LACMAThe Los Angeles County

Museum of Art

WHAT IS LACMA?

With 100,000 objects dating from ancient times to the present, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is the largest art museum in the western United States.

LACMA’s seven-building complex is located on twenty acres in the heart of Los Angeles, halfway between the ocean and downtown. The campus is undergoing a ten-year expansion and renovation known as the Transformation and designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

HISTORY

LACMA has its roots in the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art.

In 1961, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was established as a separate, art-focused institution. In 1965, the fledgling institution opened to the public in its new Wilshire Boulevard location.

Over several decades, the campus and the collection have grown considerably. The Anderson Building (renamed the Art of the Americas building in 2007) opened in 1986 to house modern and contemporary art.

In 1988, Bruce Goff's innovative Pavilion for Japanese Art opened at the east end of campus.

In 1994, the museum acquired the May Company department store building at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, now known as LACMA West.

Most recently, the Transformation project revitalized the western half of the campus with a collection of buildings designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

These include the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, a three-story 60,000 square foot space for the exhibition of postwar art that opened in 2008.

In fall of 2010, the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion opened to the public, providing the largest purpose-built, naturally lit, open-plan museum space in the world, with a rotating selection of major exhibitions.

The LACMA campus continues to evolve in order to present an encyclopedic collection of art,

special exhibitions, and music, film and educational programs.

TEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads

August 20, 2011–February 12, 2012 Possible Worlds: Mario Ybarra, Jr., Karla Diaz,

and Slanguage Studio Select from the Permanent Collections July 2, 2011–September 25, 2011

Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts June 5, 2011–September 5, 2011

Tim Burton May 29, 2011–October 31, 2011 Teresa Margolles October 31, 2010–October 2,

2011