Geffen Preview
LACMA has begun previews of Peter Zumthor's David Geffen Galleries, full of music but empty of art. Some first reactions—
The construction fences have been removed to reveal the new, 900-ft-long building and much of its grounds. The staircases have rails. The concrete overhang has randomly placed light fixtures, intended to suggest a starry night that's rarely visible in urban L.A. Public mega-artworks by Tony Smith (Smoke) and Marianna Castillo Deball (Feathered Changes) are in place, along with new landscaping.
The elephant in Zumthor's big room is the concrete. It's mottled, water-stained, and in a few places rust-stained. The stains are not subtle. Are they a bug or feature? Zumthor says the raw surfaces are intentional, likening the building to pottery. Given that he's not been shy about speaking his mind on the building's cost-cutting, I'll take him at his word.
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| Close-up of an interior gallery wall |
The concrete's color had a long journey from the original black to various shades of tan to the final gray. I had felt the gray was the least interesting option, but seeing it changed my mind. It has a magical silvery quality that varies with the sunlight and position in the building.
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| Floor with shells (and cracks) |
The floor is a darker gray, verging on tar pit black, flecked with white seashells. Despite being concrete, it felt comfortable to walk on. The floor already has some cracks, an imperfection that's harder to shrug off as truth-to-materials.
It's a building of shadows. The peripheral space is sun-blasted, while interior spaces are steeped in chiaroscuro. The enclosed "core galleries"—Zumthor calls them "houses"—are positively sepulchral. Most have a single entrance.
I guess a faux tomb might provide ambiance for certain archaeological objects. But the core galleries are intended for the most light-sensitive works: Persian miniatures, Rembrandt etchings, Peruvian textiles, etc. Such objects, with their own directed lighting, would presumably soften the effect.
Some of the core galleries have a five-inch clerestory gap at the top. This brings in bluish light from the outside and livens up the overall vibe. (Value engineering forced Zumthor to scrap a set of tall galleries with clerestory windows.)
From the outside, the artificial light in the core rooms looks golden.
There were no curtains up for the media preview, nor did I notice any hardware for hanging them. But Zumthor—who used silk and leather curtains in his Kolumba Museum, Cologne—is planning curtains of a new, incredibly sheer fabric, made with chromium(!?) in Japan. Sample swatches don't seem to block much light at all, but they screen enough UV to protect artworks. The curtains will be deployed to protect more light-sensitive installations in the outer (terrace) galleries. The glass will be unshaded near seating to allow visitors to enjoy the view.
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| Terrace gallery view of Chris Burden's Urban Light and Renzo Piano's BCAM and Academy Museum |
I'm not sure I've heard anyone say they like the Wilshire-bridging design. It's been read as a Swiss outsider's ham-handed tribute to decades-old clichés of L.A. car culture.
But I don't think visitors will ultimately see it that way. Inside, the building levitates over the city, and while Wilshire is part of that, it doesn't particularly command attention. The most compelling views are of Museum Row itself, from the Academy Museum to the tar pits. There's a particularly striking view of Bruce Goff's Japanese Pavilion, whose upper reaches are nearly on the same level as the Geffen.
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| Japanese Pavilion view |
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| Tar pit view |
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| Tony Smith's Smoke, as installed adjacent to David Geffen Galleries |
Fun fact: Smoke is now only 10 feet from where it was previously, in the atrium of the (demolished) Ahmanson Building.
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| Marianna Castillo Deball, Feathered Changes, 2025 (very small detail) |
Free tours of the Geffen building are available to LACMA members on selected days through July 6. Reservations are required. A sold-out performance of Kamasi Washington's Harmony of Difference, with over a hundred musicians stationed throughout the Geffen, will be presented through June 28.
The Geffen is to open in April 2026.
Comments
That's why the reduction in gallery space will be greater than merely square footage alone. Or the Geffen having way less wall space than in the 1965-1986 buildings.
I can see some of the windows eventually being treated the way the openings surrounding the atrium of the Ahmanson Gallery were, which were sealed off in the 1980s.
The LA Times review today was preliminary, but its overall take seemed to be that the Geffen will satisfy most visitors. But the article ended with a word of caution about the possible meaning of 3 leading members of LACMA's staff recently leaving their jobs.
The way the building is programmed next year is the next test. But I can see some of LACMA's older, classical artworks (set against all the raw, gray concrete) looking like 85-year-old people who are dressed up as hipsters. Which hopefully won't add to the sense the museum is way too much into the au-courant and contemporary. Or for LA, same 'ol, same 'ol.
