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101-487: The museum's exhibits consist primarily of American and European contemporary art created after 1940. Since the museum's inception, MOCA's programming has been defined by its multi-disciplinary approach to contemporary art. In a 1979 political fundraising event at the Beverly Hills Hotel , Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley , Councilman Joel Wachs , and local philanthropist Marcia Simon Weisman happened to be seated at

202-616: A MOCA trustee and retired television executive, gave 123 paintings, sculptures, drawings, videos and photographs by 78 artists. Over the years, major donations of art collections have come from the Lannan Foundation and through funding from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. In 2000, MOCA received gifts from artists themselves, including major pieces by sculptor and performance artist Paul McCarthy , video artist Doug Aitken and photographer Andreas Gursky . Los Angeles-based artist Ed Moses made

303-574: A campaign contributor, investigated MOCA. Ultimately, although the investigation was closed with no disciplinary action (Board members were asked to take a voluntary training in their fiduciary duties), just the report of the investigation in the Los Angeles Times had an enormous impact – donors fled and the trustees, in the maelstrom, accepted Broad's terms for control of the institution in exchange for his promise to donate money. Broad, MOCA's founding chairman from 1979 to 1984 and life trustee of

404-403: A canopy of chain-link fencing and steel trusses over the closed-off street, to form a partially shaded plaza. There are two large, open gallery spaces, illuminated by industrial wire-glass skylights and a row of clerestory windows along the south wall. The intricate structural network of steel beams and supports has been left exposed, serving as support for the many movable display walls and lending

505-611: A car accident, and his wife left him, taking their children with her. She later married British writer Xan Fielding . On July 21, 1948, after telling a neighbor and one of his students that he was going to kill himself, Gorky was found hanged in his barn studio. On a nearby wooden crate he had written "Goodbye My Loveds". Gorky is buried in North Cemetery in Sherman, Connecticut . Gorky's contributions to American and world art are difficult to overestimate. His work as lyrical abstraction

606-434: A change in art styles include the end of World War II and the 1960s. There has perhaps been a lack of natural break points since the 1960s, and definitions of what constitutes "contemporary art" in the 2010s vary, and are mostly imprecise. Art from the past 20 years is very likely to be included, and definitions often include art going back to about 1970; "the art of the late 20th and early 21st century"; "both an outgrowth and

707-607: A city in America—not New York, not Chicago, not Houston, not San Francisco—where a more impressive museum collection of contemporary art can be seen." Ever since it opened with an extensive exhibition called The First Show: Painting and Sculpture From Eight Collections, 1940–80 , MOCA has been known for thematic-survey exhibitions about postwar art such as A Forest of Signs: Art in the Crisis of Representation (1989), A Minimal Future? Art as Object, 1958–1968 (1994), Reconsidering

808-454: A contemporary artist" and that they "are in it for all the wrong reasons." Some competitions, awards, and prizes in contemporary art are: This table lists art movements and styles by decade. It should not be assumed to be conclusive. Arshile Gorky Arshile Gorky ( / ˈ ɑːr ʃ iː l ˈ ɡ ɔːr k i / AR -sheel GOR -kee ; born Vostanik Manoug Adoian , Armenian : Ոստանիկ Մանուկ Ատոյեան ; April 15, 1904 – July 21, 1948)

909-463: A current exhibition. Next, participants work collaboratively to create art in response to the work they've seen. Designed and taught by artists, these process-oriented workshops extend the gallery experience and frequently include special activities such as musical performance, movement, and other multidisciplinary approaches to works on view. The program is offered in English and Spanish. Big Family Day

1010-601: A general adjectival phrase, goes back to the beginnings of Modernism in the English-speaking world. In London , the Contemporary Art Society was founded in 1910 by the critic Roger Fry and others, as a private society for buying works of art to place in public museums. A number of other institutions using the term were founded in the 1930s, such as in 1938 the Contemporary Art Society of Adelaide , Australia , and an increasing number after 1945. Many, like

1111-570: A hidden painting was discovered underneath; both paintings were exhibited and included in the latest catalogue of his work. In 2015, a fountain monument commemorating Gorky was erected in Edremit , a town near his birthplace. After the town's People's Democracy Party administration was replaced by government appointees the water supply to the fountain was cut off, the taps were broken off, and signs with Gorky's biography in four languages – Armenian, Kurdish, English and Turkish – were removed from

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1212-525: A lifelong friendship. Schwabacher was his first biographer. Gorky said: The stuff of thought is the seed of the artist. Dreams form the bristles of the artist's brush. As the eye functions as the brain's sentry, I communicate my innermost perceptions through the art, my worldview. In 1931, Gorky sent a group of works ranging in price from $ 100 to $ 450 to the Downtown Gallery in New York. (The artist's name

1313-422: A major gift of his work to the museum in 1995, surveying nearly 40 years of his artistic development. Included within today's permanent collection are works by further influential artists such as Greg Colson , Kim Dingle , Sam Durant , David Hockney , Kenneth Price , John McLaughlin , Robert Motherwell , Raymond Pettibon , James Hayward , and George Segal . As the Los Angeles Times declared, "There isn't

