The Gilded, Gaudy Trump Era Aesthetic Reaches Unprecedented Heights: L.a. Arts And Culture This Weekend

More than a period aft nan Gilded Age, we person entered another: The gilded property of Trump.

A small complete a twelvemonth aft President Trump was sworn into agency for nan 2nd time, nan state has borne witnesser to a striking artistic makeover of nan White House and Washington, D.C. A week ago, erstwhile nan Trump-packed Commission of Fine Arts approved a 24-karat commemorative coin stamped pinch Trump’s image, that makeover ascended to staggering caller heights.

The coin, which breaks pinch nan country’s longstanding contented of not featuring a surviving personification connected its currency, joins a swiftly increasing database of different Trumpian imprints connected arts and culture, including architectural choices deemed gaudy and garish by experts and laypeople alike.

These see nan conspicuous gilding of nan Oval Office; nan paved-over Rose Garden; nan so-called Presidential Walk of Fame along nan White House West Colonnade; nan bulldozing of nan East Wing and nan plans for a $400 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom that will dwarf nan original building; a proposed 250-foot-tall “Triumphal Arch” to beryllium constructed successful Washington, D.C., connected a roundabout adjacent nan Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery; a desire to paint nan Eisenhower Executive Office Building a glaring shadiness of white; nan imminent creation of a Garden of American Heroes populated pinch much than 250 life-size statues of humanities figures including pop-culture icons for illustration Alex Trebek; the summation of Trump’s sanction to nan John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and nan decision to adjacent nan beloved venue for a remodel that galore fearfulness will rival that of nan East Wing.

That’s not to mention his crusade to erase a “woke” mentality from nan Smithsonian Institution’s 21 museums by policing what kind of creation can and cannot beryllium displayed; his efforts to eradicate mentions of slavery successful exhibits staged by nan National Park Service; his look alongside George Washington’s connected National Park Passes; and nan galore different places his look is draped connected elephantine banners throughout nan Capitol city.

Plenty of group are connected defender against these changes. This week a conjugation of 8 taste practice and architectural organizations, including nan National Trust for Historic Preservation and nan American Institute of Architects, revenge a suit to require nan Trump management to comply pinch historical preservation laws and get legislature authorization earlier making immoderate changes to nan Kennedy Center.

“The Kennedy Center is not a individual task of immoderate president. It is simply a nationalist taste monument built to grant John F. Kennedy and to service nan American people. Federal rule requires transparency, master review, and nationalist information earlier it tin beryllium fundamentally altered,” Rebecca Miller, executive head of nan DC Preservation League, said successful a statement.

The aforesaid could beryllium said of nan White House, nan Smithsonian, nan NPS and nan United States Mint. But Trump doesn’t attraction astir owed process, legislature support aliases nan courts. Time and again he has shown his willingness to spell it unsocial erstwhile making large decisions that impact not only America but nan world. This includes his actions successful Venezuela and Iran. But if he decides he wants to return nan Kennedy Center “down to nan steel,” arsenic he erstwhile threatened, location isn’t really thing that tin extremity him.

The gilded property of Trump proves that nan look of things really does impact really nan state sees itself — and really it acts arsenic a consequence of its caller self-image. Golden gaudiness conjures thoughts of empire and imperial rule, but it is besides unserious and incidental, bombastic and self-centered. The Trump artistic screams, “Me, me, mine!” A willingness to tear down historical structures without attraction for their symbolic meaning reveals an inability to study from nan past, a inclination that has proved frighteningly perilous.

Will nan leader who rises aft Trump tear down each that Trump has built? And moreover if they do, tin nan harm really beryllium undone?

I’m Arts editor Jessica Gelt, keeping it mini and elemental for posterity. Here’s your arts and civilization news for nan week.

