Confirmed: LACMA Gets Pearlman van Gogh, Manet
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| Vincent van Gogh, Tarascon Stagecoach, 1888. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, promised gift to LACMA |
An article in today's Los Angeles Times and a three-museum press release confirms the gift of works from the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation to LACMA, MoMA, and the Brooklyn Museum. LACMA will be getting van Gogh's Tarascon Stagecoach and Manet's Young Woman in a Round Hat. These become the museum's first paintings by the two artists. MoMA will receive 28 works, focusing on Cézanne. That includes the Pearlmans' paintings of Mount Sainte-Victoire and Cistern in the Park of Château Noir, plus numerous first-rate watercolors. The Brooklyn Museum is to get 29 works, among them Modigliani's portrait of Jean Cocteau and paintings by Chaim Soutine.
The press release says that the "entire collection" is being dispersed to the three museums. The Pearlman works have been on loan to Princeton University Art Gallery since the 1970s. All the gifts are described as part of "a novel sharing arrangement" whereby the museums will lend works to each other or elsewhere when not on view at the home institution.
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| Édouard Manet, Young Woman in a Round Hat, about 1877-79. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation |
Other LACMA gifts are by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Alfred Sisley, Maurice Prendergast, and Wilhelm Lehmbruck. The Sisley is an 1889 River View, and the Toulouse-Lautrec is a late painting of the opera Messelina. The artist produced six paintings of that luridly gaslit production, one already in the LACMA collection. The sole American work is a Prendergast watercolor of the Brittany coast. The Lehmbruck, a cast stone torso, is LACMA's first sculpture by the artist.
Henry and Rose Pearlman are long gone. A grandson, Daniel Edelman, now lives in Los Angeles and is president of the Pearlman Foundation. According to Jessica Gelt's L.A. Times piece, rising insurance and transportation costs made it difficult to keep up the Foundation's active loan program. Here's a statement I didn't expect to see: "[Michael] Govan's commitment to fostering satellite locations around Los Angeles, including in South L.A., was one of the reasons LACMA ended up with a gift, Edelman said." Govan's edgy museology may have sent the Ahmanson Foundation packing, but in this case it scored a win.
Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak calls the Pearlman gifts "the most significant addition to our European art holdings in nearly a century." For LACMA, a younger institution, the Manet and van Gogh gifts are even more pivotal. It is one thing for a big American museum to lack a Raphael or Vermeer. To not have a Manet and van Gogh is kind of embarrassing. Hopes that the Impressionist holdings of Norton Simon, Armand Hammer, and even Walter Annenberg might end up at LACMA failed to pan out.
Meanwhile the Perenchio collection of Impressionist and modern art is expected to come to LACMA with the opening of the David Geffen Galleries. The Pearlman and Perenchio collections are in some ways complementary. The Perenchio collection has three Monets, a Caillebotte, and a great Degas mixed-media picture, but no van Gogh. It has a Manet pastel but not an oil.
A farewell tour of the full Pearlman collection, "Village Square: Gifts of Modern Art from the Pearlman Collection to the Brooklyn Museum, LACMA, and MoMA," will open at LACMA (Feb. 22 to July 6, 2026) and travel to the Brooklyn Museum in fall 2026. MoMA is also planning an exhibition of its Pearlman gifts.
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| Alfred Sisley, River View, 1889. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation |
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| Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Messalina, 1900-01. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation |
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| Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Sea and Boats, about 1907. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation |
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| Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Torso of a Young Woman, 1910. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation |
Comments
Why would they not have something prepped and in the can to post the minute everything was official?
I want a list of works and their destinations. Is that asking too much?
Bad outcome for Princeton. Their collection was already inferior to Yale's and Harvard's. Hard to backfill for Van Gogh and Cezanne.
--- J. Garcin
I don't hold with the comment that Princeton's collection was "already inferior to Yale's and Harvard's." But given the grievous loss of this essential collection, I now tend to agree.
Who gets the Pissarro still life?
> first paintings by the two
> important artists.
Jeez, the first Van Gogh and Manet? I keep forgetting just how meager LACMA's collection has been.
The overseers of the Pearlman collection say that LACMA wanting to have satellite exhibits in undeserved communities affected their decision. Other collectors generally want to give strength to strength. Or give coals to Newcastle.
This may be the first major time the immaturity of Los Angeles's main public-owned cultural institution has helped, not hindered, the outcome. As opposed to decades ago when LA lost the Walter Arensberg, Edward G Robinson or Walter Annenberg collection. The latter was a real kick in the butt---his collection is now sort of lost in the Met.
After witnessing what the Louvre is all about, sometimes too much can be as strangely unpleasant as too little is. Or sort of like walking into a room where a woman is wearing way too much perfume.
I recall a person into the visual arts several years ago describing the Louvre as overkill and at the time didn't understand what she meant.
As for the recent death of Walter Annenberg's daughter, that has been duly noted by LACMA.
People like the Gambles (of Procter and Gamble) decades ago had winter homes in the LA area.
If it were painted nowadays, maybe some type of graffiti on the sidewalk or a passed-out guy lying around? lol.
https://beverlypress.com/2024/09/lacma-campus-comes-into-focus/
Unlikely. But at any event, I don't see how: The gifts are conditional. That is, if MoMA doesn't keep its Pearlman gifts on view, it must allow the 2 other recipient museums the right to exhibit the foundation gifts, assuring nothing of the collection gets taken off view for any undue time.
> bequest was on track.