1414-405: A museum from scratch, including locating funds, trustees, directors, curators, a gallery, and most importantly an art collection. That same year, Weisman and five other key local collectors signed an agreement whereby they would pledge chunks of their private collections, worth up to $ 6 million, "to create a museum of standing and repute." The following year, the fledgling Museum of Contemporary Art

1515-571: A new cultural era in Los Angeles. Its chief exhibition spaces are under the courtyard level, lit from above by groups of pyramidal skylights. The construction and $ 23 million cost of the MOCA Grand Avenue building was part of a city-brokered deal with the developer of the $ 1 billion California Plaza redevelopment project on Bunker Hill , Bunker Hill Associates, who received the use of an 11.2-acre (45,000 m), publicly owned parcel of land. On

1616-486: A new position of chief executive officer was created for Charles E. Young , former chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles . Broad required compliance with strict financial terms, but did not demand Strick's resignation or Young's appointment as a condition. Hired for a limited term, Young oversaw layoffs and cutbacks in the exhibition schedule that reduced MOCA's budget from more than $ 24 million to less than

1717-459: A painter, and married the British sculptor and writer Matthew Spender , son of the poet Sir Stephen Spender . From 1946, Gorky suffered a series of crises: his studio barn burned down (destroying his library and thirty of his paintings); he underwent a colostomy for cancer ; Mougouch had an affair with Roberto Matta . In 1948, Gorky's neck was broken and his painting arm temporarily paralyzed in

1818-534: A rejection of modern art"; "Strictly speaking, the term 'contemporary art' refers to art made and produced by artists living today"; "Art from the 1960s or [19]70s up until this very minute"; and sometimes further, especially in museum contexts, as museums which form a permanent collection of contemporary art inevitably find this aging. Many use the formulation "Modern and Contemporary Art", which avoids this problem. Smaller commercial galleries, magazines and other sources may use stricter definitions, perhaps restricting

1919-464: A sculptural effect. A steel crane rail, left over from the building's hardware days, remained in place. The loading docks now serve as the lobby. The Temporary Contemporary immediately captivated critics and museum patrons alike with its accessibility, informality and lack of pretension. Writing in The New York Times , John Russell referred to it as "a prince among spaces", and William Wilson of

2020-501: A symbol of mutual recognition between the Japanese community and the museum. The first public program was a commissioned collaboration, "Available Light" by Lucinda Childs , Frank O. Gehry , and John Adams followed in November 1983 by the inaugural exhibition, "The First Show: Painting and Sculpture from 1940–1980" curated by Julia Brown. The building had been originally constructed in

2121-730: A trend of LED signs. Holzers has been involved in many events and foundations such as, Dia Art Foundation ,   Time's Up movement , Social Strategies , Institute of Contemporary Arts , and many more. Holzer designed the bronze plaque, which features one of the artist's truisms: “It is in your self-interest to find a way to be very tender.” Past recipients include collector Beatrice Gersh (1994), editor Tina Brown (1997), choreographer Twyla Tharp (1999), actress and director Anjelica Huston (2001), and artists Barbara Kruger (2001), Yoko Ono (2003), Jenny Holzer (2010), Annie Leibovitz (2012) and Marylin Minter (2015). First established in 2024,

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2222-484: A tribute exhibition to James Dean , two projects that have been widely criticized for their emphasis on pop and celebrity culture. Of all solo shows on view over the period between January 2008 and December 2012, only about 28% were devoted to female artists. Besides artists' retrospectives and art historical investigations, under chief curator Paul Schimmel , MOCA has mounted various multiartist theme shows on provocative or challenging topics. Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in

2323-480: Is a legitimate and reasonable response to much contemporary art. Brian Ashbee in an essay called "Art Bollocks" criticizes "much installation art, photography, conceptual art , video and other practices generally called post-modern" as being too dependent on verbal explanations in the form of theoretical discourse. However, the acceptance of nontraditional art in museums has increased due to changing perspectives on what constitutes an art piece. A common concern since

2424-683: Is a memorable, moving and innovative portrait. His The Artist and His Mother paintings are based on a childhood photograph taken in Van in which he is depicted standing beside his mother. Gorky made two versions; the other is in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The painting has been likened to Ingres for simplicity of line and smoothness, to Egyptian funerary art for pose, to Cézanne for flat planar composition, to Picasso for form and color. Nighttime, Enigma, Nostalgia (1930–1934) are

2525-412: Is an annual spring culminating event for all of MOCA's school and community partnership programs. Featuring student docents, entertainment, music, artmaking and a student art exhibition, this event usually attracts over 1,000 participants, including MOCA members, their families, and the community at large. Sunday Studio events are held at Grand Avenue unless otherwise stated in the bimonthly calendar or on

2626-481: Is characterised by diversity: diversity of material, of form, of subject matter, and even time periods. It is "distinguished by the very lack of a uniform organizing principle, ideology, or - ism" that is seen in many other art periods and movements. Contemporary art does not have one, single objective or point of view, so it can be contradictory and open-ended. There are nonetheless several common themes that have appeared in contemporary works, such as identity politics ,

