CROSS HATCHINGS LACMA OPENS EXHIBITS ON 2 DISSIMILAR ARTISTS WHO SHARE A BEAUTIFUL INTENSITY.

Byline: Priscilla Fleming Vayda Correspondent

AT FIRST GLANCE there seems to be little in common between the artists whose works are being shown in two major exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Bartolome Esteban Murillo, a renowned Spanish painter who lived from 1617 to 1682, and William Kentridge, who was born in 1955 in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he continues to live and work, are not only centuries apart in time but eons apart in subject matter.

But there is a thread: passion. Murillo paints about religion in the 17th-century Spanish Catholic genre, while Kentridge uses a stick of charcoal to comment on social injustice in the modern world.

First, regard Murillo's work, more than 30 pieces, selected from American collections, private and institutional. Majestic and grand, most of his large canvases retell tales from the Bible and Christian lore: the Nativity, a touching rendition of the adoring Magi, a lovely Madonna and child, the Christ child as an infant, the return of the prodigal son, the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.

An unusual artistic take on the holy family's flight into Egypt underscores Murillo's use of composition, color and portraiture in his depiction of religious stories. Then the mood turns somber in Murillo's paintings of the crucifixion, and his work showing Christ being consoled by angels after the flagellation.

Murillo has portrayed a variety of saints in various stages of personal salvation. Particularly notable in this category is a large, poignant painting of St. Thomas of Villanueva as a child, dividing his clothes among beggar boys.

Several compelling renditions of Mary Magdalene show how Murillo used facial expressions and body posture to convey religious adoration, human anguish and penitence.

Then, in a total departure from his devotional images, Murillo painted sensuous canvases of everyday life, such as a luscious scene of two young women at a window, dramatic portraits and a revealing self-portrait.

But his smaller works, some of them oil studies for larger canvases, are the most exquisite. Among the most touching is a gem of a painting of the Nativity, executed in oil on obsidian, while a poignant scene of Christ on the cross with the Virgin, Saint John and Mary Magdalene is done on copper. A small oil sketch, on canvas, of the Archangel Raphael is wonderfully executed.

Over the centuries, Murillo's work has been glorified by the romantics and summarily dismissed by modernists. J. Patrice Marandel, LACMA's chief curator of the Center for European Art, said that to understand Murillo's work one needs to consider the culture of 17th-century Seville.

``His religious works, for instance'' said Marandel, ``are best understood if one considers both the role of the church in Spanish society - its patronage and promotion of devotional images - and the importance of the contemporary Spanish sacred literature that informs these representations.''

Modernists might better appreciate the political art of Kentridge in a nearby darkened gallery. Hauntingly silhouetted figures, charcoal chalk drawings of laborers, refugees, lost souls and lynched bodies dangling from nooses are projected against the walls. A shadow procession of suffering appears, as do drawings from Kentridge's film ``Felix in Exile.''

But Kentridge's work is more than simply a reaction to the social problems of his homeland, many brought on by apartheid.

``The films touch on the human condition in general,'' said LACMA's Stephanie Barron, chief curator of modern and contemporary art.

``Over the last 10 years he has created 13 animated films and the drawings created in the process,'' Barron said. ``The films are five to 12 minutes long, shot in his studio from drawings. The films are incredibly energizing.''

The exhibition, the first major museum survey of his work to tour the United States, includes 11 narrative animated films. Also shown are more than 50 charcoal drawings used in the making of the films, two sculptural installations, film installations, excerpts from Kentridge's collaborative theater productions and videotapes of theater and opera productions.

An awesome presentation.

Music is an integral part of the films: haunting sounds to haunting drawings. It is hard to walk away and not feel the pain of the main characters, factory owner Soho Eckstein and Kentridge's alter ego, artist Felix Teitlebaum.

And the drawings hanging on the gallery walls are just as compelling and gut wrenching as the completed films, a testament to Kentridge's powerful skills as an artist. One needs to walk back through the Murillo exhibition just to soothe the soul.

BARTOLOME ESTEBAN MURILLO (1617-1682): PAINTINGS FROM AMERICAN COLLECTIONS and WILLIAM KENTRIDGE

Where: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: Noon to 8 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays; noon to 9 p.m. Fridays; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Closed Wednesdays. Through Oct. 6.

Tickets: $7 general, $5 students 18 and older and seniors 62 and older, $1 children ages 6 to 17, free for children 5 and under. Free for all on the second Tuesday of the month. Call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1) ``Saint Mary Magdalene Renouncing the Worldly Life,'' Bartolome Esteban Murillo, circa 1650.

(2) ``Virgin of the Immaculate Conception,'' Bartolome Esteban Murillo, circa 1680.

(3) ``Soho Holding Cup and Stone to Ear,'' William Kentridge, 1997-98; drawing for the film ``WEIGHING ... and WANTING.''

(4) ``Eye to Eye,'' William Kentridge, 1994; drawing for the film ``Felix in Exile.''