentary will be showing) and can be enjoyed through June.

About Hesse:

In 1938, at three years old, EVA HESSE was put on the kindertransport to escape Nazi Germany. She arrived in New York to reunite with her family, but seven years later lost her mother to suicide.

Hesse went on to study art and design at Yale University.  As an artist, she had a unique ability to alchemize her personal tragedies into searing and poetic works. Based mainly in New York, Hesse and her husband Tom Doyle briefly relocated their studio to Kettwig Germany where she transitioned from painter to sculptor.

“Stop [thinking] and just do!”  This strong note circa 1965 from her mentor Sol LeWitt opened Hesse up to an artistic stream of sculptures, paintings, drawings, and happenings. She incorporated industrial materials such as cord, wire, yarn, and latex to create magnificent walls sculptures that commanded attention. Hesse soon became a major figure in the post AbEx landscape movement.

Tragically, Hesse died of brain cancer at age 34. She lives on in her works, which are displayed in museums worldwide,

Art in the Arthouse Painter Mary Woronov on KCET: “Artist, Chelsea Girl, and B-Movie Queen”

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The woman behind our Art in the Arthouse exhibition “Mary Woronov: Something About Mary,” on view at the NoHo 7 through December 15, was recently profiled by KCET. It’s by the award-winning arts journalist Victoria Looseleaf, features a generous selection of Woronov’s striking pieces and begins “At almost 71 years old, Mary Woronov is still a beauty whose quick wit, sharp mind and striking countenance belie the decades. Born in Palm Beach’s five-star Breakers Hotel in 1943 — then a converted hospital during World War II, she recalled.

“It was a mistake,” Woronov, her gray eyes matching her stylishly cut gray hair, the latter tinged with mint green, said with a boisterous laugh, adding, “no…it wasn’t.”

Talking in her airy apartment near downtown, one filled with dozens of her oil paintings, hundreds of books and a cache of memorabilia, this erstwhile star of numerous classic Andy Warhol films, including 1966’s “Chelsea Girls,” continued, “I was a preemie, preemie, preemie and they immediately put me in a box. My grandmother looked at me and I had black fur on me — pre-natal hair — and a coccyx cyst. So I had a tail and my grandmother said, ‘That’s not ours. Take that back.'”

Woronov, who went on to appear in some 80 films, including such B-classics as “Death Race 2000” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School,” as well as making mainstream TV appearances in “Charlie’s Angeles,” “Knight Rider” and on the soap, “Somerset,” is a walking Wikipedia of several by-gone eras.

As to her rebel nature, well, that’s obviously embedded in her DNA.”

Read the full piece by clicking here.

Mary Woronov

The Beginning of Art in the Arthouse: You’re Invited

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Outside of your home or office walls, how often do you really get the chance to get to know a work of art in person? Gallery openings and museum visits are often “drive by” affairs that typically limit your engagement. And, even assuming you still have an independent brewing house nearby, coffee house art is unpredictable in quality.

Enter Laemmle’s new Art in the Arthouse program. It promises to deliver a unique and alternative art-viewing experience. By reclaiming wall space throughout its theaters for the display of fine art, Laemmle will give its patrons a chance to bond with notable and emerging L.A. based visual artists and their work. Exhibits will last three to four months, affording regular movie-goers ample time to get to know a piece through repeat visits and exposure. Curatorial standards will be high, in keeping with the approach that has distinguished Laemmle as a film exhibitor over the years.

Art in the Arthouse is the brainchild of Laemmle president, Greg Laemmle. “Switching to digital poster frames conserves both paper and wall space,” says Laemmle. “This opened up the opportunity to extend the cultural scope of our theaters to include the visual fine arts.”

Our first two events feature artists Dave Lefner at the Royal and Bea Husman at the NoHo. The Lefner exhibit opening is February 19 — RSVP here — and the Husman exhibit opening is February 26 — RSVP here. Proceeds from the sale of art benefit the Laemmle Charitable Foundation.

Learn more!

Art in the Arthouse: Dave Lefner “Marquee”