by Richard Solomon
With the establishment of the Conservancy's World Wide Web site showcasing Los Angeles murals, the interesting question is raised whether muralists need to provide consent when photographs of their murals are placed there. The Web site information--which includes material about the Mural Conservancy itself, biographical sketches about muralists, and information and photographs of Los Angeles' public murals--is accessible to a world-wide audience.
Generally the creator or owner of a work of art needs to consent before photographs of it are reproduced, especially if the reproduction is done for profit. However, authors and publishers can make what is called "fair use" of artwork by, for example, including photo reproductions in catalogues or critical articles. Assuming that consent is preferable, MCLA makes every effort to explain the Web project to the mural community and obtain the consent of as many muralists as possible.
Where an artist is deceased, MCLA makes a reasonable effort to contact next-of-kin for consent. Similarly, where an artist has no current address or forwarding information available, MCLA also tries to determine their whereabouts. If these efforts fail, MCLA adds the mural to the Web site with the same biographical and technical information included for other murals. The Board policy is that if an artist, or a relative of the artist, should object to this placement the image will immediately be removed, even though this is not a requirement under "fair use."
We hope readers agree that MCLA's policy best accomodates the potentially conflicting interests of a mural artist who may want to limit or prevent electronic depiction of their mural(s), and mural lovers who want access to as much material about the murals as possible.
Richard Solomon
by Robin Dunitz, MCLA Tour Director
Have you noticed the lone tan skyscraper and the intriguing dome that now grace the back of Union Station in Downtown L.A.? Many tour participants have been asking me about these unfamiliar new embellishments on the downtown landscape in recent months.
This 7-acre site is the new Gateway Transit Center, a joint development of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and Catellus Development Corporation, which not only links the city bus system with Amtrak and the MetroRail, but also offers an exciting new public space that comes resplendent with art. The loose thread that ties it all together is the theme of Los Angeles: past, present and future.
Anyone can take an art walk around the new center. Here is a possible route:
If you arrive by car, probably the easiest place to park is right at Union Station (North Alameda Street between the 101 Freeway and Cesar Chavez Avenue). Enter the Station through the front door and head straight back. Your first stop is the East Portal at the rear of the Station. Union Station was the last large metropolitan passenger terminal built in the United States (1934-39). The architects' (John and Donald Parkinson) color consultant, Herman Sachs, was also active in the interior design of City Hall, and he painted a mural on the rear entrance ceiling of the Bullocks-Wilshire building.
You'll know you've made it to the East Portal when you find yourself under a massive, intricately patterned glass dome. Also in this transitional indoor environment is a collaborative work by artist May Sun, muralist Richard Wyatt and architect Paul Diez, called "City of Dreams, River of History."
The aquarium, mural, floor tiles and river bench together give you a sense of the history and pre-history of this location. Before its diversion, the Los Angeles River flowed right here, and that environment was home to a variety of flora and fauna. Artifacts excavated from the original Chinatown in the vicinity of Union Station (and donated by the Chinese Historical Society) are embedded in the bench at one end of the room. Wyatt's 80-foot long mural contains portraits of Native Americans and early settlers as well as present-day Angelenos.
Find the escalator going down a level. Along the wall at the top are twelve vertical "light sticks." To catch the hidden imagery flashing past, you must stand at the far side of the escalators. If you stand too close to the lights, they appear as just a pulsating series of abstract color. Be patient. Bill Bell calls this "A Train."
Take the escalator down and you will be at one end of the MetroRail Red Line platform. Straight ahead is Terry Schoonhoven's tile mural, "Traveler." This is not a new work, but was completed in 1991. All MetroRail stations include a component of public art. This station can also be the jumping off point for a tour of the MetroRail stations to view the abundant art.
Take the escalator back up to East Portal. Exit through the outside door and turn right. In a shady area under two pedestrian bridges is East Los Streetscapers' "La Sombra del Arroyo." Overhead handpainted, glazed ceramic tiles create the illusion of trees with local birds and animals. The trunks are cast bronze. In addition to Streetscaper regulars Wayne Healy and David Botello, Alejandro de la Loza also worked on this commission.
Go up to the next level by elevator, escalator or stairs. Observe the six bus waiting areas, constracted of glass and metal. Designed by Kim Yasuda, Torgen Johnson, Noel Korten and Matthew Vanderborgh, they convey a feeling of a leaf or sail in flight.
Also on this level is the decorative and functional metalwork of East L.A. artist Michael Amescua. Look closely at his railings and grillwork scattered throughout the outdoor area and you will discover cutouts of birds, butterflies, reptiles and plants.
The phallus of a building at the plaza's north end is the new MTA Headquarters. Walk inside the elegant marble ediface and head to the far end of the lobby. Currently only one panel of James Doolin's four-panel murals is installed. It is a grandoise landscape of Los Angeles circa 1870, about the time the railroad first arrived. It will soon be joined by compaion works of our city in 1910, 1960 and "after 2000." Two of them will be on this level and one will be upstairs on the mezzanine.
Proceed up a level to the mezzanine. Walk around to the right and through the glass doors about halfway down the hall. Inside this Boardroom Entrance Area is Patrick Nagatani's "Epoch." The theme of this collage is transportation, both from an individual and a global perspective. It uses NASA photos of the earth as seen from space, more than 500 portcards, and in the center an image from Eadweard Muybridge's pioneering photographic studies, published in 1887, on human locomotion. It was this depiction of Muybridge's nude men in motion that caused a short-lived controversy when the mural was unveiled. It was even covered for a day or two, until others protested such prudishness. Original prints of Muybridge's revolutionary work (it changed forever how artists represent human movement) are viewed daily by visitors to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu.
Walk around to the other side of the mezzanine to view Margaret Nielsen's "L.A. Dialogs," a somewhat humorous look at Los Angeles history through old postcards and souvenirs. It is located outside the cafeteria.
The last segment of public art is outside this building. When you exit, turn left and head downhill toward the corner of Vignes and Cesar Chavez Avenue. This walkway and the collaborative art along it are called Paseo Cesar Chavez. Roberto Gil de Montes, Elsa Flores and Peter Shire, all well-known artists individually, came together for the first time to create this fanciful park-like area of fountains, benches and planters. If it were up to me, I would hire this trio to design and/or re-design parks all over town.
I have to hand it to the MTA. In spite of issues of cost and mismanagement elsewhere in its work, the Gateway Center is an exciting blend of beauty, meaning and functionality.
Urban Art, Inc. is to public sculpture what MCLA is to public murals. Thanks to a grant from Save Outdoor Sculpture!, a joint project of the National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property and the Smithsonian Museum, the 25 most significant outdoor sculptures will be determined by a panel of experts, and the 25 will be examined by an art conservator who will prepare condition reports that will provide cost estimates for maintenance or restoration. According to Urban Art there are currently about 550 works of public sculpture in L.A. County.
Over 250 representatives from all sectors of California's non-profit arts community have been invited to a gathering in Los Angeles on June 24th to take action on the Compact for the Arts, a plan for strengthening arts advocacy that emerged from a year-long process involving the California Confederation of the Arts' Board and over 100 individuals and organizations. For more information call CCA's main office at (916) 447-7811.