Los Angeles County Museum

When John Baldessari's retrospective "Pure Beauty" opens at the L.A. County Museum of Art on June 27, expect to see several generations of artists on hand for the opening-week events. For as long as he has been making art in Los Angeles, Baldessari has also been, in a less tangible way, making artists: offering suggestions, encouragement and above all conversation to students eager to follow in his footsteps by living a life of art. Follow they did, with their own gallery shows, museum shows, teaching gigs and some commercial successes that have at times even surpassed their teacher's.

To write about this city is in some essential way to create it. Not in cement and steel, but in the imagination of its citizens, as well as in the minds of people who will never come here but who nevertheless carry an image of it in their heads. An image that is, in its way, as important as the concrete place where people live and sleep and look for places to park. So many people come to Los Angeles with an idea of the city, some apotheosis of the American Dream with palm trees plus a really nice car. Then they settle down into ordinary jobs and don't even understand the part of town they live in, let alone how it fits into the city as a whole or how the city started and grew.

The comic-looking tiger painted in ink on a 17th century Japanese folding screen by Kano Sansetsu slyly or shyly dares to drink from a river poised to crash over his head. The creature knows something about suspense. So do the art collectors who voted this weekend to spend $280,000 to buy this tiger for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. They were participating in a rather dramatic annual event known as Collectors Committee Weekend, a popularity contest that LACMA director Michael Govan once called "the ‘American Idol' of the museum world."

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art finally has fulfilled the vision it had for its biggest foray into Islamic art - a goal thwarted until now by the government of the Russian Federation. The only problem is that Angelenos would have to travel more than 8,000 miles to see it. In "Gifts of the Sultan: the Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts," now on view in Doha, the capital of Qatar, art that Islamic rulers had sent long ago to the czarist courts are finally on display - courtesy of the State Hermitage Museum and National Library of Russia inSt.

Elizabeth Taylor is scheduled to be on hand as one of the hosts of the Los Angeles premiere of "Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston," a documentary about the life and career of the influential fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick. She was among the celebrities who wore his creations in the '60s and '70s. The screening, which is open to the public, is being held Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in conjunction with the museum's costume council. A reception will follow the screening.

Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, crouched in the pit of a stone quarry in Riverside. Wearing black jeans and a brown sports coat, he dragged a finger through the sandy floor to draw the northern edge of the LACMA campus. On a key spot in his ad hoc map, he placed a granite stone the size of an orange, meant to represent a rugged 340-ton boulder standing in the quarry behind him. If all goes according to plan, that boulder will make a seven-day journey in August from the quarry to the museum's Miracle Mile location on a specially designed 200-wheel truck.

Regarding William Wilson's March 9 review of artist Peter Shelton's exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art ("meettheaccomplishedpetershelton"): howmanyofmytaxdollarsis-petersheltongettingtosupportthisgarbage? MARK OWEN Chatsworth

Bravo to Christopher Knight for his scathing review of the Keith Edmier-Farrah Fawcett show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art ("Like, Conceptual, dude," Nov. 25). Once again this show reinforces my belief that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been taken over by the entertainment industry. Richard Meade Los Angeles

Great juxtaposition of headlines July 8: "KNBC's $8-Million Anchor (Moyer) above "Reaping the Rewards of 'Avarice"' (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)! Could it have been planned any better? NANCY LEFF Los Angeles

'The Clock' Where: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles When: Noon-8 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; noon-9 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Closed Wednesday. Admission: $15 Contact: (323) 857-6000 or publicinfo@lacma.org

Los Angeles' newest rock star, like so many before her, sleeps by day and rolls on by night, gathering, as they say, no moss. She stops in one town after another - in Ontario, La Palma, Lakewood and Long Beach. In each, she tantalizes and mesmerizes, conjuring a joyful circus, even a few moments of unbridled exuberance that some might regret down the road. Then, just as her star is brightest, she moves on, as if someone had given her the same advice offered by Gypsy Rose Lee's mother: Always leave them wanting more.

It's only natural, given their proximity to Mexico and rapidly growing Latino constituencies, that California art museums would be engaged with Latin American material. But the robust lineup of exhibitions, exchanges and educational programs indicates that the days of focusing on historic "treasures" or romanticized figures such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera are over. Museum directors and curators are talking about examining fresh topics and weaving Latin American art into a global fabric — in projects that require inter-departmental collaboration, international networking and community outreach.

EVENTS At the Good Food Pie Contest, the proof is in the pastry. Home cooks and pros will put their baked goods to the test at this pie throwdown judged by a distinguished panel of chefs and food journalists. In addition to the contest, the festivities include pie-related workshops, an apron fashion show and music by KCRW DJ Anne Litt. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 12:30-4 p.m. Sun. Free. (323) 857-6000. http://www.kcrw.com/pie.

'The Clock' Where: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles When: Noon-8 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; noon-9 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Closed Wednesday. Admission: $15 Contact: (323) 857-6000 or publicinfo@lacma.org

Virginia M. Fields, a leading scholar of early Mesoamerican art and archaeology who joined the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's curatorial staff in 1989 and devoted 22 years to making the museum a vital center of Latin American culture — partly by organizing major exhibitions such as last year's "Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico" — has died. She was 58. Fields, who had suffered from diabetes since her youth, died Wednesday night of long-term complications from the disease in a hotel in Mexico City.

Marcel Proust had his madeleines, delicate confections whose mere taste stirred up powerful private memories. Americans have movies and television shows, and the personal associations we ascribe to rewatching "Casablanca" or "Star Wars," or seeing an old TV clip of "Columbo," can be as piquant as the scent of popcorn. This summer at LACMA, Christian Marclay's cinematic artwork "The Clock" (2010), a 24-hour-long compilation of thousands of film and TV clips, will offer remembrances of Hollywood matinees past.

Congratulations to the County Museum trustees and the "Los Angeles establishment" on their stand as recounted in "Battle for the Masterpieces." An admittedly improved, but nonetheless merely respectable, collection should not compromise the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. RICHARDM. LEROY Los Angeles

Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, crouched in the pit of a stone quarry in Riverside. Wearing black jeans and a brown sports coat, he dragged a finger through the sandy floor to draw the northern edge of the LACMA campus. On a key spot in his ad hoc map, he placed a granite stone the size of an orange, meant to represent a rugged 340-ton boulder standing in the quarry behind him. If all goes according to plan, that boulder will make a seven-day journey in August from the quarry to the museum's Miracle Mile location on a specially designed 200-wheel truck.

'Diary of a Country Priest' Unrated Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes Playing: At Bing Theater, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Friday at 7:30 and 9:40 p.m. Saturday at 5 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at 1 p.m.