LOS ANGELES—As ought to be abundantly evident from the accompanying slide show (see left), everyone who was anyone was at the opening of the seemingly indefatigable actor, writer, artist, Oscars co-host and all around Renaissance man James Franco's debut exhibition at the Beverly Hills branch of the Gagosian Gallery on Friday night. Well, that's not quite true. Everyone who is anyone was at the Gucci-sponsored dinner at Chateau Marmont afterward. Everyone who is kind of maybe someone was at the opening.
But on we go. Franco's show is a collaboration with the director Gus Van Sant — with whom he worked on the 2008 film "Milk" — that consists of a film, "My Own Private River," that Franco spliced together using outtakes from Van Sant's "My Own Private Idaho," as well as a set of large washy impressionistic watercolors by Van Sant, based on photographs. The film was projected on separate screens in two large rooms, each outfitted with ratty couches and stray folding chairs arrayed on antiquated-looking red-and-white checkered flooring.
What a scene it was. There was thumbs-up shutterbug Terry Richardson with Gagosian artist Richard Prince, both looking slouchily and studiedly nonchalant. (Apparently Prince had installed some work at Larry Gagosian's new home — formerly Gary Cooper's — in the super posh Holmby Hills district, a super-private display that the dealer revealed only to a strategically-chosen few.) There was the genial-seeming actor Adrien Brody, who'd also made an appearance at Gagosian's Ed Ruscha opening the night before along with other master thespians like Drew Barrymore and Ed Begley Jr.
But the real star was of course Franco himself, and let it be said that it seems unfair that someone so unremittingly adorable, as well as effortlessly and prodigiously multitalented, should also be so, well, so nice. There is absolutely nothing not to like about this guy, and it's downright infuriating. Backed up against the wall under one of Van Sant's watercolors by a swarm of reporters, Franco took every scribbler's question with alacrity, no matter how naïve or idiotic. This reporter's question began inauspiciously with some starstruck hemming and hawing (which Franco tolerated with a megawatt grin) and fell decidedly into the latter category: So, how does it feel to realize this, um, ambitious project at the, uh, you know, world's biggest gallery?
Source : http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/37097/a-gesamtkunstwerk-james-franco-and-gus-van-sant-wow-stars-and-weirdos-alike-at-gagosian-la/