Photo by Adarsha Benjamin

Harry Gamboa, Jr, Cruel, 1975. Super-8 film. Showing Willie Herrón III

This September, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972–1987, the first retrospective to present the wide-ranging work of the Chicano performance and conceptual art group Asco. Geographically and culturally segregated from the still-nascent Los Angeles contemporary art scene and aesthetically at odds with the emerging Chicano art movement, Asco members united to explore and exploit the unlimited media of the conceptual. Creating art by any means necessary — often using their bodies and guerilla tactics—Asco merged activism and performance and, in doing so, pushed the boundaries of what Chicano art might encompass. Asco: Elite of the Obscure includes nearly 150 artworks, featuring video, sculpture, painting, performance ephemera and documentation, collage, correspondence art, photography (including their signature No Movies, or invented film stills), and a series of works commissioned on occasion of the exhibition. Asco: Elite of the Obscure  is on view at the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art September 4 to December 4.

SHARKY’S tats.  Denim motorcycle vest by STAND AND DELIVER.  Los Angeles, 2011.  photography by OLIVER MAXWELL KUPPER

Post-war Los Angeles was like a subtropical greenhouse where art flourished – a movement emerged that would define the second half of twentieth century contemporary art in America – artists like Ed Ruscha and John Baldessari, and major events like Warhol’s first exhibition, and Marcel Duchamp’s first retrospective. But most of what we know about this time is only the very tip of the iceberg and the Getty Research Institute has been tirelessly diligent: “Through archival acquisitions, oral history interviews, public programming, exhibitions, and publications, the Research Institute is responding to the need to locate, collect, document, and preserve the art historical record of this vibrant period.”  And as a result of these efforts one of the more monumental series of art exhibitions, collectively entitled Pacific Standard Time, will be on view this fall and winter at 60 venues across Southern California, including the Getty, the Hammer and LACMA.  The above photograph, by Julian Wasser, is of a nineteen year old Eve Babitz – considered a muse or a midwife to the Los Angeles art movement – nude and playing chess with Marcel Duchamp at his retrospective. She won.

As part of the Venice Biennale in Italy, James Franco’s site–specific film installation, entitled Rebel, will open on the island of Certosa.  Rebel is a collaboration with artists Douglas Gordon, Harmony Korine, Paul McCarthy, Ed Ruscha, Aaron Young that “unites the myth-making allure of cinema and contemporary art, and acts as interrogative ode to Hollywood iconography.” Rebel will be on view on Certosa Island from September 4 to November 27. Photo by Adarsha Benjamin

“Watch any mother kneeling beside her toddler, pointing and explaining what they are looking at. Our urge to see, and to connect, starts there.” William Carter.  This book is both an autobiography of William Carter and a study of people. Carter’s photographs, beginning in 1960, take the viewer on his travels throughout the world, from home to New York and Kurdistan, from Dublin to Gaza. Whether working as a photojournalist or purely for himself, Carter focuses on the gestures and expressions of people (sometimes charming, sometimes unsettling), and on streets and landscapes that often long for human presence. The subtitle “Photographs from Five Decades” might seem misleading as it implies a “typical” photobook where the sequence of images is primary. For Carter, however, it is the interplay between his photographs and writings that allows him to see into himself and his subjects: indeed he calls himself a “photographer-writer”. In Carter’s words, his work aims to capture the “hidden implications, eye-blink compositions, odd ironies and happy accidents” of the world. – Steidl

Oliver Maxwell Kupper in front of bad hotel art. Las Vegas, Nevada – a place to dash your dreams. Photograph by Dr. Goldstein. 

Guild Hall of East Hampton presents Richard Prince “Covering Pollock” featuring 27 new works that are focused on Jackson Pollock, a leader of the Abstract Expressionist group. Richard Prince uses appropriation to distill and disrupt America’s compulsive fascination with iconic brands, fame, and lifestyle. This is the first public viewing of “Covering Pollock” and the first museum exhibition of Richard Prince’s work on Long Island. On view until October 17. 

Larry Flynt’s original Hustler Club in Las Vegas, Nevada hosts the Erotic Dancer’s Ball – where the best erotic dancers in the world compete for a golden crown.  Photograph by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

I am so tired. I need to rest for a while. I have to keep quiet. I have to think. I need to get some sleep. I can’t wait for the yellow Autumn days to come. Photo and text by Marija Mandic who is a photographer based in Novi Sad, Serbia – we’re hoping Pas Un Autre might see regular dispatches by Marija for a series entitled Serbian Diary.