LACMA to Show Two Collections of Contemporary Chinese Art

Contemporary Chinese art is to have a much stronger presence at LACMA in coming years. The Art Newspaper is reporting that LACMA has agreed to partner with Indonesian-Chinese collector Budi Tek and his Yuz Museum, Shanghai. In what Tek calls a "marriage," he intends to establish a foundation to hold his collection of about 1500 contemporary Chinese and Western works. The art will be "equally owned" by the Yuz and LACMA, and the two institutions will collaborate on programming and loans.

One thing they won't need to share: Random International's Rain Room. LACMA and the Yuz each have their own edition (out of eight produced).

Meanwhile LACMA has just announced its most important promised gift of Chinese contemporary art ever. Swiss collectors Gérard and Dora Cognié have pledged about 400 contemporary works, mostly Chinese and mostly in ink. Three examples are currently on view in "Wu Bin: Ten Views of a Lingbi Stone." A full survey of the collection is planned for 2021.

At top is one of the Cognié gifts, Qiu Zhijie’s Monuments: Revolutionary Slogans of Successive Dynasties (2007).