lacma

Museums' Joint Deal Lands Robert Mapplethorpe Archive in Los Angeles

Filed under: Art

The work of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe will have a new home in Los Angeles. The J. Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) have jointly acquired thousands of art and archival materials associated with Mapplethorpe. A release states that the vast majority of the acquisition comes in the form of a generous gift from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation while the rest was from funds provided by The David Geffen Foundation for LACMA and the J. Paul Getty Trust. The world has been rediscovering Mapplethorpe lately in the wake of the memoir "Just Kids" by rock legend Patti Smith, who recently won a National Book Award for the book which celebrates her creative and personal relationship with Mapplethorpe.

This move makes Los Angeles the center for the study of Mapplethorpe's work. The LA Times reports that the works were appraised at more than $30 million. The archives includes a print of virtually every photograph he editioned in silver gelatin, a large number of Polaroid works and unique works, artworks by Mapplethorpe's contemporaries and personal correspondence. Among the treasures is Mapplethorpe's 1978 film Still Moving featuring Patti Smith. The archive also documents the debate surrounding the homerotic nature of some of his work with media materials covering the NEA, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, and The Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center controversies that arose shortly after the artist died in 1989. Those dramatic news events were part of what has become an ongoing discussion on the role of artistic freedom in publicly funded exhibits.

Tags: art photography, Getty museum, lacma, lifestyle, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, patti smith, RObert Mapplethorpe

Continue reading “Museums' Joint Deal Lands Robert Mapplethorpe Archive in Los Angeles”

BMW Art Cars go on tour to LA, New York and Mexico

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Events, Art

In 1975, BMW racing driver Hervé Poulain got the idea to invite an artist to paint his car. American artist Alexander Calder answered the call, giving birth to the BMW Art Car project, which has attracted the participation of some 16 renowned artists from around the world to use BMW automobiles as their canvas. The vehicles are housed in BMW's museum in Munich, but have been known to travel sporadically; their latest tour brings four of the most famous examples to North America. The Art Car creations of Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein (pictured above), and Robert Rauschenberg are on display now at the BP Entrance to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until February 24, before they head to the east coast to be displayed at New York's Grand Central Terminal from March 24 until April 6 and then southward to three locations in Mexico. The rolling works of art will be accompanied by a video documenting the history of the project and the artists at work, which you can view after the jump along with the images in the gallery below.

Gallery: BMW Art Cars

Andy Warhol, Art Car, 1979 - BMW M1 group 4 racing version

Roy Lichtenstein, Art Car, 1977 - BMW 320i group 5 racing version

Frank Stella, Art Car, 1976 - BMW 3.0 CSL

Robert Rauschenberg, Art Car, 1986 - BMW 635 CSi

Source

Tags: Andy Warhol, AndyWarhol, art car, ArtCar, automotive art, AutomotiveArt, bmw, bmw art car, BmwArtCar, Frank Stella, FrankStella, lacma, los angeles county museum of art, LosAngelesCountyMuseumOfArt, Robert Rauschenberg, RobertRauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, RoyLichtenstein

Continue reading “BMW Art Cars go on tour to LA, New York and Mexico”

Hearst Collection Goes On Display

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Now seems like the perfect time for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) exhibit Hearst the Collector. The exhibit brings together about 150 works from the extensive collection of media magnate William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951). Much of Hearst's collection was sold off during a "liquidity crisis" in the late 1930s. As bankruptcy loomed, his huge collection, spread out over his many residences, was divided in half. Half he got to keep, the rest became an asset for his companies and were sold to keep his empire alive (something some of today's tycoons might want to take note of).

The exhibit at the LACMA runs November 9 through February 1, 2009 and shows Hearst's wide range of collecting interests. He had large collections of armor, silver and Renaissance tapestries as well as paintings by Boucher, Copley, van Dyck, Fragonard, Gérôme, Greuze, Lawrence, Lotto, Reynolds, and Vouet, with sculptures by Canova, Clodion, Marin, Sansovino, and Thorvaldsen. His collection of three hundred Native American textiles also showed a collector who was a bit ahead of his time. The pieces in the exhibit came from Hearst Castle as well from museums around the world. A book of the exhibition, shown at right, sells for $50.

[via Art Daily]

Source

Tags: hearst, lacma, museum exhibit, MuseumExhibit

Big Givers: Lynda and Stewart Resnick at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art, Big Givers

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has been the recipient of some big gifts lately by people eager to get their name on the door. First we had the Eli Broad's new building now comes the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion. The Resnicks, who own both the Fiji Water and Pom Wonderful brands will give $45 million for new LACMA pavilion designed by architect Renzo Piano. They will also give about $10 million more in artwork. The LA Times notes that Lynda Resnick has a long history with the museum, she has served on LACMA's board of trustees since 1992 and is chair of the museum's acquisitions committee. The new pavilion is expected to open in mid-2010.

Source

Tags: fiji water, FijiWater, lacma, los angeles county museum of art, LosAngelesCountyMuseumOfArt, lynda resnick, LyndaResnick, pom wonderful, PomWonderful, stewart renick, StewartRenick

Eli Broad Puts His Name On a Museum But Pulls His Art

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Bad news for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and other institutions, billionaire Eli Broad has announced that he is not giving away any of his 2,000 art works to them. Instead Broad has decided that his art will be retained by his Broad Art Foundation. His foundation, which was established in 1984 and has made 7,000 loans of art to institutions around the world. Broad, who is 74 and a founder and former chief executive officer of the homebuilder KB Home and insurer SunAmerica Inc., sees his foundation as an art lending library which could be a model for other collectors who are worried that their pieces, once donated, will end up in storage rather than taking pride of place in a museum. Broad's foundation in Santa Monica currently has 20,000 square feet for showing the art that is not loaned out.

Broad's status as a collector (he is one of the world's top ten collectors) means that his decision will have an impact on how other aging collectors think about their future plans for art, wondering if they too should find an option that will make sure that their accrued works don't end up in a museum's storage. What makes Broad's decision particularly interesting is the timing, next month the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is opening the $56 million Broad Contemporary Art Museum, a building designed by Renzo Piano and financed by Broad, ostensibly for the purpose of showcasing his art. The new museum will still have favored nation status so much of the art will hang there but there is a big differenc between loaned art and owned art, especially in terms of the leverage that a large and important collection provides. Museums often go through elaborate courting processes with big fish donors spending a great deal of time and money in the hopes of getting a valuable donation.

One thing I wonder is whether or not Broad will get the same tax breaks for leaving the art in his own foundation versus donation.

Source

Tags: art, contemporary art, donation, eli broad, EliBroad, giving, lacma