When: Oct. 4–5

Where: Various museums in Los Angeles

What: This year’s free-for-all features 23 Los Angeles museums granting free admission to all visitors. Some museums are free on both days, while others are free on either one or the other.

Scoop: For museum lovers, it doesn’t get much better than seeing the masterworks of Van Gogh, Goya, Lichtenstein and Warhol — except if it’s free. It’s a chance to catch favorites such as the Natural History Museum or the Hammer Museum without opening your wallet. For a complete list, visit www.museumsla.org.

I took the day yesterday to get caught up on some of the new exhibits in LA’s multi-cultural quilt. When I woke up today, I realized I was “tangled up in keys.”

Noted as the second weirdest shout-out in music history, per Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan’s exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center had me thinking about the lyrics from his 2006 Modern Times track, “Thunder on the Mountain”:

“I was thinking about Alicia Keys, couldn’t keep from crying. When she was born in Hell’s Kitchen, I was living down the line. I’m wondering where in the world Alicia Keys could be. I been looking for her even clear through Tennessee…”

Slate.com ran an article in 2007 titled Tangled Up in Keys. The author points out several notable links that suggest Dylan was really talking about Alicia Keys (the 27-year-old performer). For example, Keys was raised in Hell’s Kitchen and Dylan used to live down the subway line. The author then went on to point out that Dylan has long been smitten with black female singers:

“Dylan has long worshiped at the shrine of the black female voice, a source of musical inspiration, erotic obsession, and even religious conversion.”

This desire led me to think about another exhibit I saw yesterday in LA: Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love at the Hammer Museum.

Through silhouettes, Walker comments on race, slavery and liberation, sexual attraction and exploitation, discrimination and modernity. She uses the scissors with such eloquence and purpose that the line between passion and anger is blurred for the viewer to interpret.

Both exhibits may be entirely different, but there are connections (or Intersections, if you will) that allow the mind to wander and wonder about the cultural framework and moral sensitivities of our nation’s past, present and future.

And there’s only one place in the world that offers such a diverse stage for the mind to cut through a deluge of thought-provoking exhibitions — Los Angeles.

Thanks to the acquiring minds of Los Angeles-based tycoons such as Eli Broad, J. Paul Getty, Armand Hammer, Henry Huntington and Norton Simon, many of history’s great masterpieces are located right here in LA.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) houses 150,000 artworks spanning five continents from the prehistoric to the present day. LACMA boasts one of the most comprehensive Korean art collections and a stunning Japanese art pavilion filled with screens, scrolls and a remarkable collection of netsuke. Among LACMA’s many famous paintings are Rivera’s Flower Day and Magritte’s Treachery of Images.

The Hammer Museum in Westwood is best known for its cutting-edge exhibitions of provocative works by leading and emerging living artists. Equally impressive, however, is its small but world-class permanent collection, containing works by Rembrandt, Gauguin, Monet, van Gogh and Wyeth, among others.

No tour of the world’s greatest paintings in LA’s permanent collections would be complete without a visit to the Getty Center. In addition to stunning architecture and gardens, the Getty Center is distinguished by a far-reaching collection of exceptional paintings by European and American masters from the 14th to the 20th century. Although the collection contains many famous works by the Old Masters, the most popular painting at the Getty is van Gogh’s Irises.

The Huntington Library, Art Galleries, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino is a required destination for anyone who admires artists’ ability to bring canvas, pigment and oil to life. Perhaps the most famous paintings in the collection are the masterpieces The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough and Pinkie by Sir Thomas Lawrence.

In addition to the famous masterpieces contained in LA’s permanent collections, many important works are on view in the ever-changing major exhibitions curated and presented by LA’s leading museums.

On Feb. 20, TripAdvisor announced the Top 10 most popular art museums in the world, based on traffic to the attractions on tripadvisor.com.

1. Louvre Affair: Musee du Louvre, Paris, France
Once a fortified palace that was the home to kings of France, the Louvre is now the world’s most famous museum, renowned for some of the finest pieces of art in the world, including the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa. According to one TripAdvisor traveler, “The world’s greatest museum-from its Italian Renaissance Masters, to its Dutch Masters and the exquisite collection from Egypt’s Pharaonic period. Each time I visit I always discover new treasures and I reacquaint myself with my favorites.”

2. Religious Experience: Vatican Museums, Vatican City, Rome, Italy
Spanning nearly nine miles, the Roman Catholic Church’s Vatican collection is one of the largest and most stunning in the world. Estimated to have more than four million visitors annually, the Vatican museums feature the art of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and, of course, Michelangelo’s ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. As one TripAdvisor traveler commented, “The amount of history and art that is located here is mind-boggling, from the frescoes to the statues, virtually every nook and corner (even the floor) is a treasure.”

3. Art in the Apple: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
From Picasso to Pollock, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on New York City’s Museum Mile, is one of the world’s largest museums with over two million pieces of artwork and enough variety for any enthusiast. Peruse the Greek sculptures, admire the armory or browse the 2,000 European paintings, all contained in a magnificent Beaux-Art façade building. As one TripAdvisor traveler said, “The building itself is a work of art. This would be a great place to spend a day alone!”

4. Grand Getty: J. Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles, California
The Getty features a remarkable collection, including the works of Van Gogh, Monet and Cezanne. The museum’s structure is a piece of art in itself, and the grounds also feature beautiful gardens, and views of Los Angeles. As one TripAdvisor traveler offered, “Prepare to be spoiled-from the free admission, gorgeous gardens, views, good food, unsurpassed attention to detail, and oh yeah, the art-this place is one in a million!”

5. d’Orsay d’Light: Musee d’Orsay, Paris, France
Enjoy Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” inside the Musee D’Orsay, a former train station built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, with a dramatic glass roof. Specializing in 19th and 20th century artwork, the museum displays a striking collection of Impressionism, including famous works by Monet, Manet, Renoir, Van Gogh and Degas. As one TripAdvisor traveler said, “It is much less crowded than the Louvre and features wonderful pieces of art. The museum is just the right size to see everything, including famous painter Whistler and Van Gogh self-portraits.”

The Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) is now open at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The $56-million, three-story museum is the first new art museum built in LA since the world-famous Getty Center opened in 1997. Boasting 60,000 square feet of exhibition space, BCAM is one of the largest column-free art spaces in the U.S. BCAM’s opening installation includes works by such esteemed artists as Richard Serra, Jeff Koons, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The opening of BCAM marks the completion of LACMA’s first phase of a multi-year transformation to expand, upgrade and unify its six-building, 20-acre campus. Budgeted at $156 million, the first phase also features the completion of a 15,375-square-foot, glass-enclosed BP Grand Entrance Pavilion, a covered concourse linking the western and eastern sections of the one-third-mile-long campus and public artworks designed by internationally acclaimed artists. With the opening of BCAM, LACMA now leads the field in devoting a greater share of its space and programming to contemporary art than any other encyclopedic museum.
www.lacma.org