2727-403: Is part of a cultural dialogue that concerns larger contextual frameworks such as personal and cultural identity, family, community, and nationality. In English, modern and contemporary are synonyms , resulting in some conflation and confusion of the terms modern art and contemporary art by non-specialists. The classification of "contemporary art" as a special type of art, rather than

2828-710: Is perhaps his greatest work. It is over six feet high and eight feet wide, depicting "an abstract landscape filled with watery plumes of semi-transparent color that coalesce around spiky, thorn like shapes, painted in thin, sharp black lines, as if to suggest beaks and claws." Artist Corinne Michelle West was Gorky's muse and probably his lover, although she refused to marry him when he proposed several times. In 1941, Gorky met and married Agnes Ethel Magruder (1921–2013), daughter of Admiral John Holmes Magruder, Jr. (1889–1963). Gorky soon nicknamed her "Mougouch", an Armenian term of endearment. They had two daughters, Maro and Yalda (renamed Natasha some months later). Maro Gorky became

2929-417: Is simply beautiful." Contemporary art can sometimes seem at odds with a public that does not feel that art and its institutions share its values. In Britain, in the 1990s, contemporary art became a part of popular culture, with artists becoming stars, but this did not lead to a hoped-for "cultural utopia". Some critics like Julian Spalding and Donald Kuspit have suggested that skepticism, even rejection,

3030-546: Is the largest of the MOCA locations and is ideally suited to large-scale sculptural works and conceptual, multi-media or electronic installations. It is typically used to display more recent works, often by lesser-known artists, and works which require a large amount of space. Some of these works are designed specifically for the Geffen Contemporary's space. In 2018, MOCA unveiled a Barbara Kruger mural, Untitled (Questions) , on

3131-627: The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston changed their names from ones using "modern art" in this period, as Modernism became defined as a historical art movement , and much "modern" art ceased to be "contemporary". The definition of what is contemporary is naturally always on the move, anchored in the present with a start date that moves forward, and the works the Contemporary Art Society bought in 1910 could no longer be described as contemporary. Particular points that have been seen as marking

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3232-621: The Los Angeles Times wrote that it "instantly had the hospitable aura of a people's museum." In the view of many, these two appraisals have been borne out in the ensuing years. The New York Times later wrote that "[m]ore than any event in recent decades, the Temporary (now known as the Geffen Contemporary) changed the cultural face of Los Angeles". Due to the popularity of the Temporary Contemporary and extraordinary suitability of

3333-1020: The National Gallery of Art , the Museum of Modern Art , the Art Institute of Chicago , the Metropolitan , Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (which maintains the Gorky Archive), and in many worldwide, including the Tate in London. A selection of Gorky's letters were translated and published by Karlen Mooradian in Arshile Gorky Adoian and The Many Worlds of Arshile Gorky in 1980. Matthew Spender (1999) and Nouritza Matossian (2000) concluded from their research that

3434-519: The crash of American Airlines Flight 1 in 1962 . In June 2005, the family of the artist established the Arshile Gorky Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation formed to further the public's appreciation and understanding of the life and artistic achievements of Gorky. The foundation is working on a catalogue raisonné of the artist's entire body of work. In October 2009, the foundation relaunched its website to provide accurate information on

3535-487: The "contemporary" to work from 2000 onwards. Artists who are still productive after a long career, and ongoing art movements , may present a particular issue; galleries and critics are often reluctant to divide their work between the contemporary and non-contemporary. Sociologist Nathalie Heinich draws a distinction between modern and contemporary art, describing them as two different paradigms which partially overlap historically. She found that while " modern art " challenges

3636-501: The $ 16 million in 2011. In a departure from past practice, when MOCA would schedule shows before funding had been secured, it has adopted a policy of committing to exhibitions only after at least 80% of its projected budget has been lined up. The departure of respected curator Paul Schimmel on June 28, 2012 led to an exodus of trustees, committee members and a bombardment of criticism in the community. And because Broad himself has defaulted on his promised payments to MOCA that expire in 2013

3737-465: The 1940s as a hardware store for local patrons and subsequently used as a city warehouse and police car garage, the "TC", as it became informally known, is leased from the city for five years for $ 1 a year. Southern California architect Frank Gehry led the renovation of the Albert C. Martin, Sr. -designed 1947 Union Hardware buildings. Gehry left the exteriors intact, except for new entrance doors, and built

3838-470: The 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced , culturally diverse , and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic combination of materials , methods, concepts, and subjects that continue the challenging of boundaries that was already well underway in the 20th century. Diverse and eclectic, contemporary art as a whole is distinguished by the very lack of a uniform, organising principle, ideology, or " -ism ". Contemporary art

3939-528: The 1990s , a 1992 exhibition focused on the dark side of contemporary life as portrayed by artists like Mike Kelley , Paul McCarthy and Chris Burden , involving themes such as alienation, dispossession, and violence. Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949–1979 , a landmark historical survey presented in 1998, tracked the work of about 150 artists and collectives for whom public performances, in its links to painting, sculpture, dance and theater, and

