Thank you again, Los Angeles Times Culture Monsters:

Here's the latest installment in the courtship of Eli Broad — and the art museum he aims to plunk somewhere in the Los Angeles Basin, complete with big-name architecture, a spiffy $200 million endowment and the 2,000 works of contemporary art held by his Broad Art Foundation.

Downtown L.A. is officially making a play, courtesy of the Grand Avenue Authority, which today authorized negotiations with Broad toward a possible deal that would wrest the museum from Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, which are also in the running.

After a closed session today of the Grand Avenue Authority, L.A. City Councilwoman Jan Perry, a member of the joint city-county authority that's overseeing development of vacant land and parking lots in the heart of downtown's arts district, said it will deploy a negotiating team “to proceed with discussions with the Broad Foundation to consider his proposal and reach a mutual agreement.”

The Grand Avenue project, of which Broad himself has been a leading advocate, is considered the centerpiece of downtown's revitalization. Designed by Frank Gehry, it includes two towers, condos, hotel rooms and a shopping center….

Thank you again, Los Angeles Times Culture Monsters:

Several museums and art institutions, including the Orange County Museum of Art, are saying that the Judith Rothschild Foundation has failed to make good on 17 grants awarded for 2009.

The total amount of money in question reportedly amounts to more than $100,000. Some of the arts organizations have filed a formal complaint to the New York attorney general’s office.

A spokeswoman for OCMA said today that it has received a letter from the foundation stating that the grant money will be paid. The museum added that its grant from the foundation was for $4,000 and is intended to go toward costs associated with the works of Florence Miller Pierce in an exhibition titled “Illumination”…..

Read the rest online at LA times Culture Monsters

The report from ArtDaily.org

LOS ANGELES, CA.- Following a worldwide search, the Board of Trustees of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), announced today it has voted unanimously to appoint Jeffrey Deitch as the museum’s new director, effective June 1. Deitch [DIEtsch], 57, is one of New York’s leading gallerists, specializing in modern and contemporary art, and he has a 30-year career as an independent curator who has produced innovative exhibitions at museums and galleries around the world. As an art advisor to some of the world’s leading institutional and private collectors, he has helped build a number of major international contemporary art collections……

Read the complete original:
MOCA Board of Trustees Names New York Gallerist Jeffrey Deitch as Museum Director

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Thank you again, Los Angeles Times Culture Monsters:

L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art is poised to name its new director Monday morning, and one of the names circulating through the art world is Jeffrey Deitch, a high-flying New York art dealer who, if chosen, would be a radical break from the usual museum-world pattern.

MOCA’s key financial backer, Eli Broad, will present the new director along with the museum’s co-chairs, Maria Bell and David Johnson, and city Councilwoman Jan Perry, the museum announced today.

American museum directors typically come from within the curatorial, academic or other nonprofit ranks. No major art museum in the United States is directed by a former owner of a commercial art gallery…..

Read the complete article at the Los Angeles Times Culture Monsters blog.

MCASD Open House: Free Third Thursday Evening
Thursday, 11/19/09 > 5-7 PM > La Jolla and Downtown
On the third Thursday of every month from 5 to 7 pm, visitors receive FREE admission to the Museum, plus free themed Gallery Guide-led tours beginning at 5 and 6 pm.

Also tonight at MCASD La Jolla:

UCSD/MCASD Russell Lecture Featuring Matthew Ritchie
Thursday, 11/19/09 > 7 PM > La Jolla
This year’s Russell Lecturer is renowned and influential artist Matthew Ritchie, who engages vast bodies of knowledge with a multiplicity of media and approaches.

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More excellent commentary on MOCA Los Angeles’ 30 year anniversary and related exhibiton.

The Museum of Contemporary Art has had a rather erratic history when it comes to displaying its permanent collection.

One reason is structural: The museum's largest space — the Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo — was never climate-controlled for temperature and humidity. Especially with older works, from the 1940s through the '70s, conservation concerns cannot be ignored, so the marvelous Geffen's uses are limited.

Another reason is programmatic: Curators like to organize temporary exhibitions. Museums also incur debts with other museums to trade exhibitions. And MOCA has a genuine interest in bringing important shows to Los Angeles. Altogether, those program concerns can mean that permanent-collection galleries get uninstalled to accommodate traveling and temporary shows.

A third reason is philosophical: From the start, MOCA has wanted to shake up the standard narrative of contemporary art. One way to do that is to keep shuffling the permanent collection, organizing and reorganizing its display as a periodic series of temporary installations with different viewpoints.

More reasons can probably be found. But one result has been the forfeiture of the deep and unique bond that can grow between a visitor and a museum when the finest work in a permanent collection is on permanent display. Like the difference between dating and marriage, the bond develops over the long term. And the possibility for that bond is what distinguishes a museum from any other cultural institution.

The 500 works in “Collection: MOCA's First Thirty Years,” the sprawling exhibition that opened to the public Sunday, brings the point home. I'll have a review of the show in Tuesday's paper, but one thing “Collection” made me wonder is what will happen in May, when this latest (and largest) iteration of the permanent collection as a temporary exhibition comes to an end. Perhaps by then it will have been on view long enough for people to realize what we've been missing.

In the meantime, MOCA has launched an excellent website for the show. Exploring about 100 works, it has good photographs and abundant information. Much of it is drawn from “This Is Not to Be Looked At: Highlights From the Permanent Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles,” a sumptuous book published last year. (The book concludes with a chronology of more than 100 permanent-collection shows at MOCA, starting with the 1985 presentation of the Panza Collection — seven Rothkos, 11 Rauschenbergs, 16 Oldenburgs etc. — acquired the year before.)

You can find the “MOCA's First Thirty Years” website here, and find “This Is Not to Be Looked At” here.

– Christopher Knight

Photo: Artist Wangechi Mutu's “She's Egungun Again,” 2005, collage. Credit: Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

See the original post here:
MOCA’s permanent collection goes on view, temporarily

From the Los Angeles Times Culture Monsters:

A couple hundred museum supporters and members of the press jammed the foyer of the Museum of Contemporary Art on Thursday morning to hear remarks in advance of a preview of “Collection: MOCA's First Thirty Years.” The show — 500 works by 200 artists, drawn from the museum's exceptional permanent collection — fills both the main building and the Geffen Contemporary, the museum's warehouse space in Little Tokyo.

The press event inaugurates several days of special previews for the show, which opens to the public Sunday. (I'll have a review of the exhibition early next week.) Admission is free through Friday, Nov. 20, thanks to underwriting from Ovation TV.

Not surprisingly, given MOCA's horrifying near-collapse 11 months ago from many years of living far beyond its means, today's speechifying focused like a laser on the upbeat. Eli Broad, whose foundation stepped in with a $15-million matching grant plus $15-million for programming, acted as emcee.

“MOCA has no debt,” he said.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa thanked Broad and other assembled trustees for “the turn-around.” Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district includes the museum, enthused, “What a difference a year makes!”….

Photo: Eli Broad speaks at the press preview for “Collection: MOCA's First Thirty Years,” with Mark Rothko's 1953 painting “No. 61″ hanging on the wall behind him. Credit: Christopher Knight/Los Angeles Times

Related stories:

MOCA's biggest exhibition to celebrate 30th anniversary

MOCA faces serious financial problems

MOCA has gifts, officers and trustees; pronounces finances fixed

MOCA looks on the bright side of 30

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