Video Artists

Happy Memorial Day,

We hope everyone has a great day spending time with friends and family, and that we all take a few moments to think about the history of this day.

On of the highlights of our LA trip this weekend was a visit to the Getty Center. Not only did we get to see some exciting art (Van Gogh, Matisse, Caravaggio), the Getty has exceptional books on art. One we were particularly interested in was entitled California Video: Artists and History . The book gives a telling account of the rise of So Cal avant-garde video artistry into the mainstreams of fine art.

We don't discuss video art that much on this site, but it is becoming a huge part of the Modern Art scene. Many artists are realizing the vast range of possibilities available in creating strong messages and imagery through video art.

I remember visiting the NY MOMA last year, and there were a few outrageous videos on display. One video was of a naked women on an empty beach spinning a barbed wire hula hoop around her hips. The clip played in slow-motion so you could see the barbs ripping small pieces of her flesh. I left the room feeling pretty disturbed and confused, which I think might have been the effect they were going for. Here are a few other video's we saw that day (we were especially mystifed by the woman and the milk container video). Anyways, the California Video book was part of 2008 exhibition and you can see below some highlights from the exhibition: