Legends of La Cienega 2011
Every year, designers and stores on the street of La Cienega reinvent their front windows in celebration of a specific theme – this year, the Legends of La Cienega event honored legendary artists that provided inspiration for designers who participated. Legends of La Cienega is a convergence of fashion, design, culture, art and education. Suzan and I visited the La Cienega Design Quarter last Friday and went on our own self-guided tour.
What I found most interesting was to see how each designer interpreted their chosen artist. Some windows worked, and some didn’t but even the ones that didn’t exactly do it for me did have identifiable elements from their inspiration.
While the theme of this event was about honoring legends, it is also about interpretation. The interplay between the designer, the designer’s chosen inspiration and the showroom’s furniture proved to make some very interesting displays, with creativity stemming from many different people. Each window had it’s own tone, mixing different textures, fabrics and furniture pieces to create unique displays.
The first window we stopped at was created by SPI Design and honoring Donald Judd. Judd is known for the minimalism in his creations. In the early seventies, he moved to Marfa, Texas – a small town an hour from the border of Mexico. It was in Marfa where Judd purchased the abandoned buildings of a former army base, and converted it into an artist compound. Today, The Chinati Foundation exhibits the work of artists such as Dan Flavin, John Chamberlain, and more. Judd’s main goal for the Chinati Foundation was to bridge three things: art, architecture and nature. I visited Marfa last summer, here are some images from Chinati.
Donald Judd's Boxes at the Chinati Foundation, photo by me
Dan Flavin exhibit, photo by me
Donald Judd's boxes through a window, photo by me
As we headed south, we came across the George Smith showroom that was featuring David Hockney, designed by the talented people at Commune. David Hockney was an important contributor to the pop art movement in the 1960s, and was inspired by Los Angeles to make his series of swimming pools. What I liked about these windows was that they really did resemble Hockney’s paintings. The colors are identical to those used in his work. Hockney is known his use of colors to create the structure and the shape of his paintings, and the incorporation of 3-D shapes and objects adds movement to the displays.
Designed by Peter Durham, this window was in honor of Henri Matisse at the Pat McGann Gallery.
