Whether morphing into a colorful clown, iconic celebrity or a short bald man, artist Cindy Sherman is always the model in her photographs. On the four walls of a room on the second story of the newly opened Broad Contemporary Art Museum at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 38 portraits hang of Sherman exploring different identities.
This room is one of many monographic rooms in BCAM that highlight, often chronologically, the careers of a number of contemporary artists. BCAM recently opened as a new part of the LACMA with funds and collection pieces donated by Eli Broad, trustee at the LACMA and the man behind UCLA’s own recently built Broad Art Center.
The first and current installation features 200 pieces from Broad’s collection as a tribute to him. The installation will remain the same and undergo gradual changes starting in the fall. The installation also features works owned by LACMA, lent by artists or donated by other trustees.
Michele Urton, assistant curator of BCAM, said she feels this installation is special because it showcases artists in depth, which most museums usually do not have the resources to do.
“Most of the rooms are monographic rooms. (Broad) is able to collect artists in depth so we can do an entire room like this and see their work over the span of their career,” she said.
The building was still undergoing construction while the art pieces were being installed. Urton recalls wearing hard hats while experimenting with different layouts in each room, as the entire construction and installation process spanned over the short time frame of two years.
“It was really stressful. It’s an enormous project and some of those pieces take days or weeks to install so it was really tight for us in terms of installation time,” she said.
Upon entering the clear glass doors, viewers are met with a glass-fronted elevator surrounding a gigantic red car. Wrapped around the inside of the shaft with what resembles wallpaper is a wordy design by Barbara Kruger, artist and UCLA professor of art.
“I think it’s a really good place to meet the viewer’s eye. I like to make my work about how we are to one another, how we speak, how we touch, our kindnesses and cruelties,” Kruger said.
Using the solid colors black, white and red, boldly arranged to capture the viewers attention, Kruger printed statements inside the shaft such as, “Plenty should be enough ““ right?” and “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face, forever.”
While most museums begin their exhibitions on the ground floor, BCAM defies expectations and begins its exhibits on the top floor.
In order to facilitate this unconventional approach, an open-air three-story escalator elevated by skinny bright red poles boldly sits by the soon-to-be main entrance of the LACMA to take museumgoers to the third floor. The escalator was designed by BCAM architect Renzo Piano and is nicknamed “The Spider.”
“Renzo’s work is interested in bringing the outside in and the inside out,” Urton said.
Besides transporting viewers from bottom to top, the escalator also serves to mentally prepare viewers for the installation, according to Urton.
“This is a moment that you can take time and transition from the outside to be inside and you have this amazing view of the city and the Hollywood Hills,” she said.
The outside walls of the museum are constructed of glass, and the roof is composed of glass panels and sunshades, taking advantage of natural lighting.
“I usually tell people to come back a few times especially because the light is so different on the third floor if you come back during different times in the day,” Urton said.
The modern architecture of the building reflects the contemporary artwork inside the museum.
The entire first floor of the building is dedicated to two maze-like pieces by Richard Serra. The piece titled “Band” was recently purchased by the LACMA and sits adjacent to Serra’s heavier piece titled “Sequence.”
Currently showcased inside because Serra was fond of how it complemented the building’s architecture, “Band” is an oversized ribbon of steel and serves as a tremendous architectural feat.
“Even though there is wide curvature, each piece balances on its own, which is a remarkable engineering feat. It is a major acquisition for us to have a work like this in the collection,” Urton said. “(Serra) is interested in people being in scale and disorientation.”
The installation also features work by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Chris Burden, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Therrien and other contemporary artists.
However, even with an array of noted artists, Urton believes that museumgoers should come to BCAM with an open mind, learning to accept the intricate simplicities of the artwork instead of the rash technicalities.
“There is this idea that when people think about art they want it to be something that is technically difficult; there are parameters that people use to judge art,” she said. “I think that you just have to come at it with a more open mind than that.”