Los Angeles Times - 07.09.2019

CALENDAR

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2019:: LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR

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There are musicians whose

careers are made by a single song, authors whose writing is

defined by a single novel. For much of her career, Judy Chi-

cago’s work has been overshadowed by a single art piece:

“The Dinner Party,” a large-scale 1979 installation that imag-

ined a gathering of 39 important women sidelined by history.

Using the form of an elaborate banquet table with place

settings that included hand-painted ceramic plates with de-

signs inspired by female genitalia, the piece paid tribute to

figures such as Hatshepsut, the 15th century B.C. Egyptian

pharaoh; Artemisia Gentileschi, a 17th century Italian

baroque painter; and Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman who

guided explorers Lewis and Clark.

When “The Dinner Party” debuted at the San Francisco

Museum of Modern Art in the spring of 1979, it immediately

became a public sensation. (An estimated 100,000 people saw

the work at SFMOMA in just three months.) It was just as

quickly disparaged by critics. (“Crass and solemn and single-

minded,” wrote Hilton Kramer in the New York Times.)

Still, the renown of “The Dinner Party,” now permanently

installed at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, was lasting.

It not only eclipsed Chicago’s later pieces — from “Birth

Project,” a collaboration with more than 150 needleworkers,

to this year’s “Purple Poem for Miami,” her most recent fire-

works performance, which sent clouds of colorful smoke

throughout Miami’s design district — but her early aesthetic

innovations, developed as a young art student and artist in

Los Angeles in the 1960s and ’70s.

“My formal language, my color language, my approach to

art-making, I built it here,” she says, as

JUDY CHICAGO’Sexhibition at the Jeffrey Deitch gallery, which includes the installation “Sunset Squares,” opens over the weekend.

Mel MelconLos Angeles Times

Colorful L.A. roots

Judy Chicago’s show of early works at Jeffrey Deitch explores

the feminist artist’s growth amid city’s ‘spirit of self-invention’

BYCAROLINAA. MIRANDA>>>

[See Chicago,E4]

One day a gifted auteur
will come along and meet the
challenge of Sophocles’
hard-nosed brilliance in
“Philoctetes,” which has ne-
ver been among the most
popular of his seven extant
tragedies. But until that
time we’ll have to content
ourselves with adaptations
that try to make the work
more accessible to contem-
porary audiences.
Seamus Heaney’s “The
Cure at Troy” is perhaps the
most successful reworking
of the play for the simple rea-
son that it treats the politics
as inseparable from the
poetry. “The Heal,” writer-
director Aaron Posner’s new
version of “Philoctetes,”

THEATER REVIEW

Greek tragedy turns goofy

ERIC HISSOM, right, plays Philoctetes and Kacie Rogers is Niaptoloma in

“The Heal,” inspired by Sophocles, at the Getty Villa’s outdoor theater.

Craig Schwartz

[See‘Philoctetes,’E5]

‘The Heal’ hurts a

Sophocles play with

its postmodern antics

at the Getty Villa.

CHARLES McNULTY
THEATER CRITIC

To quote a timeless Janet

Jackson jam, as “Hustlers”

does in its opening seconds,

this true crime stripper

drama is a story about con-

trol. Women seeking control

of their own bodies, their fi-

nances, their futures.

The film, starring Jenni-

fer Lopez and Constance Wu

as ex-strippers bilking

wealthy clientele for cash,

premieres Saturday at the

Toronto International Film

Festival before opening

nationwide Sept. 13. But

along its road to the big

screen, says writer-director

Lorene Scafaria, it often felt

like she might not be the one

to get to make it.

Scafaria already had di-

recting credits under her

belt when she was hired to

adapt “Hustlers” from the

viral 2015 New York Maga-

zine article “The Hustlers at

Scores.” While she was writ-

ing, she found herself script-

ing musical cues from Jack-

son, Britney Spears and

Lorde onto the page. She

saw the movie in her head.

She knew she wanted to di-

rect it too.

But her films, including

the autobiographical mama

drama “The Meddler,” had

not exactly, by her own ad-

mission, been commercial

hits. And there was one big

directing name ahead of her

at the top of the producers’

wish list.

“When I handed in the

script, [Martin] Scorsese

was the person everyone was

thinking about,” Scafaria

laughed during a chat in Los

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL

An ode to female

empowerment

Lorene Scafaria’s

‘Hustlers’ is about

strip club criminals

— and sisterhood.

By Jen Yamato

[See“Hustlers,”E2]

Did Lana

Del Rey just

acciden-

tally strike

a blow for ...

criticism?

Clearly

that was

not her

intent. After pop music

critic Ann Powers published

a piece about Del Rey and

her new album, “Norman

F— Rockwell,” for NPR, Del

Rey promptly took issue

with a few of the phrases

and tweeted her displeasure

at Powers to her 9.5 million

followers.

Naturally, many of those

followers, and perhaps a few

Twitter stalkers looking for

any excuse to intimidate,

saw it as a troll call to arms.

Comments about Powers

were soon a far too familiar

storm of hate, littered with

calls for Del Rey to “end”

her, a general condemnation

of critics as bullies and, of

course, the sexualized

name-calling that female

critics and writers still face

on a near-daily basis (“fat

whore” remains a top pick).

It was not a joking mat-

ter, as any targeted writer

who has been doxxed,

hacked, swatted or simply

deluged with horrifically

personal threats and com-

mentary can tell you. Art-

ists, as Powers herself said

in a statement to The Times,

have every right to criticize

their critics, and Del Rey’s

tweets were fairly mild — she

took issue with references to

her “persona” and a descrip-

tion of her lyrics as “un-

cooked,” and she did so

without profanity or even

shade-throwing emojis.

But she also did it on

Twitter and @ed Powers. At

a time when the president of

the United States regularly

abuses anyone he considers

a critic, it is not surprising

that Del Rey fans, many of

Lana

Del

Rey’s

critical

lesson

MARY McNAMARA

[SeeCriticism, E4]

New music sown

in familiar soil

Descanso Gardens

hosts a series that lets

organizer Christopher

Rountree make magic

amid his memories. E3

Comics...................E6-7

What’s on TV..........E5