Contemporary Collectors Council Los Angeles Trip

photo courtesy of Lindsay Tognetti

The Contemporary Collectors Council inaugurated summer with a visit to nearby Los Angeles to view some of LA's many art offerings. The council began their trip with a morning visit to Simon Rodia's Nuestro Pueblo, as Rodia affectionately referred to his creation. The name translates to "our town" and it perhaps reflects the journey and ethos of builder turned sculptor Rodia, who immigrated to the U.S. from his native Italy. Rodia had the desire to build something monumental. Today the seventeen interconnected structures he built are commonly known as the Watts Towers.


photo courtesy of Lindsay Tognetti

Shells and 7-Up bottles adorn the tower spires and exterior.

photo courtesy of Lindsay Tognetti

Rodia labored on the towers for 34 years between from 1921 until 1955. At age 75 he gave the property to a neighbor and moved away never looking back on his creation.


photo courtesy of Lindsay Tognetti

Black silhouettes in the Tower's Noah Purifoy Gallery.


After lunch CCC members attended the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art's exhibition, "Art in the Streets," one of the first major U.S. museum exhibitions to tell the history of graffiti and street art from Los Angeles to New York, tracing it's development from the 1970s to the global movement it has become today. The show focused on key cities and influences from gang to punk and skateboarding cultures that informed the style.


photo courtesy of Lindsay Tognetti

Our docent spoke about graffiti on New York trains and this collection of photo documentation.




photo courtesy of Lindsay Tognetti

Artist Swoon created this mixed media sculpture that CCC members are standing inside. The Ice Queen, 2011 created a delightful play of patterns and light in a canopy like structure.


photo courtesy of Lindsay Tognetti

The ubiquitous and secretive graffiti artist Bansky asked high school students to graffiti this canvas before overlaying a church window stencil to create a decidedly modern street art stained glass window.


photo courtesy of Lindsay Tognetti

Another follow-up from our last trip, CCC stopped at the Ernst & Young Office Plaza to see Ruth Pastine’s "Limitless" installation. Pastine spoke about her approach and sensitivity to architectural space and the use of such structures.


photo courtesy of Lindsay Tognetti

Another follow-up from our last visit, the CCC stopped athe the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to view the tapestries of artist John Nava. The collection is the largest hanging in a Catholic Church in the U.S. and references the tradition of large scale pictorial wall cycles meant to vividly tell stories to largely illiterate populations of ancient and Medieval times.


photo courtesy of Lindsay Tognetti

To cap off our Los Angeles trip CCC members had the privilege of viewing the private collection of Monte Factor. This strange and odd tableau is artist Kienholz representation of the U.S. Supreme Court hearing of a child molestation case.



photo courtesy of Lindsay Tognetti

Mr. Factor, a Beverly Hills clothier has been active in social causes and along with his wife Betty, were early supporters of contemporary art in the city.