4040-460: The Arts recognizes women providing leadership and innovation in visual arts, dance, music and literature. Artist Jenny Holzer is one of the main females that has shown her work through textile and expressing her believes in the feminist art movement. Holzer art has changed over the years from making street posters, painted signs, paintings, photographs, to creating T-shirts for Willi Smith, and establishing

4141-574: The East Siders, and The League of Imaginary Scientists , Neighborhood Public Radio, The Los Angeles Urban Rangers, Liz Glynn , and CamLab. The Women in the Arts event, established in 1994 by the MOCA fundraising arm the MOCA Projects Council, is a benefit for MOCA's educational programs and generally draws more than 600 people from the fields of art, fashion, philanthropy, film and other areas of entertainment. The Award to Distinguished Women in

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4242-489: The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Environment and Art Prize – including $ 100,000 to be given directly to the artists, with materials and other supporting costs paid separately – will be awarded every two years until 2028, resulting in four prizes—the inaugural year having two recipients—with exhibitions into 2030. The recipients of the inaugural award were Julian Charrière and Cecilia Vicuña . In November 2021, Johanna Burton joined MOCA as

4343-563: The Feminist Revolution , held in 2007, was the first major retrospective of art and the feminist revolution . MOCA hosts the LA Freewaves biennial festival, which exhibits a wide range of new media. The MOCA Downtown Los Angeles location is home to almost 5,000 artworks created since 1940, including masterpieces by classic contemporary artists, and inspiring new works by emerging and mid-career artists from Southern California and around

4444-491: The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA on the first Thursday of each month from 7 to 10pm. Collectives employed many different mediums, disciplines, and strategies during their residency, resulting in programs that included performances, workshops, screenings, lectures, and many other activities emerging from the group's particular focus. Participating Artists: Finishing School, Knifeandfork ( Brian House and Sue Huang), OJO, Slanguage, My Barbarian , Lucky Dragons , Ryan Heffington +

4545-789: The Geffen exterior facing Temple Street and sponsored by Wonmi and Kihong Kwon. In 2021, MOCA received one of the inaugural grants from the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative to support its solar energy project at the Geffen Contemporary. From 2000 until 2019, MOCA maintained a 3,000 sq ft (280 m) exhibition space at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood to present new work by emerging and established artists as well as ancillary programs based upon its major exhibitions and renowned permanent collection. A focus

4646-482: The L.A. area; their attendance totaled 236,104 in 2010, up by 89,000 over the previous year. Contemporary art Art of Central Asia Art of East Asia Art of South Asia Art of Southeast Asia Art of Europe Art of Africa Art of the Americas Art of Oceania Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from

4747-584: The MOCA board. Also, fellow artists Mark Grotjahn and Mark Bradford were elected to MOCA's board over the course of 2014; Lari Pittman was added in August 2016. Unlike the Los Angeles County Museum of Art , which is partly controlled by the county, MOCA receives minimal government funding and does not have a steady source of funds. Its annual budget has grown to exceed $ 20 million, but it relies on donors to pay about 80% of its expenses. MOCA's budget for

4848-598: The Object of Art: 1965–1975 (1995), Hall of Mirrors: Art and Film since 1945 (1996), Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949–1979 (1998), WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution (2007), Art in the Streets (2011), Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974–1981 (2011), and Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974 (2012). The museum also organized the first major museum retrospectives of

4949-626: The Rita and Taft Schreiber collection were donated to the museum, encompassing 18 paintings, sculptures, and drawings by Jackson Pollock , Piet Mondrian , and Arshile Gorky , among others. Hollywood agent Phil Gersh and his wife Beatrice, both founding members, gave 13 important pieces from their collection to the museum the same year, including Pollock's early drip painting Number 3, 1948 and David Smith 's 8-foot-tall stainless steel sculpture Cubi III (1961)—as well as works by artists such as Ed Ruscha , Cindy Sherman , and Susan Rothenberg . Finally,

5050-534: The Temporary Contemporary was renamed The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. In 2019, MOCA received another $ 5-million gift from Wonmi and Kihong Kwon to transform the Geffen Contemporary with a cross-disciplinary series that will emphasize varied forms of performance but will also include experiential installations, concerts, screenings, readings, conventions and other events. It also will host artist residencies and rehearsals. The 55,000-square-foot facility gives enormous latitude to artists and encourages experimentation. It

5151-447: The U.S., like the show of Robert Rauschenberg combines that opened in Los Angeles in 2006, MOCA became known as "one of the greatest feeder museums in the country". In 2010, the museum canceled a planned retrospective of influential yet under-recognized artist Jack Goldstein to commission artist and director Julian Schnabel to curate a survey of works by actor, writer and artist Dennis Hopper , and in 2012, actor James Franco curated

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5252-565: The abrupt resignation of Philippe Vergne . Vergne, formerly the director of the Dia Art Foundation in New York, began his tenure as MOCA's director in January 2014, and ended it amid a series of controversies, including the firing of chief curator Helen Molesworth . Before Vergne, Maria Seferian served as interim director from September 2013 to March 2014, while the institution underwent the search for its next director. She has been counsel to

