Last week's Art Talk got particularly passionate responses from KCRW listeners who hear my program on the air, or those who read the text of it on the KCRW.org website. Throughout the years I accumulated a list of almost 9,000 art aficionados who get these weekly Art Talks...

Once upon a time -- a long, long time ago -- the world of art museums was a relatively quiet, scholarly domain of academic pursuit and aesthetic contemplation. I am talking about the times when blockbuster exhibitions were not yet invented, and...

Los Angeles-based artist Gary Baseman has been one of the busiest and most successful commercial artists for almost three decades. His illustrations for major magazines along with his toys, advertising, TV series and animated films, have made his adorable cartoonish figures immediately...

Among the world-famous landmarks of Los Angeles, which are your favorites? My choices would be the iconic Hollywood sign, and the gate entrance to Paramount Studios. Do you recall the moment when slightly deranged silent-era diva Norma Desmond arrives in her limousine...

Two new solo exhibitions that opened over the past week in L.A. Louver and Blum & Poe couldn't be more different. After all, sculptor Matt Wedel is a talented young newcomer bursting with ideas, while multimedia artist-celebrity Takashi Murakami is...

I have lived in Los Angeles for more than 30 years, and still, I'm as intrigued and fascinated by this city today as I was on my day one. Yes, you might say it was the proverbial love at first sight. And how could...

With Passover, Easter and a new Pope competing in recent days for our attention, I was looking for a place to thank all our gods and muses -- whoever they are and wherever they are hiding -- for this beautiful world that we inhabit....

Today's breaking art news came to my inbox in the wee hours of the morning, in the form of a press release from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Rest assured, this internationally renowned museum is not merging with LACMA or...

If your idea of good art is something nice and soothing, polite and clean, then you'd better turn off your radio [or whatever device you're listening on]. What would you say if you caught the family dog peeing on your furniture? [Stop it,...

What would you say about a person who--in the matter of a few hours--would zoom in and out of three cities? In my case, Malibu, Oxnard and Santa Barbara... The only excuse for such a mad dash, of course, is the promise of a good exhibition further down the road.

The news of recent high-profile art sales at Christie's and Sotheby's, with their multimillion-dollar price tags for a single artwork, got me scratching my head. The ubiquitous Jeff Koons, whose shiny baubles are a "must have" for any newly-minted billionaire, was in...

For the art aficionado, to discover even one truly good museum exhibition is a pleasure; but to stumble upon three intriguing and challenging exhibitions, all in the same place, is really something to celebrate. Right now, such a perfect trifecta of art...

I wonder if you are aware of the fact that a member of Dutch royalty is paying an extended visit to our city? Six weeks, to be precise. Obviously, I am not talking about Queen Beatrice. The enigmatic and quietly mysterious portrait...

It takes a certain amount of courage for an art critic to admit that he or she has made a mistake. But to do so in public? Why would anyone want to reveal their professional shortcomings in such a fashion? There is...

Although I've talked briefly about my recent trip to France in several of my programs for KCRW and the Huffington Post, I didn't have the luxury of going into delicious detail about all the amazing things I saw during my time there....

Exactly one hundred years ago, a riot broke out among the Parisian sophisticates attending the premiere performance by the Ballets Russes of Le Sacre du printemps, otherwise known as The Rite of Spring. Since then, the names of its composer, Igor Stravinsky; impresario, Sergei...

When Miriam Wosk entered a gallery or museum opening, no matter how glamorous or how crowded the event was, all eyes turned to her. With her impressive figure, beautiful face and abundance of exotic jewelry, she was a live embodiment of the...

Have you ever watched a magician perform an amazing trick and then, with confidence and even bravado, reveal the mechanisms behind his trick?

If that is not enough, he gives a repeat performance and, though now you know the secret, you still find yourself...

I hear that many of you greeted 2013 with coughing and sneezing -- me too. I treated myself with everything my late mother taught me: plenty of chicken soup (of course), followed by hot tea with lemon, honey and a good shot...

As a rule, I find museum shows devoted to famous filmmakers to be a big disappointment. At best, they are predictable and unimaginative regurgitations of a filmmaker's career. At worst, they are uncritical glorifications, worshipping at the feet of a blockbuster director whose...