The LACMA has been one of my favorite escapes this Spring. Two of their recent exhibits have been eye opening, and both for completely different reasons.

James Turrell: A Retrospective explores the artists use of landscape, light and shadows. There are installations of his lightboxes - colored lights projected on the walls in a warm glow which defied my understanding of the projectors. There are pictures of his building in the Western US with skylights and windows which frame the light in a majestic way - almost as a light inspired Stonehenge. Then there is the Breathing Light Room. You take off your shoes, walk up a short flight of stairs and enter an entire space filled with changing colors. This is a color theory class dream. As my eyes took in the all encompassing light in the room, if I closed my eyes the after effect on my lids was exceptional, if I looked back into the space before the stairs with the sad cubbies filled with shoes, another color filled the room. And they all kept changing. Seemingly, even the temperature in the room changed. Light room was an out of body, all sensory experience in color and light.

Expressionism: Van Gogh to Kandinsky was a museum experience I was used to, yet the art on show was spectacular. The color of the room itself was inviting in a dark navy, with an ipod app to guide you through the installation. (The only fault I could see was the type next to each painting was so small, only someone with young eyes could read the description while standing behind the safe line. However, most museum patrons tend to lack 20/20 vision and the chorus of guards asking the patrons to lean back was continuous. As a student, it was also really interesting to see which loaning museums allowed pictures of the work, which put in museum glass, and the ornate or stark frames chosen for the art..) I am always a sucker for Van Gogh, especially his Poplars and other landscapes - his brush strokes are mesmerizing. The colors of the Kandinsky and the Franz Marc were reminiscent of the after effect on Turrell. The installation flows from Impressionism to Cubism, and recounts the historical opinions of the art especially in Germany and France. I highly recommend the tour - just bring your reading glasses or the app!