The L.A. Times is reporting that the Broad was the buyer of Mark Bradford's
Helter Skelter I,
auctioned at Philips London March 8 for $12 million. At 34 feet wide, it's one of Bradford's largest collage-paintings, and the auction price was described as the highest ever for a living African-American. The sale also drew attention because of the seller, tennis star John McEnroe. McEnroe had said he hoped
Helter Skelter would go to a museum.
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| Helter Skelter I as installed in John McEnroe's New York home |
Also acquired by the Broad in the past year are Sam Francis'
Why Then Opened II, 1962-63 (
another auction purchase, for $3.8 million); Julie Mehretu's
Congress (2003); the institition's first Kerry James Marshall painting and its umpteenth Jeff Koons sculpture; Sherrie Levine's
After Russell Lee 1-60, a 2016 work reproducing a 1940 series of color photographs of Pie Town, N.M., by FSA photographer Lee; and what may be the biggest news for some, a second Yayoi Kusama infinity room,
Longing for Eternity (2017). Evidently the Broad is betting that this infinity-eternity thing has legs.
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| Sam Francis, Why Then Opened II, 1962-63 |
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| Julie Mehretu, Congress, 2003 |
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| Kerry James Marshall, untitled, 2017 |
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| Jeff Koons, Ballerinas, 2010-14 |
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| Detail of Sherrie Levine, After Russell Lee, 1-60, 2016 |
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| Yayoi Kusama, Longing for Eternity, 2017 |
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| Yayoi Kusama, Longing for Eternity, 2017 |
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