5353-745: The art world is between the for-profit and non-profit sectors, although in recent years the boundaries between for-profit private and non-profit public institutions have become increasingly blurred. Most well-known contemporary art is exhibited by professional artists at commercial contemporary art galleries , by private collectors, art auctions , corporations, publicly funded arts organizations, contemporary art museums or by artists themselves in artist-run spaces . Contemporary artists are supported by grants, awards, and prizes as well as by direct sales of their work. Career artists train at art school or emerge from other fields. There are close relationships between publicly funded contemporary art organizations and

5454-600: The artist, including a biography, bibliography, exhibition history, and list of archival sources. Without Gorky is a documentary film about the artist, made by Cosima Spender, his granddaughter. In October 2009, the Philadelphia Museum of Art held a major Arshile Gorky exhibition: Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective . On June 6, 2010, an exhibit of the same name opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles. In 2021, during routine maintenance of "The Limit,"

5555-426: The body, globalization and migration, technology , contemporary society and culture, time and memory, and institutional and political critique. The functioning of the art world is dependent on art institutions, ranging from major museums to private galleries, non-profit spaces, art schools and publishers, and the practices of individual artists, curators, writers, collectors, and philanthropists. A major division in

5656-478: The building for exhibiting contemporary art, the museum's board requested that the City of Los Angeles extend MOCA's lease on the facility for 50 years, until 2038. That request was granted in early 1986, and in 1996 the city extended the lease even further. Also in 1996, MOCA received a $ 5-million gift from The David Geffen Foundation in support of the museum's endowment drive, and in recognition of this extraordinary gift,

5757-410: The city council have votes; their presence on the board is a condition for MOCA's long-term $ 1 a year lease on the Geffen Contemporary building. In accordance with a policy enacted in 1993, trustees serve three-year, renewable terms and rotate off after six years; they are generally invited to return after one year. Despite this addition of wealthy art collectors to the board, contributions and grants to

5858-549: The claim that the painting is of de Kooning but is actually a portrait of a Swedish carpenter Gorky called Master Bill who did some work for him in exchange for Gorky giving him art lessons. When Gorky showed his new work to André Breton in the 1940s, after seeing the new paintings and in particular The Liver Is the Cock's Comb , Breton declared the painting to be "one of the most important paintings made in America" and he stated that Gorky

5959-623: The commercial sector. For instance, in 2005 the book Understanding International Art Markets and Management reported that in Britain a handful of dealers represented the artists featured in leading publicly funded contemporary art museums. Commercial organizations include galleries and art fairs. Corporations have also integrated themselves into the contemporary art world , exhibiting contemporary art within their premises, organizing and sponsoring contemporary art awards, and building up extensive corporate collections. Corporate advertisers frequently use

6060-560: The construction of the new museum; Broad became MOCA's founding chairman; Palevsky chaired the architectural search committee. Many of MOCA's initial donors were young and supporting the arts for the first time; a substantial number joined up at the $ 10,000 "founder" minimum. Making up well over 90% of the museum's works, gifts from several major private collectors form the cornerstones of MOCA's permanent collection of nearly 6,000 works. Much of it has come from board members who donated or bequeathed key works or entire collections, or sold art to

6161-427: The conventions of representation , "contemporary art" challenges the very notion of an artwork . She regards Duchamp 's Fountain (which was made in the 1910s in the midst of the triumph of modern art) as the starting point of contemporary art, which gained momentum after World War II with Gutai 's performances, Yves Klein 's monochromes and Rauschenberg 's Erased de Kooning Drawing . Contemporary artwork

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6262-429: The creative process were far more important than well-crafted objects. Public Offerings , in 2001, explored the phenomenon of youthful creative energy in an overheated art world where stars are created before they leave art school. In ECSTASY: In and About Altered States (2005), some of the artists' works represented altered states of mind that they have experienced under the influence of drugs or hypnosis. WACK! Art and

6363-594: The draft, leaving his family behind in the town of Van . He settled in Providence, Rhode Island . In 1915, he fled Lake Van during the Armenian genocide and escaped with his mother and three sisters into Russian-controlled territory . In the aftermath of the genocide, his mother died of starvation in Yerevan in 1919. Arriving in America in 1920, at the age of 16, he was reunited with his father, but they never grew close. In

6464-418: The early part of the 20th century has been the question of what constitutes art. In the contemporary period (1970 to now), the concept of avant-garde may come into play in determining what artworks are noticed by galleries, museums, and collectors. The concerns of contemporary art come in for criticism too. Andrea Rosen has said that some contemporary painters "have absolutely no idea of what it means to be

6565-624: The executive director, with Klaus Biesenbach shifting to the role of artistic director. Burton is formerly the director of the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. Prior to Johanna's arrival, Klaus Bisenbach departed MOCA to serve as director of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Germany. In July 2018, MoMA PS1 curator Klaus Biesenbach , was named as the new director of MOCA, following

6666-569: The first artists employed by the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project . This later came to include such artists as Alice Neel , Lee Krasner , Jackson Pollock , Diego Rivera and Mark Rothko . In 1935, Gorky signed a three-year contract with the Guild Art Gallery (37 West Fifty-seventh Street, New York). Co-owned by Anna Walinska and Margaret Lefranc , but funded and directed by Lefranc ,

