For all intents and purposes, there are four capable, world-class contemporary art museums operating in Los Angeles: LACMA, MOCA, the University of California Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum, and the Getty. What does that mean on a practical level for Los Angeles? Let’s start with the simple number of museums in Los Angeles. Ergo, MOCA’s current troubles and its necessity to seek a buyer. Because of the degradation of MOCA’s reputation, paired with the exodus of the only four artists on its board of trustees (Barbara Kruger, Catherine Opie, John Baldessari, and Ed Ruscha), the museum’s ability to fundraise has been cauterized.
It has been accused-perhaps unjustly-of being too populist, too celebrity driven, and not academic enough. Broad was instrumental in hiring New York City art dealer and youth movement advocate Jeffrey Deitch, who has polarized as MOCA’s director, and the firing of its chief curator Paul Schimmel shortly thereafter, two changes that have altered the public perception of the museum. MOCA has been in the thicket for a number of years now, and had to accept a $30 million matching gift from billionaire philanthropist and art patron Eli Broad. But the LACMA proposal seems to be gathering support from artists like John Baldessari and politicians like Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The deal is nowhere near happening quite yet, and there are two other suitors, the University of Southern California (USC)-whose Fisher Museum isn’t on the level of LACMA or MOCA-and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., who recently announced their own proposal to share resources. LACMA, an encyclopedic museum with a massive campus, stellar educational program, and a magnificent collection of historical art has offered to buy the embattled MOCA, with its youthful audience and top-notch collection of contemporary art, for a reported $100 million. This merger involves the city’s two biggest museums, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA).
#Lacma or moca museum movie#
A merger is afoot in Los Angeles, but it’s not a movie studio or a record label this time around.
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