FRIDAY

Laura Aguilar
The precocious trailblazing photographer’s exploration of her queer Chicana personality against nan earthy backdrops of Southern California and nan Southwest is connected show successful nan accumulation “Body and Landscape.” More of nan artist’s activity will beryllium connected show starting Sept. 20 successful “Laura Aguilar: Day of nan Dead.”
Through Sept. 7. The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. huntington.org

Cassandra Kulukundis holds nan first-ever Oscar for casting for her activity connected “One Battle After Another” during nan Academy Awards, March 15, 2026.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

The Art of Casting
With Cassandra Kulukundis precocious winning nan first Oscar successful nan class for her activity connected Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” what amended clip to study much astir nan subject? The academy’s video position goes wrong nan casting process pinch casting board discussing their trade and includes antecedently unseen auditions and surface tests.
Through July 6. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org

Brahms & Beethoven
Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov performs Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 3” arsenic Paavo Järvi conducts nan L.A. Phil successful Brahms’ “Second Symphony” and Schumann’s “Overture, Scherzo and Finale.”
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

A capacity of “Escape.”

(Traj George Simian)

Escape
Diavolo reprises this accumulation featuring its trademark blend of dance, activity and storytelling arsenic 22 artists situation their abilities against a assortment of architectural structures.
8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 6 p.m. Sundays, done June 14. L’Espace Diavolo, 616 Moulton Ave. diavolo.org

Arshile Gorky: Horizon West
In nan summertime of 1941, nan Armenian migrant artist, his soon-to-be woman Agnes “Mougouch” Magruder and nan creator and furnishings designer Isamu Noguchi drove from New York City to L.A. Gorky was emerging arsenic 1 of nan astir important figures successful nan nascent Abstract Expressionism movement, and his cross-country adventures had an tremendous effect connected his art, which is explored successful extent successful this exhibit. A action of landscapes see Gorky’s rich, surrealistic paintings and drawings from before, during and aft nan life-changing trip. (Jessica Gelt)
Through April 25. Hauser & Wirth West Hollywood, 8980 Santa Monica Blvd. hauserwirth.com

A New Song: Langston Hughes successful nan West
The accumulation reveals Hughes’ clip spent successful California, Nevada and Mexico during nan Great Depression, World War II and into nan 1950s, erstwhile he produced important work, including lectures, movie scripts, plays and his first book of short stories.
Through Sept. 13. California African American Museum, 600 State Drive, Exposition Park. caamuseum.org

The White Album
Arthur Jafa’s 2018 30-minute experimental film, a societal critique of whiteness, uses recovered and produced footage to show really nan imaginative activity of Black Americans has been co-opted by achromatic civilization passim history.
Through Aug 30. UCLA Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. hammer.ucla.edu

SATURDAY

Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai,”starring Takashi Shimura, from left, Toshiro Mifune and Yoshio Inaba.

(Janus Films)

Darkness and Humanity: The Complete Akira Kurosawa
The 1954 classical “Seven Samurai,” starring Toshiro Mifune, kicks disconnected this broad retrospective of nan awesome Japanese filmmaker’s work.
6 p.m. Saturday; bid continues done May 30. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org

from stone to rock… aka really magnolia was taken for granite
Choreographer Jeremy Nedd’s exploration of nan hidden poetry, virtuosic state and ownership features 5 performers examining “the Milly Rock,” a viral creation move.
8 p.m. UCLA Macgowan Hall, Freud Playhouse, 245 Charles E. Young Drive East. cap.ucla.edu

A Queer Arcana: Art, Magic, and Spirit On
The accumulation collects an intergenerational group of Queer artists whose activity examines hidden and mysterious knowledge to find sources of relationship and transformation.
Through Oct. 18. Palm Springs Art Museum, 101 Museum Drive psmuseum.org

Ralph Steadman
More than 140 original artworks and ephemera, including sketchbooks, handwritten notes and individual photographs are included successful “And Another Thing,” a walking accumulation tracing six decades of nan creator and illustrator’s career.
Through May 9 Torrance Art Museum, 3320 Civic Center Drive torranceartmuseum.com

Tonality
The vocal ensemble performs “Refuge/Requiem,” a programme that includes Caroline Shaw’s 17th-century-influenced modern activity “To nan Hands,” and “1605 Requiem,” composed for nan ceremonial rites of Empress María by Tomás Luis de Victoria. Presented pinch nan Wallis.
7:30 p.m. All Saints’ Beverly Hills, 504 N. Camden Drive thewallis.org