6767-465: The fiscal year 2011 was $ 14.3 million, the museum's lowest spending since the 1990s. In 2011, the museum reported net assets (basically, a total of all the resources it has on its books, except the value of the art) of $ 38 million. In December 2008, during the world financial meltdown, newspapers reported that the museum's endowment, which partly depended on stock investments, had dropped and that museum had fiscal problems Partly in violation of state law,

6868-476: The gallery organized the artist's first solo exhibition in New York, Abstract Drawings by Arshile Gorky . Notable paintings from this time include Landscape in the Manner of Cézanne (1927) and Landscape, Staten Island (1927–1928). At the close of the 1920s and into the 1930s he experimented with cubism , eventually moving to surrealism . The painting illustrated above, The Artist and His Mother , (ca. 1926–1936)

6969-478: The grounds that the law said that 1.5% of the construction costs of new buildings had to be spent on fine-arts embellishments, MOCA's board of trustees had struck a deal with the Community Redevelopment Agency to have the project developer build a 100,000-square-foot museum, designed by an architect of the trustees' choice, at no cost to the museum. In return for the free building, the agency required

7070-1599: The institution. Before that, Richard Koshalek served as director, deputy director and chief curator from 1980 to 1999. Pontus Hultén was founding director between 1980 and 1982. As of August 2016, MOCA's board is headed by Guess jeans co-founder Maurice Marciano and Lilly Tartikoff Karatz . Vice chairs are Eugenio Lopez, Lillian P. Lovelace and Maria Seferian; chair emeriti are Clifford J. Einstein and David G. Johnson ; president emeriti are Dallas Price-Van Breda and Jeffrey Soros. Board members are Wallis Annenberg , Gabriel Brener, Steven A. Cohen , Charles L. Conlan II, Kathi B. Cypres, Laurent Degryse, Ariel Emanuel , Susan Gersh, Aileen Getty, Nancy Jane F. Goldston, Laurence Graff , Bruce Karatz , Wonmi Kwon, Daniel S. Loeb , Mary Klaus Martin, Jamie McCourt , Edward J. Minskoff, Steven T. Mnuchin, Peter Morton , Heather Podesta , Carolyn Clark Powers, Steven F. Roth, Carla Sands, Chara Schreyer, Adam Sender , Sutton Stracke, Cathy Vedovi, Christopher Walker, Orna Amir Wolens. Artists sitting on MOCA's board include John Baldessari , Barbara Kruger , Catherine Opie , Mark Grotjahn , Mark Bradford and Lari Pittman . Life trustees include MOCA's founding chairman Eli Broad as well as Betye Monell Burton, Blake Byrne, Lenore S. Greenberg, Audrey Irmas , Frederick M. Nicholas and Thomas E. Unterman. The current Los Angeles mayor ( Eric Garcetti ) and LA City Council president ( Herb J. Wesson Jr. ), chief financial officer (Michael Harrison) and museum director (Philippe Vergne) are ex-officio members. The current mayor and president of

7171-512: The museum accepted Michael Heizer 's earthwork Double Negative in Nevada desert, donated by Virginia Dwan . A 1986 bequest by television executive Barry Lowen included 67 works of minimalist , post-minimalist and neo-expressionist painting, sculpture, photography and drawing by artists such as Dan Flavin , Ellsworth Kelly , Agnes Martin , Elizabeth Murray , Julian Schnabel , Joel Shapiro , Frank Stella , and Cy Twombly . In 1989, pieces by

7272-664: The museum at highly favorable terms. Within months of its fall 1983 opening, MOCA was able to turn itself into an instant player in the international art world by striking a deal with one of its board members, Giuseppe Panza , who agreed to sell a group of works for $ 11 million and stagger the payments over five years, interest-free. The 1984 purchase of parts of the Panza Collection encompasses 80 seminal works of abstract expressionism and pop art by Jean Fautrier , Franz Kline , Roy Lichtenstein , Claes Oldenburg , Robert Rauschenberg , Mark Rothko , and Antoni Tàpies . In 1985,

7373-447: The museum have fallen recently, and Broad missed two quarters of payments of the money he promised MOCA. All of the artist members of the board— John Baldessari , Barbara Kruger , Catherine Opie and Ed Ruscha —resigned later that year, in response to developments at the museum under the leadership of Jeffrey Deitch, including the termination of senior curator Paul Schimmel. In 2014, Baldessari, Kruger and Opie resumed their positions on

7474-477: The museum lost $ 44 million of their $ 50 million endowment over nine years, Deficits mounted at the rate of $ 2.8 million a year on average from mid-2000 to mid-2008. Amid speculation that the museum may close its doors, deaccession artworks, and/or merge with another institution, a grassroots, artist-led organization called MOCA Mobilization petitioned for MOCA to remain independent and keep its collection intact. The Attorney General's office, to whom Eli Broad had been

