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| Auguste Rodin, The Shade (modeled about 1880, enlarged about 1901, 1969 cast) and Marsyas [Torso of "The Falling Man"] (modeled 1880s, 1970 cast). LACMA, gifts of B. Gerald Cantor Art Foundation |
LACMA is reinstalling its Rodin sculpture garden north of Wilshire, outside the David Geffen Galleries. The works are posthumous bronze casts donated by financier B. Gerald Cantor
and wife Iris from 1973 to 1990.
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| L–R: Tony Smith's Smoke and Rodin's Jean de Fiennes, Monument to Balzac, Orpheus, and The Prodigal Son |
Comments
People managing the museum who should be skilled when it comes to so-called aesthetics but who themselves may not be as professional (or sophisticated) as they should be, however, goes back decades. Not helped by the museum's budget (eg, historically modest endowment fund) and late start (ie, 1965).
I recall their original campus, including grounds and galleries, looking makeshift. Things like empty planters or work material stacked against outside walls, exhibit spaces set up in a funky way. Or just the opposite of what a top-notch museum (certainly physically) should be all about.
And after looking at Peter Zumthor's concrete-wall galleries in Europe, I wouldn't have immediately said, "that's what I want!"
William Pereira in 1965 was described as a compromise (Mies van der Rohe was the first choice), while Peter Zumthor in the 2020s is a choice of Michael Govan.
Oh, well, history may not repeat itself but it often rhymes.