LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced the date and honorees of the 2012 Art + Film Gala. On Saturday, October 27, notables from the art, film, fashion, and entertainment industries will unite at LACMA to honor artist Ed Ruscha and filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, with director Steven Spielberg paying tribute to the late filmmaker. In October, both Kubrick and Ruscha will have dedicated exhibitions on view at the museum. For its second year, the 2012 Art + Film Gala is co-chaired by LACMA Trustee Eva Chow and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who continue to champion LACMA’s film initiatives. Gucci again shows its invaluable support of the museum as the presenting sponsor of the 2012 Art + Film Gala with Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini taking on the new role of Gala Host Committee Chair.

“LACMA has actively taken strides to integrate film into the museum, beginning with film-based exhibitions such as Dalí: Painting and Film, Tim Burton, and the forthcoming Stanley Kubrick retrospective,” said Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director. “Additionally, Elvis Mitchell continues to produce robust programming with Film Independent at LACMA. This year’s Art + Film Gala celebrates both what we have achieved in the past two years and what we aim to accomplish in the future.”

Terry Semel, co-chair of LACMA’s board of trustees, said “I had the honor of working with Stanley Kubrick on the Warner Bros. films Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, and Eyes Wide Shut. It gives me great pleasure to honor Stanley at LACMA, both at the Art + Film Gala and in his retrospective exhibition.”

Gala Co-Chair Eva Chow added, “Last year’s Art + Film Gala was a great success, bringing renowned figures from the worlds of art, cinema, fashion, and music to support the museum. I look forward to repeating that success this year as we honor two artists who have so dramatically impacted visual culture around the globe.”

The 2012 Art + Film Honorees
Ed Ruscha is an internationally recognized American artist who draws upon the visual language of Southern Californian urbanity to produce paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs. Often associated with the Pop Art movement, this prolific artist’s work has been featured in numerous retrospectives that have received worldwide acclaim. Respected by the art community at large, Ruscha was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters as a member of the Department of Art in 2001, and in 2005 Ruscha was the United States Representative at the 51st Venice Biennale. The installation Ed Ruscha: Standard (September 23, 2012 - February 24, 2013) will highlight paintings, works on paper, photographs, and artist books by Ruscha, many from LACMA collections in addition to a few vital loans.

”Few living artists have enjoyed as much worldwide influence as Los Angeles’s own Ed Ruscha,” said Govan. “From his word paintings to his artist’s books to his photographs, Ruscha’s imprint on art in the twentieth and twenty-first century is impossible to miss.”

Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) is considered to be one of the most influential filmmakers and artists of the twentieth century. Translating filmmaking into an art form, Kubrick’s unique directorial vision is recognized through many of his seminal films including Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). From November 1, 2012-June 30, 2013, LACMA will present Stanley Kubrick, the first large-scale U.S. retrospective of the filmmaker’s career. This groundbreaking exhibition will cover the breadth of Kubrick’s practice and consider his directorial achievements through archival materials, costumes, set models, and props.

“Lolita, 2001, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining—the list goes on of Stanley Kubrick’s immeasurable impact on film,” said Co-Chair Leonardo DiCaprio. “I am thrilled to have his dear friend, Steven Spielberg, join us on this occasion to pay tribute to Kubrick’s astounding cinematic legacy, which we will continue to celebrate in the exhibition opening this fall.”

Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick shared a special relationship through their collaboration on the science fiction film AI: Artificial Intelligence, which was originally conceived by Kubrick in the 1970s and was ultimately written and directed by Spielberg in 2001.

“LACMA's unprecedented commitment to honoring film alongside fine art at such a dynamic institution in Los Angeles is an inspiration to Gucci, as we further our longstanding commitment to the preservation and celebration of the arts," said Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini. "We are proud to support LACMA's vision, and to join Eva Chow, Michael Govan and Leonardo DiCaprio for the second year in a row to honor Stanley Kubrick and Ed Ruscha, two truly inspiring and influential artists."