MUSEUMS

Reviews by Christopher Knight (C.K.), Holly Myers (H.M.) and David Pagel (D.P.). Compiled by Grace Krilanovich.

Critics’ Choices

The Chimaera of Arezzo A Chimaera fuses the body of a fire-breathing lion with a coiling serpent in place of its tail, so it is capable of guarding the rear flank; for good measure, a horned goat emerges from the lion’s back. The minute you see the 2,400-year-old Chimaera of Arezzo, the first time the famous Etruscan sculpture has traveled to the U.S., you’ll know immediately why the magnificent bronze is regarded as a textbook work of art (C.K.). Getty Villa, 17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Pacific Palisades. Thu.-Mon., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Tue.-Wed.; ends Mon. (310) 440-7300.

Divine Demons: Wrathful Deities in Buddhist Art When one thinks of Buddhist art, one tends to conjure up images of tranquillity and bliss. This show presents a different picture, conjuring up a panoply of teeth-baring, arm-waving, serpent-stomping creatures that are there to step in when celestial composure is not enough (H.M.). Norton Simon Museum of Art, 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. Mon., Wed.-Thu., Sat.-Sun., noon-6 p.m.; Fri., noon-9 p.m.; closed Tue.; ends March 8. (626) 449-6840.

Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years This is not just a promotional treasure-house show of about 500 paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, videos and installations by more than 200 international artists in MOCA’s remarkable permanent collection. Installed chronologically, it also tells a story -- although one that’s rarely heard. The postwar rise of American art is paired with the simultaneous rise of Los Angeles, from shallow backwater to cultural powerhouse. At the Grand Avenue building, which spans 1939 to 1979, the distinctive emergence of a mature L.A. art is embedded within the larger postwar prominence of the United States, artistically dominated by New York. At the Geffen -- the story picks up in the year MOCA was born. Tying the Geffen start-date to MOCA’s own arrival on the scene audaciously asserts the museum’s instrumental role in the city’s art-life (C.K.). Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), 250 S. Grand Ave., LA; and Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 N. Central Ave., L.A. Mon. and Fri., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Thu., 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; closed Tue.-Wed.; ends May 3. (213) 626-6222.

Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Difference Rembrandt is an artist about whom questions of attribution have long been raised. The show’s aim is to compare his drawings with those of his most important students -- 15 of the roughly 50 he is known to have taught over his four-decade career. They labored hard to mimic his achievement. Sometimes Rembrandt “corrected” their renderings by drawing over their work. The show, deftly organized to show visitors how distinctions between Rembrandt’s drawings and his pupils’ can be discerned, is a marvelous exercise in and demonstration of connoisseurship (C.K.). Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, L.A. Tue.-Fri. and Sun., 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; closed Mon.; ends Feb. 28. (310) 440-7300.

Continuing

The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis Robert Crumb spent nearly five years thinking about and drawing 206 sheets to illuminate the first book of the Old Testament -- chapter by chapter, scene by scene -- inside rectilinear panels whose wavy contours frame events with nervous visual energy. Engaging a master of the profane to tell a sacred story could have proved to be a wincing gimmick, but Crumb’s too good an artist for that. He’s not a believer in the divinity of the Bible’s authorship, and that sense of human origins is conveyed by his distinctive drawing style. The invigorating result is the restoration of historical literary and artistic power to a world-changing narrative (C.K.). Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. Tue.-Wed., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Thu., 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed Mon.; ends Today. (310) 443-7000.

Tara Donovan The artist’s best sculptures employ thousands of ordinary household objects in installations whose structural integrity seems miraculous. Adjusted to respond to the architecture of the space in which they are installed, they establish a perceptual bridge between object and environment. Sometimes, though -- and too often in the traveling survey of 15 installations -- the sculptures seem to be little more than clever, arbitrary accumulations of material. Once grasped, they just sort of sit there. The selection is also odd. The show spans 2001 to ‘08, with just one work from each of the first three years and one from ’07. Donovan’s is an uneven accomplishment, although at moments it takes your breath away (C.K.). Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Downtown, 1001 Kettner Blvd., San Diego. Thu.-Tue. 11 a.m.-5 p.m., 11 a.m.-7 p.m. every third Thursday; closed Wed. ; ends Feb. 28. (858) 454-3541.

Diana Thater: Between Science and Magic Making a movie about movie magic is not the same as making some of that magic. This exhibition goes so far out of its way to extinguish the magic that you can’t help but wonder why it was brought up in the first place. The answer is that Thater’s brand of art is opposed to all forms of entertainment, which it sets itself apart from. Over the last 20 years, the relationship between art and entertainment has become increasingly cozy. This has forced fourth- and fifth-generation Conceptual artists like Thater to shore up the fiction that their own work is not a form of entertainment by evoking the pleasures of such amusements and simultaneously distancing themselves from them. Dreary seriousness is regularly served up as proof that art’s job is to pursue Truth and that nothing as silly as entertainment is to get in the way. Pleasure, surprise and insight are pushed out of the picture, never mind fun or comfort (D.P.). Santa Monica Museum of Art, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., Building G1, Santa Monica. Tue.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; closed Sun.-Mon.; ends April 17. (310) 586-6488.