GROUP EXHIBITION

The movie ‘L.A. Story’ endures as Martin’s love letter to Los Angeles, where he lived for many years and continues to work on projects today. Fittingly, Hauser & Wirth’s exhibition suggests a loosely cinematic narrative echoing that of the film in which Martin plays ‘wacky weekend weatherman’ Harris K. Telemacher, a TV personality searching for love and the meaning of life amid LA’s continuous sprawl. Famously clichéd as devoid of both culture and even weather itself, the Los Angeles that Harris traverses is nevertheless replete with wonders.

These include bona fide art treasures he revels in so that we, the film’s viewers may, too: When Harris roller-skates through the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the petals of painted Van Gogh sunflowers wave as he passes; when he expounds on the sensual figurative elements, he alone detects in a definitively abstract red Color Field painting by Helen Frankenthaler, that we can almost see them ourselves.