Alex Israel at The Huntington

by The Huntington Library

 

Deeply entwined with his home town, Alex Israel's art explores the iconography of L.A. and Hollywood, and the cult of celebrity. It posits L.A. as central to an understanding of American culture and the American dream. This book, which accompanies the exhibition Alex Israel at The Huntington, places 16 of Israel's paintings and sculptures, as well as two site-specific murals, among the works in the historic Huntington Art Gallery which once served as the residence of Gilded Age collectors Henry and Arabella Huntington and, since 1928, as the gallery for a celebrated European Art Collection. Intended to spark a dialogue between the new and the old, this intervention of Israel's work within the Gallery creates a discourse on place and identity, two things fundamental to understanding Henry Huntington's own love of Southern California, a region whose identity he helped to forge.

 

This catalog is lavishly illustrated with installation photographs by Fredrik Nilsen, and includes two scholarly essays: one by art critic, novelist, and filmmaker Chris Kraus, and the other by Los Angeles art writer, educator, and curator Jan Tumlir-as well as an interview with Israel by Kevin Salatino, Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Art Collections at The Huntington.