Even though the Pereira/Hardy-Holzman-Pfeiffer buildings were a mish-mosh and not very sleek, sentimentality for them made me way too comfortable with LACMA's pre-2020 status quo. I still think Govan/LA officials and their work with Zumthor have not properly crossed all the t's and dotted the i's, but items from a Perenchio or Pearlman collection, etc, deserve way better than the 1965-1986 campus.
The way the Broad, Resnick and Japanese (Price) buildings are going to integrate with (or not) the Geffen is now a big question. The current modern-art galleries in the Broad look more refined in a traditional-museum way (walls, display stands, floor mounts, etc) than I'm guessing exhibit areas will be in the Geffen.
Another major question is whether too much gray concrete (and sunlight) is going to be a good background for a Van Gogh or Manet. While an arts-district-warehouse-Ikea-type look goes with contemporary, older periods of art may be another matter.
2 of those 3 museums are either for natural history (Moesgaard) or contemporary art (Still). Although the Kimbell in the Dallas area has a gray concrete ceiling, most of its walls are either of travertine or masonry.
As far as I know, LACMA will be the only art museum in the world that has gray concrete walls used to display older, non-modern, non-contemporary objects. I like to think that won't end up being a dubious distinction, but just as Pereira's architecture in 1965 had plenty of "oops!," I'm worried that Zumthor's architecture in 2026 will be the same way..
I don't trust Govan and his staffers to offset that by having exactly the best judgment or making the best decisions. So whether the Van Gogh, etc, etc, etc, is A- or B-grade (or C-grade) or not, it may not be enhanced by the galleries of the Geffen.
When the Frick Collection was temporarily on display at the Breuer Building (former home of the Whitney), the gallery walls were painted grey. The display got positive reviews.
The Piano Pavilion (Kimbell Museum) has gray concrete walls. Titanium was added to the concrete mix to make it easier to repair.
The Kahn Building (Yale Art Gallery) has a masonry wall. Yale hangs art on this wall in two ways, directly and on grey panels.
--- J. Garcin
I'd like to see effective displays of non-contemporary art or, as another example, non-ancient-Egyptian art in the overall setting of gray concrete floors, gray concrete walls and gray concrete ceilings.
However, Zumthor is reportedly looking at coloring some of the walls of the Geffen. What that will involve (dyes? paint?) is anyone's guess.
The display cases or stands throughout the Geffen apparently will be of spindly or thin-metal-frame design, reminiscent of what might be picked up at an Ikea. That won't exactly evoke a big-time, A-to-Z-type museum. Which might be fine for a MOCA or Broad, but not so ideal for a LACMA.
Anyway, what a great gift to LACMA. This outcome is certainly better than what anyone could have expected with both the Van Gogh and Manet.
Van Gogh's most favored (and costly) pictures were largely made in the final 3 years of his life.
How many of this subset has been available for sale for Getty even to consider buying?
> no real substance behind the
> condition.
The blog Culturegrrl by Lee Rosenbaum has posted articles about how various museums are now way more likely to ignore or willfully disregard legal stipulations agreed to by donors or benefactors and the institution they're working with.
With the demolition of the 1965-1986 campus of LACMA and all its buildings and galleries named for benefactors, I wonder how their gift-giving will be either remembered or totally plowed under (as the Pereira-Hardy-Pfiffer structures were) in the new Geffen Galleries layout?
If no effort is made to commemorate all the philanthropists of the museum since 1965, that will be a slap in their face, sort of unethical or a case of not caring about an institution's history. It will be similar to how the AMPAS museum opened and intentionally ignored the history of moguls (who happened to be Jews) in the early movie industry.
Meanwhile, Govan had better repair LACMA's relationship with the Ahmanson Foundation. If not, it will be likely due to his being way too much a fan of contemporary art, which admittedly allows for a lower-budget way of running a museum. But that will make LACMA just one more blur in the local scene of new hip-trendy art.
I think the Broad building was originally set aside for contemporary art, more like the setup of the Broad Museum in downtown LA compared with the way LACMA's Broad is currently organized. Not sure how much of a contemporary-only format was or wasn't legally stipulated by the benefactor.
A lot of contemporary art is also often inserted into the Resnick, which has always been for temporary or traveling shows.
Contemporary artworks will also apparently be installed in sections of the Geffen Galleries. So between the three buildings, way too much newer art is going to be throughout LACMA.
The only good thing about older-era artworks exhibited in the Broad wing is its format allows for a more attractive (or traditional) setting for non-contemporary styles of objects. The Geffen, by contrast, seems like it will give off too much of the vibes of overbearing gray concrete. Although that's great for something like the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, It's less ideal for LACMA---unless it wants to be a contemporary art museum (but "not a very good one").
There is no discernible difference between gray-painted walls and gray concrete walls. In any case, it's the contrast that matters. At the Piano Pavilion, paintings are hung on the sides of the building. Those walls are made of concrete.
No, LACMA is NOT sourcing the display cases from IKEA. Saying that just makes you look like a fool who lives in his mother's basement.
The cheapest of the three was Meules (a gouache) for $35 million. Though not a painting, it has all the signature "marks" of a Van Gogh.
Also, at the canonical level is Le Pont because of the composition. The Stagecoach picture has a similar composition. But here is how one draws distinctions. In the Stagecoach picture, the roofline is a poor substitute for the line in Le Pont which constitutes the bridge.
--- J. Garcin
> the display cases from IKEA.
> Saying that just makes you
> look like a fool who lives in
> his mother's basement.
Damn, you're correct. LACMA apparently is getting its exhibit space's furnishings from Home Depot. My bad.
Why was this Manet from the Pearlman collection being billed by Govan as "the first to ebter the collection?"