SUNDAY
To Sleep With Anger
Written and directed by nan protean Charles Burnett, this movie does much than vividly illuminate South-Central’s seldom portrayed Black mediate class. A deft home scary story, it’s a modern communicative pinch a folkloric twist that has aged friend Harry (Danny Glover) visiting a joined mates and gradually revealing himself to beryllium a trickster pinch problem connected his mind. With a terrific ensemble headed by Mary Alice and Paul Butler arsenic nan mates successful question. (Kenneth Turan)
7 p.m. The 35mm screening includes a Q&A pinch nan filmmaker and Ashley Clark, writer of “The World of Black Film: A Journey Through Cinematic Blackness successful 100 Films.” Beginning astatine 6 p.m. Clark will motion copies of nan book. Billy Wilder Theater, UCLA Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. cinema.ucla.edu

TUESDAY
Philip Glass’ Cocteau Trilogy
Pianists and siblings Katia and Marielle Labèque execute nan composer’s triptych inspired by nan films of Jean Cocteau. Part of nan LA Phil’s “Body and Sound” festival.
8 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Mary Halvorson
The modern jazz musician, guitarist and composer and caller quartet task Canis Major — featuring Dave Adewumi connected trumpet, Henry Fraser connected bass and Tomas Fujiwara connected drums — execute an evening of euphony designed for heavy listening and full immersion.
7 p.m. Getty Center, Harold M. Williams Auditorium, 1200 Getty Center Drive, L.A. getty.edu

Arts anywhere

New releases of arts-related media.

Album screen for “Evening Light: Raga Cycle I.”

(Cantaloupe Music)

Evening Light: Raga Cycle I
The first merchandise of an eight-album bid successful which American composer and pianist Michael Harrison collaborates pinch a world assortment of artists combining Eastern and Western philharmonic traditions. Each section represents 3 hours of time aliases nighttime pursuing nan Indian raga clip cycle. For “Evening Light,” Quebec-based Brazilian vocalist Ina Filip co-composed nan euphony pinch Harrison. Also appearing connected nan medium are American composer Elliot Cole connected synthesizer, French composer Benoit Rolland connected electro-acoustics and Bangladeshi tabla virtuoso Mir Naqibul Islam. Cantaloupe Music: download ($10).

Book overgarment for “Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn’t Easy” by Daniel Okrent.

(Yale University Press)

Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn’t Easy
Part of Yale University Press’ Jewish Lives series, Daniel Okrent’s caller curriculum vitae of nan award-winning composer-lyricist who took Broadway musicals to caller heights “is a brisk, engaging publication that avoids hagiography,” writes Julia M. Klein successful a review for The Times. “Okrent highlights nan affectional frailties that coexisted pinch nan brilliance and generosity. He seeks to liberate Sondheim’s estimation from nan encrustation of story and to demystify his relationships, while offering a succinct study of his achievements. That’s a gangly bid for a compact book, particularly fixed its subject’s long, analyzable life. Okrent’s failings are, unsurprisingly, chiefly those of omission.” Yale University Press: 320 pages, $35

Martha Graham Dance Company: We Are Our Times
A two-part documentary goes down nan scenes pinch nan troupe arsenic it prepares for its 100th day celebration. Producer-directors Peter Schnall and Cyndee Readdean followed nan dancers from rehearsal to premiere connected a world tour, capturing their creator routines and mundane lives.
Episode 1, “American Spirit,” 9 p.m. Friday; Episode 2, ““Athletes of God,” 9 p.m. April 3 connected PBS. Streaming astatine pbs.org and connected nan PBS app.

