LACMA

See what I mean about LA's freak-ass urban planning? Look at all these damn streetlamps.

My friend Erin and I went to the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) today to get our museum on.

Excellent things at LACMA:

-The sculpture pictured above, Chris Burden's Urban Light. It's made up of 202 vintage streetlamps from the LA area. It is impossible to own a camera and walk past it and not have a photo op or a chase scene, as demonstrated by the numerous models and little kids who were posing and chasing just out of frame.

-Belgian Surrealist René Magritte's painting La Trahison des images ("The Treachery of Images").

Translation: "This is not a pipe." That sound you hear is Magritte blowing your mind.

-A whole German Expressionism section that will make your hair stand on end, with copies of Albrecht Dürer's apocalypse prints:

Death does not have his game face on. Too stoked.

-An entire, beautifully designed and lit building showcasing Japanese calligraphy and painting, half of which depicts Zen masters being dicks to their pupils. My understanding of Zen is that a master could poke you, hit you with a stick, tweak your nose, cut your finger off, etc, in an effort to shock you out of conscious thought and startle you into enlightenment. There are a number of stories and paintings praising the practice, probably because the storytellers and artists realized that Zen masters were psychopaths and would fucking murder them if their depictions weren't flattering.

Showcasing gorgeous paintings of insane teacher-on-student violence. Also, allegorical gibbons.

Also so much Picasso you guys.

And it's free the second Tuesday of every month! Erin and I only saw a wee bit of the art housed in the eight-building complex, so I'm definitely going back.