Art World
17 Things I Learned From a Summer Reporting in the Los Angeles Art Scene
Our columnist looks back at her time in Tinseltown.
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Our columnist looks back at her time in Tinseltown.
Annie Armstrong
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My time in sunny Los Angeles is coming to a close, and I have plenty of stray thoughts and observations to share from a summer spent trying to understand the whole thing out here, which had previously always evaded me. Some of what I’ve learned has been cohesive enough to write into full columns. Other wisdom is a little more scattered. Below, a selection of some tips and tricks I picked up from pounding the pavement in La La Land, before I head back to New York:
The view from the pool at Sunset Tower, where very important work gets done.
11. If you want to place a piece in a celebrity’s home, it’s a no-brainer to cozy up to an advisor who lives here. Most advisors worth their salt in Tinseltown have at least one client in showbiz.
12. Do not sleep on the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena or the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation in Beverly Hills. World-class collections await you with a third of the foot traffic at The Broad or LACMA.
13. I’ve written a bit about this before, but the real art world celebrities in L.A. are the museum directors. Having Michael Govan or Johanna Burton arrive at your opening is equivalent to a visit from the Pope.
14. Commercial galleries in residential spaces are a huge trend here—Half Gallery, Parker Gallery, etcetera. But be sure to have your zoning laws figured out. I’ve heard of a few people who have gotten unceremoniously dinged.
15. Your best friend in New York is your friend with a place in the Hamptons. Your best friend in Los Angeles is your friend with the right number to call at the Chateau Marmont.
16. One of the best dives in Los Angeles, HMS Bounty, is at the basement level of the Gaylord Apartments. Uber there, and you can have a very full evening on one city block.
17. Last but not least: People in Los Angeles expect New Yorkers to be snobby and flippant about L.A. They know all the reasons why New York is better, and smile politely when you list them. Then, once you’re gone, they laugh about how most people in New York are either always drunk or accustomed to a baseline level of misery. Often, they mention that we pay outrageous amounts of money to endure that discomfort. They are not wrong! But I am headed home.