Hammer Acquisitions 2024

Catherine Opie, Sixth Street Bridge, 2022/2024. Hammer Museum. Purchased through the Board of Advisors Acquisition Fund with additional funds provided by Curt Shepard and Alan Hergott, and Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy

This year the Hammer Contemporary Collection added star works by Los Angeles and global artists, including Catherine Opie's luminous pigment print photograph of downtown's Sixth Street Bridge. The biggest acquisition news was the Mohn Art Collective (MAC3). As announced in August, Jarl and Pamela Mohn donated a 260-piece collection of contemporary L.A. art to the joint ownership and management of the Hammer, LACMA, and MOCA. The Mohns supplied an endowment, and the Hammer dedicated 80 works it had collected from "Made in L.A." biennales to the collective. MAC3 has acquired at least 16 works from "Made in L.A. 2023," including Guadalupe Rosales' Untitled (Quetzalcoatl). 

Guadalupe Rosales, Untitled (Quetzalcoatl); Donde el cielo se une con el mar, 2023. Purchased with funds provided by the Mohn Family Trust

Nairy Baghramian, Scruff of the Neck (AP), 2016. Purchased with funds provided by Susan and Larry Marx, in honor of Ann Philbin

Separately, the Hammer Contemporary Collection added numerous works by purchase and gift. One is Nairy Baghramian's 11-ft.-wide construction of cast and polished aluminum, plaster, beeswax, and rubber. Evoking dental work and vulnerability, it's a gift in honor of departing Hammer Museum director Ann Philbin from Susan and Larry Marx.

Alison Saar, Stubborn and Kinky, 2023. Purchased through the Board of Advisors Acquisition Fund

Alison Saar's Stubborn and Kinky will go on view at the Hammer Jan. 18, 2025, in a 3-sculpture installation with pieces by Jennifer Boland and Mona Hatoum. 

Chris Johanson, Untitled, 2023. Purchased with funds provided by the Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach Directors

Carlos Almaraz, Untitled (in the beginning), 1970. Purchased through the Board of Advisors Acquisition Fund

Marjorie Cameron, Sun Horse, 1952. Gift of Barbara Guggenheim Patricof and Alan Patricof

The buzz for Cameron continues to build, despite the fact that few museums own her works. Sun Horse is an early oil-on-board painting, and it's the Hammer's first piece by the artist.

Edouard Manet, Dead Toreador, about 1867-1868. Etching. Grunwald Center Collection, purchased with funds provided by the Helga K. and Walter Oppenheimer Acquisition Fund

The Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts added several choice European prints, thanks to the Oppenheimer Acquisition Fund. Among them are two tragically recumbent visions of death, separated by nearly three centuries.

Hendrick Goltzius, Pieta, about 1596. Grunwald Center Collection, purchased with funds provided by the Helga K. and Walter Oppenheimer Acquisition Fund