California Nightmarin'

The Palm Springs Art Museum is half-closed for most of the summer, with the Duane Hanson tourists roped off from bemused visitors.



There is a large exhibit called California Dreamin' culled from their permanent collection of California related art purchased in the last 30 years. My two favorites in the exhibit were actually rather nightmarish, including Mark Bradford's Rat Catcher of Hamelin 4 above.



The Los Angeles artist was horrified when the LAPD put up billboards in his neighborhood of women whose photos had been found in the home of a serial killer called The Grim Sleeper, so he repurposed them.



The museum also purchased a great 1994 Enrique Chagoya painting, Promesas...



...featuring Jesus writing on a blackboard, "I promise not to try and change the world again" with Olive Oyl standing in for the Virgin Mary...



...flanked by Indian heretics being executed by conquistadors and Catholic priests.