"During my directorship, I was approached many times by trustees or Hollywood individuals asking us to hold exhibitions of entertainers who make paintings or sculpture, I would discuss with curators: do we want to do that? And I would have to make the phone call: we do not want to do that. The great museum director Martin Friedman, who grew up in LA, gave me one piece of advice when I was moving here. He said: 'Richard, art can sometimes be entertaining, but entertainment is never art.'"
In
an interview with Jori Finkel, Koshalek offers advice for MOCA's incoming director Klaus Biesenbach. (Shown, Bernhard Wilhelm's bodysuit for Björk's
Volta album. Gail Worley photo.)
Comments
The building on Grand Avenue also needs to be larger. It's overly modest in space so a visit is less satisfactory. Even the larger Broad - and even though it's also at least free - still can come off like a "is that it?"
Look at the neighboring Colburn School. They opened on Grand Ave well after MOCA, yet in that time they've managed to at least expand their footprint. The school's original auditorium, rehearsal halls and classrooms were added to with a dormitory, a library and more practice halls. They're now planning to (assuming they're successful) build another auditorium, more dorms and new performance-practice-classroom spaces.
To the people at MOCA, you snooze, you lose.