Sand Fire’s ghostly pall over L.A. County Museum of Art evokes seminal Ed Ruscha painting on Instagram
It is one of the most memorable and eerie paintings made of Los Angeles: Ed Ruscha’s 1965-68 canvas, “The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire,” which shows the museum hovering over a plane of wan greens, the Ahmanson Building ablaze.
Right now, it couldn’t be more current.
The Sand Fire in the Santa Clarita Valley has bathed Los Angeles in smoky skies over the last several days, producing poisonous sunsets, plumes of black smoke and a rain of ash. (That stereotype of L.A. as apocalyptic is rooted in truth.)
If you happened to be anywhere near LACMA in the last few days, the fiery sky made it seem as if Ruscha’s painting had come to life.
When the artist made the work, it was a darkly humorous jab at authority — figuratively torching the institution just as it opened the doors to its new William Pereira-designed campus on Wilshire Boulevard. Since then, “The L.A. County Museum on Fire” has achieved the status of icon. Others have riffed on it, including L.A. artist Joe Sola, who created a digital version.
But watching the red skies roil over the museum during a visit on Saturday afternoon made me wonder if Ruscha’s piece doesn’t also somehow evoke environmental disaster: A burning building in a field of green — disaster at the hand of man.
What isn’t in doubt is that both the painting and our smoky skies have the effect of making reality feel fragile — even when you’re peering at the monumentality of a major institution like LACMA.
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The painting, for the record, is part of the permanent collection at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C.
In 2008, LACMA, in a humorous blog post, offered the Hirshhorn a sketch of their museum on fire in exchange for Ruscha’s painting — asking, “Wouldn't it more naturally reside at the museum whose imaginary peril it depicts?” Sadly, the Hirshhorn was not tempted by this generous offer.
Ruscha’s painting remains in D.C. — where it is on view as part of the exhibition “Masterworks From the Hirshhorn Collection.”
Herewith, a tour of some of the more dramatic images from the weekend:
Jared Farmer (a.k.a. @geohumanist) captures a view toward the Ahmanson Building, the very building that is on fire in Ruscha’s painting:
Ariel Russ (@ar403) recorded the top of Chris Burden’s “Urban Light” installation and Renzo Piano’s BCAM building against a virulent sky:
Eli Guitar Tech (@eliguitartech) got this surreal shot through Burden’s “Urban Light” installation:
Amir Bajwa (@amir_bajwa) took this ethereal photograph facing west, showing Michael Heizer’s “Levitated Mass” against a massive pink plume:
Michelle B. (@michelle_boli), in the meantime, pointed her camera south, toward 5900 Wilshire (a.k.a. the SBE building). This could be a poster for a disaster movie:
Stay safe, Los Angeles.
Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.
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