Los Angeles County Museum of Art
FINDING ART ON THE MIRACLE MILE
Who would have thought a museum located next to a prehistoric tar-filled swamp would become a premier destination for the arts? Centered halfway between the Pacific Ocean and downtown Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art contains more than 150,000 works spanning the history of art from ancient civilizations to contemporary societies. Founded in 1910 as the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art, the institution that began with no permanent collection quickly made up for lost time by snapping up works of art, and in 1965, with the help of a devoted community and board of trustees, the new museum opened with a new name: “LACMA.” The museum boasts one of the largest encyclopedic collections on the West Coast and holds an array of objects: Korean ceramics, Japanese silk-screen prints, European paintings, early American furniture, German Expressionists prints, and contemporary art. Highlights include pre-Columbian masterpieces, along with works by leading modern and contemporary artists, including Diego Rivera, David Hockney, and Barbara Kruger.
At the time of this printing, the museum is under a 10-year renovation and expansion program entitled Transformation; the initial phase includes 60,000 additional feet of gallery space and newly acquired public sculptures. And while you meander through the 20-acre museum complex, make sure to visit the La Brea tar pits, which contain the remains of saber-toothed cats and mastodons buried in thick tar, still actively bubbling away just steps from LACMA’s world-class collections! —SBR
Walking up the museum steps leading to the William Pereira-designed main entrance at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.