Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Prior to this, LACMA was part of the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art, founded in 1910 in Exposition Park near the University of Southern California.Edward W. Carter helped orchestrate the fundraising effort for LACMA in response to J. Paul Getty's increasing reluctance to donate any more artworks to Los Angeles County.[12] The museum's Pavilion for Japanese Art, designed by maverick architect Bruce Goff, opened in 1988, as did the B. Gerald Cantor Sculpture Garden of Rodin bronzes.The $10-million renovation replaced dead trees and bare earth with picnic facilities, walkways, viewing sites for the La Brea tar pits and a 150-seat red granite amphitheater designed by artist Jackie Ferrara.The renovations required demolishing the parking structure on Ogden Avenue and with it LACMA-commissioned graffiti art by street artists Margaret Kilgallen and Barry McGee.In 2010 the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion opened to the public, providing the largest purpose-built, naturally lit, open-plan museum space in the world.[27] In a later concession to concerns raised by its neighbor, the Page Museum, LACMA had Zumthor alter the shape of his proposed building to stretch across Wilshire Boulevard and away from the La Brea Tar Pits.[26][28] In June 2014, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved $5 million for LACMA to continue its proposed plans to tear down the structures on the east end of its campus for a single museum building.[44] In 2010 LACMA partnered with the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department in an effort to ensure the preservation of the Watts Towers, offering its staff, expertise, and fundraising assistance.[55] The Modern Art collection is displayed in the Ahmanson Building, which was renovated in 2008 to have a new entrance featuring a large staircase, conceived as a gathering place similar to Rome's Spanish Steps.[57] The collection includes 20 works by Picasso, watercolors and paintings by Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky and a considerable number of sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, Constantin Brâncuși, Henry Moore, Willem de Kooning, Joan Miró, Louise Nevelson, Archipenko, and Arp.Many recent additions to the collection were financed by sales of works from an 1,800 piece holding of 20th century Mexican art compiled by dealer-collectors Bernard and Edith Lewin and given to the museum in 1997.[65] The museum's pre-Columbian collection began in the 1980s with the first installment of a 570-piece gift from Southern California collector Constance McCormick Fearing and the purchase of about 200 pieces from L.A. businessman Proctor Stafford.In 1999 LACMA trustee Eric Lidow and his wife, Leza, donated 75 ancient Chinese works valued at a total of $3.5 million, including important bronze objects and prime examples of Buddhist sculpture.A large portion of the museum's ancient Greek and Roman art collection was donated by William Randolph Hearst, the publishing magnate, in the late 1940s and early 1950s.[69] With a single acquisition in 2009, LACMA became a major center for the study and display of 18th- and 19th-century European clothing when it bought the holdings of dealers Martin Kamer of London and Wolfgang Ruf of Beckenried, Switzerland—about 250 outfits and 300 accessories created between 1700 and 1915, including men's three-piece suits, women's dresses, children's garb, and a vast array of shoes, hats, purses, shawls, fans, and undergarments.[75] Eli and Edythe Broad contributed $10 million to fund the purchase of Richard Serra's Band sculpture, on display on the first floor of BCAM when the building opened.[60][76] Surrounding the BCAM building and LACMA's courtyard is a 100 palm tree garden, designed by artist Robert Irwin and landscape architect Paul Comstock.Originally Jeff Koons' Tulips (1995–2004) sculpture was inside the Grand Entrance building and Charles Ray's Fire Truck (1993) was outside in the courtyard, both lent by the Broad Art Foundation.Among the 3,500 master prints are works by Steichen, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Eugène Atget, Imogen Cunningham, Catherine Opie, Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, Ave Pildas[90] and Man Ray.The decision drew widespread criticism from cinephiles, including film director Martin Scorsese, who wrote an open protest letter that was published in the Los Angeles Times.