Culture news and nan SoCal scene

Pritzker Prize-winning designer Frank Gehry is photographed successful May 2019 pinch a exemplary of nan Grand Avenue Project astatine his L.A. offices.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Can downtown L.A. still use from nan imagination of late-great designer Frank Gehry, who put truthful overmuch clip and power into lifting nan area up? Times classical euphony professional Mark Swed says yes successful an optimistic file noting that, “So galore plans Frank Gehry imagined for L.A. still remain. Gehry bequeathed blueprints and models, sketches and concepts, for his ample and devoted squad of younger architects and next-generation visionaries equipped to fabricate our measurement retired of angst.” The clip to build, Swed writes, is now.

Freelance writer Jane Horowitz sewage nan skinny connected nan fifth version of High Desert Art Fair, which arrives successful Pioneertown this weekend, transforming “the rooms of nan historical Pioneertown Motel into accumulation spaces for 20 galleries and publishers, while expanding into a broader operation of programming — thing akin to a mini Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. This year’s version includes an opening nighttime statement pinch a DJ group by thoroughfare creator Shepard Fairey, sheet discussions, guided meditation and moreover a sound bath.”

Monty Python” alum Eric Idle poses for a image astatine nan Hollywood Pantages.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Malia Mendez sat down pinch British drama fable Eric Idle to talk astir his spoof philharmonic “Spamalot,” which arrives astatine nan Pantages much than a decade aft its past extremity astatine nan stage. Over a margarita pinch a broadside of cook olives, Idle opened up to Mendez astir “his earliest forays into comedy, his legendary tally and consequent break pinch his erstwhile ‘Monty Python’ castmates, and why ‘Spamalot’ arrives successful L.A. astatine nan cleanable time.”

Times theatre professional Charles McNulty headed to nan Matrix Theatre to watch Rogue Machine’s accumulation of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2018 play “Fairview.” He writes that nan play is “a shape-shifting activity that eludes an audience’s assumptions astatine each turn,” and concludes that nan caller accumulation “may struggle pinch nan slipperiness of Drury’s writing.” The melodramatic construction, however, is coagulated capable to withstand immoderate of nan overly wide strokes of nan staging.”

Richard Neutra imagined his first Los Angeles project, nan Jardinette Apartments, arsenic a prototype for early plot flat buildings.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Sam Lubell wrote a fascinating communicative astir nan painstaking rehabilitation of Modernist designer Richard Neutra’s first L.A. commission: the Jardinette Apartments successful Hollywood. The building was hailed a structural and method breakthrough erstwhile it opened successful 1928, but it soon dropped from nationalist position and sank into disrepair. The caller proprietor spent much than $5 cardinal connected nan historical preservation task and nan analyzable whitethorn soon spell connected nan market.

The Hammer Museum Gala connected Oct. 8, 2022, successful Los Angeles.

(Michelle Groskopf / For The Times)

The Hammer Museum has announced nan honorees for its yearly gala. They are creator Betye Saar and tv creator Darren Star. The highly anticipated event, group to return spot successful nan Hammer’s plot courtyard connected May 2, intends to grant impactful artists while raising costs to support nan museum’s exhibitions and nationalist programs.

The 80th Ojai Music Festival, set to return spot June 11-14, precocious announced this season’s programming and creator collaborators. Much of this year’s arena will beryllium devoted to unpacking and performing useful that person been cardinal to nan 2026 festival’s euphony director‘s creator life. “Esa-Pekka Salonen is 1 of nan astir vibrant and adventurous imaginative forces successful our philharmonic world,” said Executive Director Ara Guzelimian successful a statement. “It has been an absolute joyousness to dream up programs together that attraction connected galore individual dimensions — his activity arsenic composer and conductor, his rich | associations pinch and singular history successful Los Angeles, nan formative power of his teachers and nan elephantine philharmonic figures of 20th period music, his heavy friendships pinch galore adjacent composers, and his championing of a caller procreation of composers.”

Washington National Opera Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, who was instrumental successful nan company’s determination to time off nan Kennedy Center aft Trump’s takeover, was inducted into nan Opera Hall of Fame astatine nan OPERA America Salutes Awards Dinner connected March 20, astatine nan Plaza Hotel successful New York City.

— Jessica Gelt

And past but not least

Stop nan presses: That notorious Chevron state position successful Chinatown is charging $8.71 per gallon!