Groundhog Day 2026
Los Angeles is the city of the future.
—David Geffen, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 4, 2018
We’re a much younger metropolis than New York. Our institutions are still very young and developing.
—Michael Govan in Vogue, Sep. 2, 2025
Anyone who doesn’t think of Los Angeles as an arts capital of the world at this point just isn’t paying attention.
—Time Out Los Angeles, Jan. 16, 2026
Although Eli Broad’s original vision of Grand Street becoming a cultural hub and economic driver for Downtown LA has not fully happened (yet!), it is closer to becoming one that it was a decade ago.
—Forbes magazine, Sep. 21, 2025
Los Angeles is now the contemporary art capital of the world.
—Eli Broad in The New York Times, Oct. 12, 2017
It is hard to believe that Los Angeles didn’t really have a contemporary art museum before LACMA opened in 1965. Over the years the William Pereira designed campus meant to invoke an “art acropolis” with gleaming modernist buildings… created no excitement and no cohesion.
—Forbes magazine, July 10, 2025
Los Angeles isn’t an egghead place, and no one expects the local civic museum to do Nobel-caliber scholarship.… Museums in Southern California compete with the best weather in the world and hundreds of miles of sandy beaches…
—Brian T. Allen, National Review, July 29, 2021
This decade has seen Los Angeles cement its place as, no question, the cultural equal of New York.
—Jason Farago, The New York Times, Sep. 12, 2018
Looking back at his tenure here, [LACMA Director Earl. A.] Powell sees himself as having been in Los Angeles during a time the city came of age culturally.
—William Wilson in Los Angeles Times, Aug. 5, 1992
Presumably the Los Angeles Museum dreams of itself as a West Coast counterpart of New York's Metropolitan.
—The New York Times, Nov. 6, 1966
Given the location of [LACMA], the population it serves and the resources of this population, which has already been proved, plus the excellent start in the nature of the collections, the opportunity is unique to create the kind of museum which the Metropolitan is for New York or the Philadelphia Museum is for Pennsylvania.
—LACMA press release, June 19, 1965
Comments
> that Los Angeles didn’t
> really have a contemporary
> art museum before
> LACMA opened in 1965.
- Forbes, 2025
LOL. You can say that again. Then again, contemporary is easier to pull off for a provincial, municipal-type museum. Art made in the past few decades is generally cheaper and easier to both buy and put on display.
Also, the supply of contemporary is as plentiful as what's available at the LA Art Show each January. Not to mention the annual show in Miami.
So, Michael Govan, please a lot more exhibits that riff on, for example, the chandeliers in NYC's Met Opera.
William Pereira in 1965 regrettably designed a "tract house" museum, whereas Peter Zumthor in 2026 may have regrettably designed a "Public Storage" museum. That's why newer art looking good in exhibit spaces of BCAM or the Resnick whereas older works in the Geffen won't ("what's with all the gray concrete?!") will be Groundhog Day 1965 and Groundhog Day 2026.
Sarcasm aside, I saw a video of the older campus and, whoa, it really was weaker than I remembered is as. Even though Pereira's design has long been described warily or negatively, familiarity breeds both contempt and also complacency.
I don't take his assessment seriously enough to mount a counteroffense.
Only last year, New York saw the reopening of The Studio Museum in Harlem, which has blown my mind with the rich, rich, rich legacy Black artists have contributed to New York culture. It's the best arts-related thing that's happened in New York in years.
When the former LA Times art critic wrote LACMA "might be a de facto museum of contemporary art, but frankly it's not a very good one," I got what he meant---but more vaguely than precisely. Only after seeing the special exhibition schedule of the Metropolitan for the past few years did I totally get his point.
LA museums are "young" and "developing." LACMA moved to its current location in 1965. At the time, Norton Simon was the only one of the trustees who had a credible collection of old masters. His collection was something of a miracle because by 1970 it was a fait accompli. Almost all the quantity/quality was locked up in museums and the more aggressive entry of auction houses into the market raised prices on the few remaining pieces. It's against that backdrop that people here have to understand LACMA's and even the Getty's difficulty in creating comprehensive European collections with all the great masters.
Having said that, it's also true that LA is an arts capital. Since at least 2010, if you did not leave this city and just bought the best artists from local galleries, you would have a world-class collection today. The entry fee in 2010 was a meager $6,000 and the supply/quality was superb. Sorry if you missed out because you kept thinking that New York was better than LA.
--- J. Garcin
I'm not clear what you mean. An encyclopedic European painting collection would span Giotto to Gerhard Richter. Who in LA was selling that lot, at any price? There are scores of master painters, even today, whose works are still missing at the Met. [I keep a list.]
Getty has more money than God. If such a feat were realizable, as you say, Getty would have surpassed anything in this country. That clearly has not happened.
And, agreed: LA is an arts capital. Farago's making LA equivalent to New York culturally is impossible. Just sayin'.
... As to the disparity between New York and LA, New York benefits from a large number of Ivy League grads who are indoctrinated at those schools to collect art and support all sorts of cultural endeavors. Their presence has a disciplining effect on almost everyone with money in New York.
We don't have that here. The market for art has developed critical mass, but it's still not as well-educated. Hence, the level of discourse is more basic. There is no equivalent here of the John Walsh, public lectures at the Yale Art Gallery. Remember he was once the Director of the Getty Museum.
Sadly, the public discourse here has gotten almost no assist from the local newspapers. I think you've seen the interactive close readings of paintings in the New York Times. There is no equivalent of that in the LA Times.
It was the New York Times that first interviewed Zumthor about his design for LACMA. It's worth the read. In that article, Zumthor compared the form to that of a tree. From the LA Times and its hacks, what we got instead were diatribes about moose antlers/blobs and the destruction of the encyclopedic museum. It’s shameful and regressive. It should therefore come as no surprise that the public does not know better.
That leaves the gallerists to do most of the heavy lifting. But their audience is limited. Plus, they are more prone to prioritize sales over education, hence the local frenzy over Mark Grotjahn. His work is pretty and instagrammable, but otherwise boring. You can tell by the amount of curatorial support his work has gotten in New York, almost none.
On that note, LA lacks a Marian Goodman, the legendary New York gallerist. Her gallery represents one of the artists I collect. She never chased trends/fads and developed markets for artists whose work she found challenging. Buying art in LA can feel like a con game. Dealers validate vanity and greed, more than the art.
But New York is not perfect either. See the New Museum. I also don’t think that New York has a great museum space. It has great museum rooms, but not an entire building. I also think that the collection disparity (Greater LA museum vs Greater NY museum) would not be as remarkable if LA museums did a better job of backfilling with intellectual programming. With more scholarly lecture series, noteworthy traveling exhibitions/loan agreements, and catalogues/publications, LA could close most of the gap. There is hope for us yet.
--- J. Garcin
On your 11:05 AM reply, we wholly agree.
A few of my faves:
The East Room at the Morgan (The Original Library):
https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/online/bookmans-paradise/the-east-room
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The west Gallery at The Frick:
https://evergreene.com/projects/west-gallery-ceiling/
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The American Wing Atrium at the Met:
https://www.metmuseum.org/departments/the-american-wing
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The Temple of Dendur:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/547802
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The Merode Room at The Cloisters:
https://www.metmuseum.org/audio-guide/73