7575-431: The museum received the promise of a gift of 33 pieces from advertising executive Clifford Einstein, chair of MOCA's board of trustees, and his wife, Madeline; the proposed donation included works by Kiki Smith , Nam June Paik , Mark Grotjahn , Sigmar Polke , Mike Kelley , and Lari Pittman . In 2004 the museum received the largest group of artworks donated by a private collector in its 25-year history when E. Blake Byrne,

7676-453: The museum since 2008. The New York art dealer and curator Jeffrey Deitch served as director of MOCA from June 1, 2010 through September 1, 2013. On July 24, 2013 he told the board of his decision to leave. Deitch experienced a measure of controversy for his clash with Paul Schimmel, the museum's then-chief curator. The board's firing of Schimmel on June 28, 2012 was met with criticism from the community. Between 1999 and 2008, Jeremy Strick led

7777-401: The museum's co-founder Marcia Simon Weisman bequeathed 83 works on paper from artists including Willem de Kooning , Barnett Newman , Jasper Johns and California-based painters Richard Diebenkorn and Sam Francis . In 1991, Hollywood screenwriter Scott Spiegel donated works by Jean-Michel Basquiat , Mark Innerst , Robert Longo , Susan Rothenberg , David Salle , among others. In 2003,

7878-440: The museum, offered $ 30 million in a staggered donation, $ 15 million as matching donations . An agreement with Broad was tentatively reached on December 18, but another possibility—a merger with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art —had not been ruled out. On December 23, the museum announced that it had accepted Broad's offer and would be making a number of significant changes to its leadership. Director Jeremy Strick resigned, and

7979-577: The museum. TOCA events are the second Sunday of every month. Each year, the MOCA Apprenticeship Program (MAP) creates a supportive artistic community for a small, diverse group of high school students. Engagement Party (2008–2012) was a free public program that presented new work by emerging Southern California–based artists working collectively and collaboratively. The program offered artist collectives three-month residencies during which they presented public programs at MOCA Grand Avenue and

8080-554: The prestige associated with contemporary art and coolhunting to draw the attention of consumers to luxury goods . The institutions of art have been criticized for regulating what is designated as contemporary art. Outsider art , for instance, is literally contemporary art, in that it is produced in the present day. However, one critic has argued it is not considered so because the artists are self-taught and are thus assumed to be working outside of an art historical context. Craft activities, such as textile design, are also excluded from

8181-550: The process of reinventing his identity, he changed his name to "Arshile Gorky", claiming to be a Georgian noble (taking the Georgian name Arshile/Archil), and even telling people he was a relative of the Russian writer Maxim Gorky . In 1923, Gorky enrolled in the recently founded New England School of Art in Boston , eventually becoming a part-time instructor. During the early 1920s he

8282-406: The realm of contemporary art, despite large audiences for exhibitions. Art critic Peter Timms has said that attention is drawn to the way that craft objects must subscribe to particular values in order to be admitted to the realm of contemporary art. "A ceramic object that is intended as a subversive comment on the nature of beauty is more likely to fit the definition of contemporary art than one that

8383-474: The same table. Throughout the evening, Weisman passionately discussed the city's need for a contemporary art museum. Weisman's brother, Norton Simon , had stepped in to bail out the financially ailing Pasadena Art Museum in 1975, but was unable to retain its focus on modern art. In the following weeks, the Mayor's Museum Advisory Committee was organized. The committee, led by William Albert Norris , set about creating

8484-491: The series of complex works that characterize this phase of his painting. The canvas Portrait of Master Bill appears to depict Gorky's friend, Willem de Kooning . De Kooning said: "I met a lot of artists – but then I met Gorky ... He had an extraordinary gift for hitting the nail on the head; remarkable. So I immediately attached myself to him and we became very good friends. It was nice to be foreigners meeting in some new place." However recent publications contradict

8585-555: The translations of Gorky's letters to his younger sister, Vartoosh, published by her son, Mooradian, had been embellished and some of these letters were fabricated by Mooradian. The most accurate translations of Gorky's letters to family and friends were published at Goats on the Roof: A Life in Letters and Documents (2009), edited by Spender with translations by Father Krikor Maksoudian. Fifteen of Gorky's paintings and drawings were destroyed in

8686-532: The trustees to raise $ 10 million for an operations endowment. Original plans had been for the building to open in time for the 1984 Summer Olympics . However, the project broke ground in 1983 and completed the museum, Omni Hotel and the first of two skyscrapers ( One California Plaza ) by 1986. The second skyscraper ( Two California Plaza ) was completed in 1992. Nancy Rubins ' monumental stainless-steel sculpture "Mark Thompson's Airplane Parts" (2001), purchased by MOCA in honor of founding member Beatrice Gersh in 2002,

8787-549: The viability of the institution has come into question under Broad's leadership. As of late 2012, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the private University of Southern California are in talks about a possible partnership. In a first for MOCA, a two-day Sotheby's auction of donated works by artists in May 2015 raised $ 22.5 million for the museum endowment; the sale included works by Mark Grotjahn , Takashi Murakami and Ed Ruscha . MOCA exhibitions draw roughly 60% of their visitors from

