Museums

Reviews by Christopher Knight (C.K.) and Holly Myers (H.M.). Compiled by Grace Krilanovich.

Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love Walker’s cheerfully ferocious subject is black experience in a proud nation whose prosperity and might were substantially built on the degrading legacy of black slavery. The first room features a 50-foot-wide diorama in which silhouette figures attached to the curved wall are slightly larger than life-size. The refined, formal elegance of the artist’s debonair design sense is put to the rudest ends (C.K.). Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. Tue.-Wed., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Thu., 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed Mon.; ends June 8. (310) 443-7000.

Color of Life: Polychromy in Sculpture From Antiquity to the Present Contrary to popular belief, the sculpture of the ancient world was intensely colorful. By the time these artifacts resurfaced in the Renaissance, however, most had lost their pigment and the fact was conveniently forgotten for several centuries. It’s still not an easy sell, but this show makes a valiant case for it (H.M.). Getty Villa, 17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Pacific Palisades. Thu.-Mon., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Tue.-Wed.; ends June 23. (310) 440-7300.

California Video Fifty-eight past and present Californians are included in the Getty’s big survey of more than 50 single-channel videos and 15 installation works, all made in the four decades since Sony introduced the first portable video recording device in 1967. That was an epochal event in image-making history, giving individuals a powerful electronic capacity formerly held only by corporations. Artists were instantly captivated (C.K.). Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, L.A. Tue.-Thu. and Sun., 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; closed Mon.; ends June 8. (310) 440-7300.

Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement The exhibition brings together a diverse and satisfying array of recent work. Sometimes the art is specific to questions of ethnic identity; often it’s not. What’s passing into history is an aesthetic that matured in the 1970s, produced by Mexican American artists with an eye toward articulation of Mexican American experience. A full generation later, what has arrived on the scene is something different – an aesthetic produced by Mexican American artists with an eye toward articulating whatever they darn well please (C.K.). Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Mon.-Tue., Thu., noon-8 p.m.; Fri., noon-9 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; closed Wed.; ends Sept. 1. (323) 857-6000.

Allan Kaprow: Art as Life If an artist makes art intended to function outside the confines of an art museum, does it make sense for an art museum to present a retrospective exhibition of that artist’s work? That’s the peculiar question encountered at this 50-year survey of work by Allan Kaprow (1927-2006), best known for initiating Happenings in 1959, a performance-based art with disposable elements of collage and assemblage. The retrospective is more like a thorough archival display than a typical art exhibition. But Kaprow’s audience-participation Happenings were instrumental: They helped kick off art’s post-subjective era, which has been dominant for half a century (C.K.). Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 N. Central Ave., L.A. Mon. and Fri., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Thu., 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; closed Tue.-Wed.; ends June 30. (213) 626-6222.

Lawrence Weiner: As Far as the Eye Can See Weiner, 66, is best known for language sculptures – usually epigrammatic statements painted or printed on walls, floors or paper. Despite the elegance of individual works, the career-long accumulation of about 100 texts, along with lots of posters, books and multiples, can make for a sometimes clamorous environment. But themes do emerge. The most compelling is the frequent reference to water, with its elemental, shape-shifting fluidity (C.K.). Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 N. Central Ave., L.A. Mon. and Fri., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Thu., 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; closed Tue.-Wed.; ends July 14. (213) 626-6222.