In her 1970 novel “Play It as It Lays,” Joan Didion’s troubled protagonist Maria obsessively practices a daring drive across four lanes of Los Angeles freeway traffic without touching her brakes. Now, only a few miles from that infamous merge spot, memories and connections to Didion, a fifth-generation Californian and iconic writer, fill a sprawling show of visual art and literature.
Remembering Joan Didion, beyond her words
In “Joan Didion: What She Means” at UCLA’s Hammer Museum, the first exhibition about Didion since her December 2021 death, her presence and world are evoked in many ways. Quotes from her writing about driving and much more cover the walls, and archival items about her and her family abound. The gallery space is filled with paintings, sculptures, photographs and videos from a wide variety of artists, building a portrait of Didion as in a collage.
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the The Washington Post website.
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