Gallery | An Italian Photographer Takes on East L.A.

The self-taught photographer Gusmano Cesaretti grew up in Lucca, Italy, but as a child he fell in love with America through movies, jazz and the work of Beat writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. He arrived in the United States at age 19 on the day Kennedy was assassinated, and eventually made his way to California, where he found work in the photo department of the Huntington Library in Pasadena. It was during this time, in the early 1970s, that Cesaretti began to explore the Latino neighborhood of East L.A., photographing the people he met and the graffiti that decorated the buildings. These photographs are “not just documentation” but “remarkable works of art” writes Jeffrey Deitch, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, in the introduction to a new book that surveys two decades of Cesaretti’s images. “In addition to their formal strength, they were infused with tremendous human sympathy.”
Though much of Cesaretti’s work focus on narrow subcultures in California — the members of the Klique car club and graffiti artists in East L.A., punks in Chinatown, hippies in San Francisco, a Vietnamese refugee camp at Camp Pendleton — he ranges farther afield as well. There are images of a Muslim village in Thailand, a scrap yard in Chicago and a series from his trip to visit Maria Sabina, the “Magic Mushroom” healer in Oaxaca, Mexico. Most are rendered in grainy, high-contrast black and white, a signature style that Cesaretti achieved with some unconventional dark room techniques, like kicking a developer-filled tank across the room to agitate the film and heating the tank up with a cigarette lighter.
How did an Italian immigrant gain access to such a notoriously tough and insular part of his adopted city? Cesaretti, in an interview with the curator Aaron Rose, the book’s editor, says that his foreignness was instrumental to gaining the trust of the people he met. Deitch attributes Cesaretti’s success to an unusually warm and open way of being. “Upon meeting Gusmano, I immediately understood the secret to his rapport with some of the toughest characters in Los Angeles,” he writes. “He has a warmth and generosity that turns an introductory handshake into a bear hug within a matter of seconds.”
Gusmano Cesaretti will be signing copies of “Fragments of Los Angeles, 1969-1989” (Damiani; $50) on June 16 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Family Bookstore in Los Angeles; 436 North Fairfax Avenue; familylosangeles.com.Greg KesslerThomas Schütte’s “Berengo Heads” (2011), Frith Street Gallery.Some might argue that trying to identify a prevailing trend at a show as sprawling and diverse as Art Basel — the original, Swiss edition of the semiannual art fair, which hosts 300 galleries across 300,000 square feet and spans the last century of contemporary art — is a fool’s errand. Shortly after the show opened on Tuesday, an informal survey of artists and gallerists produced a list of observed motifs that included the return of abstraction, ’90s acid-house colors, large works in wood and even worms (“No, really, I just saw two of them in a row,” one architect insisted).
The worms may have been a a stretch, but there was something gross — or, more precisely, grotesque — about many of the works at this year’s fair in Basel, Switzerland, starting with the giant textile uvula presiding over the Untitled section in Hall 1. In Hall 2, the grotesquerie was extended to the human countenance. You could scarcely turn a corner without coming face-to-face with one creepy, distorted visage or another, from the painterly (George Condo) to the disturbingly hyper-real (David Altmejd). If art really does hold a mirror up to society, we must be in pretty bad shape.
Looks from the resort collections of (from left) Dior, Calvin Klein Collection and The Row.
The predominant hue to emerge from resort collections this season is an intensely rich shade of indigo. The deep inky blue added intrigue to simple monochromatic ensembles like the floor-length sheath and coat from The Row, Dior‘s classic bar suit and Calvin Klein‘s relaxed, slouchy trousers paired with a suede boat-neck top.

Applique Strapless White Mermaid Sequined Prom Dress

Lace Prom Dresses

Silhouette: Trumpet/Mermaid 
Neckline: Strapless 
Waist: Natural 
Hemline/Train: Floor-length 
Sleeve Length: Sleeveless 
Embellishments: Beading, Draping, Appliques, Bow(s) 
Fabric: Lace 
Built-In Bra: Yes 
Fully Lined: Yes 
Shown Color: White 
Body Shape: Hourglass, Inverted Triangle, Rectangle, Pear 
Occasion: Prom, Evening 
Season: Spring, Fall, Winter, Summer

After Hours | A Performance Artist’s Heartfelt New Persona