My first thought was mold covered most of the walls. Think water-damaged Ellis Island 60 years after it was abandoned and left to the elements.
Cracks on floors. Are they joking?
I cannot overstate my disappointment.
I'm so angry I could spit!
At the Salk Institute, the concrete walls are pitted, splotchy, and cracked. There are also places where the concrete is corrugated because it seeped between the forms.
Kahn liked the raw beauty of concrete. He did not like superficial finishes that concealed the structure and were merely decorative. ... Kahn thought that great architecture hinges on material authenticity. He got the idea in part from looking at Roman ruins.
For all of its apparent flaws, the Salk Institute is widely regarded as a masterpiece of modern architecture. In the long run, what mattered more was how it reinvented monastic forms and the classical colonnade and how the building manipulates light. In both ways, it foreshadows the Zumthor building for LACMA.
--- J. Garcin
The heartbreaking part of the project is that they've left the interior surfaces so beat up, and clammy, and dank-looking, I feel I'd only be safe if I were wearing a hazmat suit! A HAZMAT SUIT!
And the art be damned.
One of the greatest shames in architecture. A great opportunity lost. A great city disserved.
It will be interesting to see how it looks with art installed. I don’t find that these kinds of austere spaces work well with all kinds of art - baroque and rococo looks especially out of place to me, but it seems to work for most visitors (not me) at the similarly austere Kimbell museum, so perhaps it will work here too?
It's not bad, and it's much more grand and substantial than the previous building, but it's also not Kolumba. I'll hold back on my opinions until the art is installed and the grounds are landscaped and when there's a bit more context.
The actual LACMA interior is universes away from that.
> damned
Govan is a head-in-the-clouds-type guy whose creative and financial judgment tends to be flaky. He also hasn't been transparent (ie, dishonest?) for years about what he's doing to LACMA and all the details of his Zumthor building.
This quote from today's NY Times verifies my sense of why LACMA has become "a de facto museum of contemporary art, but frankly...not a very good one":
New York Times: "The museum has yet to specify which art will be placed where, but as Govan walked a reporter through the space before the public opening, he referred to some of the pieces he looked forward to seeing there, including works by the visual artists Lauren Halsey and Cathy Opie of Los Angeles, and Pedro Reyes of Mexico City."
So he's envisioning more contemporary art in the Geffen building, not just in the Broad and Resnick wings. Or, for that matter, also in the Price/Goff building for (older) Japanese art.
I'm tired of all the contemporary art throughout the museums of LA. They're fine when slotted into a Broad in downtown LA, a Marciano/Masonic building or for a Hauser and Wirth. But it has become overkill in LACMA.
If the Lucas Museum contains works that make people queasy about the style and technique, a lot of contemporary art is similar in its own way. Even more so when it keeps popping up in every damn section of LACMA.
One thing I suppose is true, in the immortal words of Holly Woodlawn: "You know these nuns, they don't use nothing cheap."
> been an issue. I wanted to
> take that out of play, so when
> it opens everyone can focus
> on the art,” Govan said. “Get
> it out of your system — you
> love it, you hate it.”
Hey, Govan, the way you're apparently going to program spaces in the new building will make me - er, uh, yep - hate it. Thanks, dude.
> visitors (not me) at the similarly
> austere Kimbell museum
At least the Kimbell has some walls of travertine or non-concrete material. The Geffen is nothing but gray, warehouse-looking concrete. So if older artworks don't look ideal in the Kimbell, they'll look 10 times worse in the Geffen.
Govan has also responded to the issue of affixing art to concrete walls. He just airily waves that off by saying (to paraphrase) they don't mind punching holes in the material and then later refilling them. Which they'll have to do constantly if the exhibits in the Geffen are always rotating.
A need for way more window washing: Ka-ching!
Musical chairs with art and lots of holes in concrete walls: Ka-ching!
Did Zumthor want a refined surface? One of the previous iterations included poured concrete walls that simulated rammed-earth walls.
>They don't have a Caravaggio or Hopper, actually.
HaHa, well there is that. In general, I meant paintings from the 16th to 20th century. But, yeah, that video link shows classic paintings directly on concrete walls. I'm still curious though - as you are - about the 'bespoke color palette... pigment' the LA Times noted. One thing of interest is that each individual gallery room has only one entrance so there is no flow between the adjacent galleries. This is by design. Visitors will have to enter and exit the same entrance of each room. This indicates each gallery would have its own vibe. The video indicates the uniqueness of each room will be the art inside and not the physical walls. We’ll see.