[57] In 2002 the Annenberg Foundation gave the museum $10 million to establish a special endowment fund to support exhibitions, art acquisitions and educational programs at the discretion of its director.[98][99] In 1996 the museum suffered yet another serious blow when the Gilbert Collection of Italian mosaics and other decorative objects, promised as an eventual bequest, and parts of which had been on display for decades, was withdrawn.Hammer's collection included works from Van Gogh, John Singer Sargent, Thomas Eakins, Gustave Moreau, Edgar Degas, and Paul Cézanne.[102] Between 1972 and 2020, the Ahmanson Foundation spent about $130 million to finance the museum's acquisitions of 99 artworks, including masterpieces like Magdalene with the Smoking Flame by Georges de La Tour, others by Rembrandt, Watteau and Bernini, and a suite of 42 French oil sketches.[108] Each year a distinguished group of donors contributes directly to the enrichment of LACMA's permanent collection through participation in the Collectors Committee, creating a fund to spend on art through purchasing tickets ranging between $15,000 and $60,000[109] for the event.Each curator has roughly five minutes to plead their case to the patrons, who vote later that day at a black-tie gala event at the museum on which artworks should become the next acquisitions for the permanent collection.[112] Inaugurated in 2011, the annual Art + Film Gala dinner features entertainment by international artists and is designed to help the museum shore up support from Hollywood leaders.[117] Gala honorees have included Judy Baca and David Fincher in 2023;[118] Helen Pashgian and Park Chan-wook in 2022;[114] Betye Saar and Alfonso Cuaron in 2019;[119] Catherine Opie and Guillermo del Toro in 2018;[115] Mark Bradford and George Lucas in 2017;[120] Kathryn Bigelow and Robert Irwin in 2016;[121] Alejandro González Iñárritu and James Turrell in 2015;[122] Barbara Kruger and Quentin Tarantino in 2014; Martin Scorsese and David Hockney in 2013; the late Stanley Kubrick and Ed Ruscha in 2012; and Clint Eastwood and John Baldessari in 2011.[129] Andrea Rich won praise for doubling the museum's endowment, to more than $100 million, and for increasing attendance and pursuing programs and acquisitions that might appeal to the varied segments of the city's diverse population, like Islamic, Latin American and Korean art.
Wilshire Boulevard
and the Art Museum in 1965
Purchased with funds provided by Lillian Apodaca Weiner (M.2003.77).
Wilshire BoulevardCoordinatesArt museumMichael GovanWilliam PereiraBruce GoffWilshire/FairfaxMiracle MileLa Brea Tar PitsLos Angeles Museum of History, Science and Artthe largest art museumart exhibitsExposition ParkUniversity of Southern CaliforniaEdward W. CarterJ. Paul GettyArdabil CarpetRembrandtown art museumHoward F. Ahmanson, Sr.Bart LyttonNational Gallery of ArtLincoln CenterLos Angeles Music CenterLyttonArmand HammerLudwig Mies van der RoheLos Angeles TimesDel E. Webb Corporationparking garageBarry McGeeMargaret KilgallenRobert O. AndersonPavilion for Japanese ArtB. Gerald CantorbronzesHancock ParkLaurie OlinJackie Ferraraformer May Company department store buildingstreamline moderneAlbert C. Martin Sr.Rem KoolhaasJean NouvelSteven HollDaniel LibeskindThom MayneRenzo Pianograffiti artBroad Contemporary Art MuseumEli and Edy BroadJames Turrellformer May Company buildingFairfax AvenueThe Academy Museum of Motion PicturesPritzker PrizePeter ZumthorSkidmore, Owings & MerrillPage MuseumLos Angeles County Board of SupervisorsChristopher KnightLos AngelesCity of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs DepartmentWatts TowersElaine WynnSymphony ParkArt BridgesTerra Foundation for American ArtLancaster Museum of Art and HistoryRiverside Art MuseumVincent Price Art MuseumEast Los Angeles CollegeCalifornia State University, NorthridgeMaurice Tuchman1970 World ExpositionCharles Wilbert WhiteDavid HammonsTreasures of TutankhamunVincent van Goghthe artist's eponymous Amsterdam museumTim BurtonStanley KubrickList of painters in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art collectionsThe BroadSpanish StepsJanice and Henri Lazarof CollectionHenri LazarofPicassoPaul KleeWassily KandinskyAlberto GiacomettiConstantin BrâncușiHenry MooreWillem de KooningJoan MiróLouise NevelsonArchipenkoJasper JohnsSam FrancisFrank StellaLari PittmanChris BurdenRichard SerraJohn ChamberlainMatthew BarneyJeff KoonsClaes OldenburgCy TwomblyEdward KienholzDiego RiveraDonelson HoopesBernard and Edith Lewinpre-ColumbianJorge PardoOtis ChandlerNayaritLatin American artBernard LewinMiguel CabreraJosé de IbarraJosé de PáezRufino TamayoFrancis AlÿsChola dynastyNatarajaBak Jeonghui