Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum founded in Los Angeles in 1910 . It is located on Wilshire Boulevard in Hancock Park and borders La Brea . The museum's collection includes over 130,000 works from antiquity to the present day . This makes it the largest museum in the United States west of Chicago. The collection on American, Islamic and Korean art is particularly extensive and important.
history
The origins of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art go back to the Museum of Science, History and Art, founded in 1910 . The museum, located in Exposition Park in South Los Angeles , initially had neither a purchase budget nor its own art collection. Initially, private loans came to the exhibition, which were supplemented by donations in the 1920s and 1930s. In addition, the museum received financial support from private sources and was able to make its first purchases. One of the fastest growing areas of the collection was the Asian art department. For the growing collection, the original museum building was expanded by a wing.
In the decade after the end of the Second World War , the collection expanded mainly to include traditional works of American and European art as well as Egyptian art objects. Donations from William Randolph Hearst played an important role. In addition, the Board of Trustees began to consider establishing an independent art museum. For this purpose, Allan Hancock donated a piece of land on Wilshire Boulevard. In 1961 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was made independent from the Museum of Natural History . The Board of Trustees planned a museum that would rank high among the art history museums.
In 1965, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened at its current location in the three museum buildings designed by William Pereira . At the time, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was the largest newly built museum in the United States after the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC . The permanent exhibition of the museum collection was shown in the Ahmanson Building at the time, while special exhibitions were presented in the Hammer Building . In addition, the Bing Theater was a hall for lectures. Two years after opening, in 1967, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art set up its own center for the conservation and restoration of the collection.
In 1986, the Modern Art and Contemporary Art building on Wilshire Boulevard was completed. In 1988 the Pavilion of Japanese Art designed by Bruce Goff and the B. Gerald Cantor Sculpture Garden opened . A year later, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art continued to expand and renovate the Balch Art Research Library . The museum acquired the adjoining May Department Stores building in 1991 and 1992, increasing its area by 30 percent. The building opened in 1998 and is known as LACMA West . In 2000, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was renovated again and the surrounding park replanted. In addition, a board of trustees for Latin American art was created and an amphitheater opened for open-air events.
In 2004 the board of trustees decided to redesign the museum under the direction of the architect Renzo Piano . This move is intended to develop the Los Angeles County Museum of Art into one of the leading art museums in the United States and strengthen its role as a major cultural institution in California. US $ 188 million was donated for the remodeling. The redesign took place in three phases, ended in 2011 and was supported by BP among others .
Museum building
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is located in Hancock Park , which is also home to the famous La Brea tar pits . The area bounded by Wilshire Boulevard, 6th Street, Fairfax and Curson Avenue covers 20 acres , which corresponds to approximately 81,000 square meters. At the opening there were the Ahmanson Building , the Hammer Building and the Bing Center , which were designed by the architect William Pereira . These offered space for the permanent exhibition of the museum collection, as well as temporary and special exhibitions. The Bing Center also offered space for lectures.
Over time, the complex was expanded to include additional buildings as the collection continued to grow. So in 1986 a building was built on Wilshire Boulevard that houses the collection of modern art. Two years later, the Pavilion of Japanese Art and the B. Gerald Cantor Sculpture Garden , designed by Bruce Goff , followed. The adjacent May Department Stores building was acquired and remodeled by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1991/1992 . When the building opened in 1998 as LACMA West , the exhibition area increased by 30%. In addition to the museum buildings, the area also includes a park that was replanted and redesigned in 2000.
The museum complex of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is currently being redesigned according to plans by Renzo Piano . In the first phase of the renovation, there will be a new entrance building with the BP Grand Entrance , which is named after the donor BP . This will link the buildings of the museum with each other and thus give the visitor additional orientation. The atrium of the Ahmanson Building is also to be converted and integrated into a new tour. A large staircase should serve this purpose. The light falling through the ceiling is intended to create a pleasant atmosphere for concerts and other events. Furthermore, the permanent exhibition will be presented anew, and additional parking facilities will be created. In the second phase, LACMA West is to be renovated and new exhibition space created. In the third, major renovations are to be carried out on all buildings and galleries in the eastern part of the museum complex. In the last two redesign phases, works of art are also to be installed in the park. The Oscar Academy is being built on the site of the museum according to plans by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. The film museum, which is calculated at around 250 million dollars, is due to open in 2016.
The Swiss architect Peter Zumthor has been planning a replacement building for the Ahmanson, Art of the Americas and Hammer Buildings as well as the Bing Center since 2013 .
collection
The collection covers the following areas:
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Library
The Mr. and Mrs. Balch Art Research Library contains 175,000 books, newspapers and magazines. It includes monographs on individual artists and art styles, collection and exhibition catalogs from museums and private collectors, as well as auction catalogs and other works dealing with art and works of art. The library is located in the Bing Center and is publicly accessible after registration.
literature
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collection. Thames & Hudson, 2003.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ lacma.org, accessed on October 25, 2007 ( memento of the original from January 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ BP gives $ 25 million to LA county art museum
- ↑ Transformation: The LACMA Campaign ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung Newsticker from October 20, 2012 ( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 34 ° 3 '47.9 " N , 118 ° 21' 28.9" W.