8888-423: The website. Teens of Contemporary Art is an open gathering of high school students interested in learning more about contemporary art with their peers. The group meets each month for exhibition explorations, art workshops, discussions about contemporary art, and events planning. An advisory council of teens identifies the topics and issues addressed at the monthly sessions. All TOCA participants get free admission to

8989-405: The work of Allen Ruppersberg (1985), John Baldessari (1990), Ad Reinhardt (1991), Jeff Wall (1997), Barbara Kruger (1999), and Takashi Murakami (2007). In addition there were also monographic shows like an ambitious installation by Robert Gober in 1997, or a revelatory survey of Sigmar Polke 's photographic work in 1995. Since many of those shows traveled to New York and other cities in

9090-507: The world. The MOCA is the only museum in Los Angeles devoted exclusively to contemporary art . In 1986, the celebrated Japanese architect Arata Isozaki , who had never worked on a project in the United States before, completed the downtown location's sandstone building to international critical and public acclaim, marking a dramatic achievement in the contemporary art world and heralding

9191-711: Was a Surrealist , which was Breton's highest compliment. The painting was shown in the Surrealists' final show at the Galérie Maeght in Paris in 1947. Michael Auping, a curator at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth , saw in the work a "taut sexual drama" combined with nostalgic allusions to Gorky's Armenian past. The work in 1944 shows his emergence in the 1940s from the influence of Cézanne and Picasso into his own style, and

9292-515: Was a "new language. He "lit the way for two generations of American artists". The painterly spontaneity of mature works like The Liver is the Cock's Comb (1944), One Year the Milkweed (1944), and The Betrothal II (1947) immediately prefigured Abstract expressionism , and leaders in the New York School have acknowledged Gorky's considerable influence. Gorky had a distinct, signature style and

9393-520: Was an Armenian-American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism . He spent the last years of his life as a national of the United States. Along with Mark Rothko , Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning , Gorky has been hailed as one of the most powerful American painters of the 20th century. The suffering and loss he experienced in the Armenian genocide had crucial influence at Gorky's development as an artist. Vostanik Adoian

9494-469: Was being planned and under construction, MOCA opened an interim exhibition space called the "Temporary Contemporary" in the fall of 1983. The new space was located at the edge of a warehouse district in which many Los Angeles artists worked at the time. On November 17, 1983, the museum inaugurated the building with a Shinto purification ceremony, a ritual often held at groundbreakings in Little Tokyo, as

9595-456: Was born in the village of Khorgom (today's Dilkaya), situated on the shores of Lake Van in the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey ). His birthdate is often cited as April 15, 1904, but the year might have been 1902 or 1903. Toward the end of his life, he was particularly vague about his date of birth, changing it from year to year. In 1908, his father emigrated to the United States to avoid

9696-675: Was influenced by Impressionism , although later in the decade he produced works that were more postimpressionist . During this time he was living in New York and was influenced by Paul Cézanne . In 1925, he was asked by Edmund Greacen of the Grand Central Art Galleries to teach at the Grand Central School of Art ; Gorky accepted and remained with them until 1931. His notable students included Revington Arthur . In 1927, Gorky met Ethel Kremer Schwabacher and developed

9797-455: Was installed at the museum's plaza. The Grand Avenue location is used to display pieces from MOCA's substantial permanent collection, especially artists who did much of their work between 1940 and 1980. There is also an extensive set of rooms used to display temporary exhibits, usually a major retrospective of an important artist, or works connected by a theme. While the Grand Avenue facility

9898-494: Was known for his draftsmanship. He used twisted but elegant lines to bring in 'biomorphic' forms in his abstract paintings along with an overlay of colours to create a complex landscape of lines and colours on the canvas. His oeuvre synthesizes Surrealism and the sensuous color and painterliness of the School of Paris with his own highly personal formal vocabulary. His paintings and drawings hang in every major American museum including

9999-461: Was on design and architecture. The museum exhibited work by Takashi Murakami , Sterling Ruby , Catherine Opie and William Kentridge there, as well as by designers Rick Owens and Rodarte . MOCA also utilized the 384-seat PDC auditorium for a range of public programs. On the first Sunday of each month from 1pm to 3:30pm, Sunday Studio workshops typically begin with an interactive, discussion-based "spotlight" tour, highlighting selected works from

10100-609: Was operating out of an office on Boyd Street. The city's most prominent philanthropists and collectors had been assembled into a board of trustees in 1980, and set a goal of raising $ 10 million in their first year; an artists advisory council was involved early on. A working staff was brought together; Richard Koshalek was appointed chief curator; relationships were made with artists and galleries; and negotiations were begun to secure artwork and an exhibition space. Following Weisman's initiative, $ 1-million contributions from Eli Broad , Max Palevsky , and Atlantic Richfield Co. helped securing

10201-425: Was spelled "Archele Gorki" in the gallery's records. Most of Gorky's works from this period were unsigned.) The exact nature of their relationship is unknown. Mrs. John D. Rockefeller ( Abby Aldrich Rockefeller ) purchased from the gallery a Cézannesque still life by Gorky titled Fruit . Gorky may have been introduced to the gallery owner by Stuart Davis who regularly exhibited there. In 1935, Gorky became one of

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