LACMA Plans Geffen Preview for Mid 2025
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| Walter De Maria's The 2000 Sculpture (1992) as installed in the Resnick Pavilion, LACMA, 2012 |
The memo, addressed to LACMA staff, discusses plans to briefly allow the public inside the Peter Zumthor-designed building next summer before installation of the permanent collection. This could offer "programming that takes advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity to work with the empty building." LACMA offered a similar preview of the Renzo Piano's Resnick Pavilion in 2012-13, displaying Walter De Maria's The 2000 Sculpture inside the otherwise empty structure.
I didn't see this coming: The e-mail says they're contemplating a dedicated space for European paintings and sculptures donated by the Ahmanson Foundation.
Some would say don't chase 'em, replace 'em. The Ahmanson really does seem to have moved on. Speaking of donors and demands, in 2014 Jerry Perenchio pledged his Impressionist and Modern collection to LACMA on the condition that the new building is completed by the end of 2023. There was also talk of some undisclosed wiggle room to that deadline. The Ragheb memo projects that the Geffen Galleries will receive a temporary certificate of occupancy by May 28, 2025.
Comments
The article also mentions "perimeter curtains for light control in galleries." The exterior wall of floor-to-ceiling windows probably will do to the Geffen what the originally open sides of the atrium were to the 1965-era Ahmanson Gallery.
As for a dedicated space for works given by the Ahmanson Foundation, shouldn't that be done in general for all art based on culture and periods of time? Although if LACMA is trying to do rapprochement with the foundation, and since the museum has never been loaded down with benefactors, that makes sense.
However, for exhibition formats beyond works given by the Ahmanson, merely because a living artist (or one from the past 50-75 years) happens to come from country A or country B, his or her art shouldn't be mixed in with older periods of artwork merely they originate from the same culture or country. That actually is patronizing, an odd form of segregation.
Incidentally, Elaine Wynn's $50 million gift, announced at the same time, was also said to be contingent. Of course, she's getting a pretty good quid pro quo with the collection sharing for Las Vegas.