First Reviews for Geffen
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| Photo: Damien Maloney for The New York Times |
Today the Los Angeles Times (Sam Lubell) and New York Times (Robin Pogrebin) review the David Geffen Galleries. Both reviews are positive, and both contain numerous photos. Even feisty Peter Zumthor is on-message: "I have realized my vision," he told the NYT.
Don't miss photos of art hanging on ultramarine blue and burgundy-black tinted concrete; Reiko Sudo's metallic-sheer curtains; new sculptural commissions by Pedro Reyes and Do Ho Suh; the Koons Split-Rocker in bloom and the reinstalled Calder with the water turned on.
At top, a black-cube gallery for Light and Space art by John McCracken, Fred Eversley, and Craig Kauffman.
Comments
I can gift the NYT review, here, below:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/arts/design/lacma-museum-geffen-galleries.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ZVA.iuPA.08rvylHT9GCm&smid=url-share
With its solid gray concrete walls, interior galleries in earthy tones of red and blue and etchings in the plaza paving, the building is designed to feel both ancient and new. “We wanted people to see that this is handmade not by God, but by human beings,” Zumthor said.
Note: The LA Times does not allow gift links to articles. One of the many ways it is NOT the NYT. If you think it is worth it, there are $1 subscriptions for 4 months.
--- J. Garcin
https://www.latimes.com/0000019d-6980-dbcd-a5ff-f9aab6970000-123
The architect Bernard Tschumi contributed this idea to the discussion:
He mentioned that a friend of his once said that a museum should never have a spine, but that it might be like a sponge. "What's interesting about this analogy of the sponge," he thought aloud, "is that it suggests the autonomy and specificity of each of its cells [i.e., galleries], and also an endless combination of linkages and configurations.... A sponge is a seamless whole of sorts that preserves the possibility of heterogeneity."
--- J. Garcin
> and different from the
> mindset of museums
> that are ordered, measured,
> and steadfast.
Not sure how that in the long run will play out. In a way, however, it may be the best option for a museum without the large, mature collections of a Louvre or Met.
One hint of that LACMA's George de la Tour painting. It appears to be displayed more in isolation, more like that of a Mona Lisa in the Louvre. The de la Tour is fine and all, but if LACMA's objects in general are shown in a way suggestive of more space than artworks, that will be the opposite extreme of a Paris museum. Or where a place that seems crammed with more stuff than necessary.
After all, a little can go a long way. Some of the works in the Egyptian galleries of the Met, as another example, after a bit of wandering around, can look and feel like the opposite extreme of, "where's the rest of the collection?"
And it appears the Geffen will have contemporary and modern mixed in with older works. So the square footage already dedicated to that style and period in BCAM and often too many temporary shows in the Resnick too will spill over into the new building. If Michael Govan is too much into places like a Broad or MOCA (or Dia Foundation), LACMA will continue its unfortunate path of "a de facto museum of contemporary art, but frankly...not a very good one."
LA Times:
Not only was the sculpture, fondly referred to as "Hello Girls," one of the museum's earliest prized attractions, Calder also designed a poster commemorating the museum's opening..."The concept of museums commissioning artists is now commonplace. It wasn't commonplace then," said LACMA's...Stephanie Barron...as she watched the fountain's bright yellow, red and blue mobile-like paddles...alongside Sandy Rower, Calder's grandson and head of his foundation.
That's why discussions about where "Hello Girls" would land began very early in the process of designing the new building, said Rower, adding that he even addressed the matter with architect Peter Zumthor.
"Kids coming over here are gonna love it," Rower said. "So are people that have been obsessing on modern art and modernism all their lives — they're gonna be confounded by it."
Barron said getting the placement of the sculpture just right was of utmost importance to the museum and the Calder Foundation.... In the 1980s it was stranded on a hillside in the sculpture garden and later sent for display at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design.
The ability to observe the piece from a 360-degree vantage point allows viewers to see the "balletic nature of the wind and the water," said Barron, adding that she has enjoyed watching people's reactions to the installation as it's gone up. "People who haven't been here for a long time say, 'Oh my God, it's back. It's my favorite piece. It looks so much better. It looks different.' And people who've never seen it say, 'Oh, wow. This just makes me happy.'"
Rower nodded, smiling as the wind pushed a large blue paddle counterclockwise.
"I think your grandfather probably would be really happy with that," Barron said.
The photo in the LA Times article comes with a photo that shows the Diego Rivera painting on a wall all by itself. As with the de la Tour, LACMA apparently has more space (both wall and floor) than artworks to fill it with.
Whether that's sarcasm or hard reality, it's the flip side of a Louvre or Met. Or where a visitor is overwhelmed by the number of objects on display. Perhaps LACMA is shooting for the MOCA effect. Or the feeling of, "is that all there is?!"
But the old-time museum paradigm can be off-putting too. The Louvre format is the extreme of too much, too much. And the Beaux-Arts look and format of American museums built in the early 1900s can be too much like another worn-out cliche (versus the one of gaunt, spartan and hipster-trendy), another version of being in a room where someone is wearing way too much perfume.
The one thing, however, I'm sure about is the Pereira/Hardy-Holzman-Pfeiffer campus was one of the weakest settings of any museum in the US.