The formal aspects of Constructivist art have maintained a vitality quite apart from the social programs they were created to promote and serve. With its urban focus and technological, architectonic use of 20th-century materials, the Constructivist attitude has become a metaphor for a style and philosophy of living. We see the formal language of Constructivist art in the work of mid-20th-century American artists, it has been faithfully taught in our universities, and it appears in the work of our youngest artists, who sometimes understand the style thoroughly before they are even aware that its

It was hard to feel you weren’t sinning a little at “Carplays,” “an unabashed celebration of our love affair with the car,” a series of eight performances presented in various locations by this museum and the Center Theater Group/Mark Taper Forum. Angelenos should feel at least a little abashed over the air and noise pollution and the energy drain caused by their love affair with the car, but the audience showed no apparent ambivalence at the opening event, a parade of vintage and art cars under MoCAs canopy outside the massive “Automobile and Culture” show. Actor Howard Hesseman provided a