With no fanfare until now, LACMA has received a gift of over 100 works from the trust of legendary photography collector Stephen Reinstein (1953–2017). In what the museum is billing as a pop-up show, a selection of works from the Reinstein bequest are on view in the Study Center for Photography and Works on Paper. (At top, Irving Penn's
Hell's Angel, Doug, San Francisco, 1967.)
Reinstein, a New York-born real estate developer, began collecting photography in the 1990s. He was on the photography councils of LACMA and the Getty, and was a board member of the Museum of Latin American Art. His collecting strategy was Wagstaffian. He sought unique, high-quality works (but not necessarily "famous" images); he did not concentrate on any single subject, theme, or artist. The LACMA gift includes work by 70 artists, so most are represented by a single exceptional print. The selection currently on view spans Richard Avedon, Jo Ann Callis, Bruce Davidson, John Divola, Robert Mapplethorpe, Pierre Moliner, Tomoko Sawada, and Sebastiao Selgado. A notable share of the artists work in Los Angeles.
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| Anthony Lepore, Blue Print (Bikini), 2015 |
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| Marco Breuer, Untitled (C-737), 2007 |
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| Robert Mapplethorpe, Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter, 1979 |
The Reinstein gift is a major boost to the museum's holdings of contemporary photography. But as to the present showing, if you snooze, you lose. It's on view only through next Sunday, Sep. 23 (in the Art of the Americas building, adjacent to the "3D" show).
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