Latest news with #LACMA
Los Angeles Times
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
How Kamasi Washington and 100 musicians filled LACMA's empty new building with a sonic work of art
'The general public was admitted to new Los Angeles County Museum of Art for the first time on Friday night — not to look at art but to listen to music,' wrote Times music critic Albert Goldberg in 1965. Exactly 70 years and three months later, history repeated itself. Thursday night was the first time the public was allowed into LACMA's David Geffen Galleries. The occasion was a massive sonic event led by jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington. More than a hundred musicians spread out in nine groups along 900-foot serpentine route of Peter Zumthor's new building, still empty of art. The celebration, which drew arts and civic leaders for the first of three preview nights, was far grander than the concert on March 26,1965, that opened LACMA's Leo S. Bing Theatre the night before the doors opened to the museum's original galleries. That occasion, a program by the legendary Monday Evening Concerts in which Pierre Boulez conducted the premiere of his 'Éclat,' helped symbolize an exuberant L.A. coming of age, with the Music Center having opened three months earlier. Monday Evening Concerts had been a true L.A. event drawing local musical celebrities including Igor Stravinsky and showing off L.A.'s exceptional musicians. The mandolinist in 'Éclat,' for instance, was Sol Babitz, the father of the late, quintessential L.A. writer Eve Babitz. Boulez, an explosive composer, eventually turned the 10-minute ''Éclat,' for 15 instruments' into a 25-minute orchestral masterpiece, 'Éclat/Multiples,' and left unfinished sketches behind to extend that to a full hour. Washington turned out to be the ideal radical expansionist to follow in Boulez's footsteps for the new LACMA, with a resplendent enlargement of his 2018 half-hour EP, 'Harmony of Difference.' The short tracks — 'Desire,' 'Knowledge,' 'Perspective,' 'Humility,' 'Integrity' and 'Truth' — employ nearly three dozen musicians in bursts of effusive wonder. For LACMA, Washington tripled the number of musicians and the length. What some critics thought were bursts of bluster, however enthralling, became outright splendor. Introducing the program, LACMA Director Michael Govan called it an event that has never happened before and may never happen again. I got little sense of what this building will be like as a museum with art on the walls, but it's a great space for thinking big musically and, in the process, for finding hope in an L.A. this year beset by fires and fear-inducing troops on our streets. Washington is one of our rare musicians who thrives on excess. He has long been encouraged to aim toward concision, especially in his longer numbers, in which his untiring improvisations can become exhausting in their many climaxes. But that misses the point. I've never heard him play anything, short or long, that couldn't have been three times longer. His vision is vast, and he needs space. In the David Geffen Galleries, he got it. The nine ensembles included a large mixed band that he headed, along with ensembles of strings, brass, woodwinds and choruses. Each played unique arrangements of the songs, not quite synchronized, but if you ambled the long walkways, you heard the material in different contexts as though this were sonic surrealism. Acoustically, the Geffen is a weird combination. The large glass windows and angled concrete walls reflect sound in very different ways. Dozens of spaces vary in shape, size and acoustical properties. During a media tour earlier in the day, I found less echo than might be expected, though each space had its own peculiarities. Washington's ensembles were all carefully amplified and sounded surprisingly liquid, which made walking a delight as the sounds of different ensembles came in and out of focus. A chorus' effusiveness gradually morphed into an ecstatic Washington saxophone solo down the way that then became a woodwind choir that had an organ-like quality. The whole building felt alive. There was also the visual element. The concert took place at sunset, the light through the large windows ever changing, the 'Harmony of Difference' becoming the differences of the bubbling tar pits nearby or the street life on Wilshire or LACMA's Pavilion for Japanese Art, which looks lovely from the new galleries. Govan's vision is of a place where art of all kinds from all over comes together, turning the galleries into a promenade of discovery. Musically, this falls more in line with John Cage's 'Musicircus,' in which any number of musical ensembles perform at chance-derived times as a carnival of musical difference — something for which the Geffen Galleries is all but tailor-made. Nevertheless, Washington brilliantly demonstrated the new building's potential for dance, opera, even theater. The museum may not have made performance a priority in recent years, but Washington also reminded us that the premiere of Boulez' 'Éclat' put music in LACMA's DNA. Seven decades on, Zumthor, whether he intended it or not, now challenges LACMA to become LACMAP: Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Performance.
New York Times
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
LACMA Opens the Doors to Its New Building
Ever since the Los Angeles County Museum of Art engaged the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor 16 years ago, its $720 million new building has had a long journey from controversy to construction to curatorial challenge. On Thursday evening, the curvilinear behemoth finally became a place where people could come inside. Although the art will not be installed until next year, the museum opened its doors for its first public glimpse of the new David Geffen Galleries, featuring a commissioned performance by the saxophonist and composer Kamasi Washington — with 120 musicians disbursed throughout the building. Visitors walking past the soaring windows, as the sounds of instruments and voices filled the undulating concrete passageway, were visibly excited — and even moved — by what many described as a welcome injection of positive energy to a city battered by protests and recovering from fires. 'It's really a special thing for us to be here to experience it almost raw,' said Frank Svengsouk, an art director and senior manager for the Disney Entertainment Division, who had come from Carlsbad, about two hours south, after having been displaced by the fires in Altadena. 'It makes us think about how much we love the city and how much the city means to us, how much the city brings back to us. 'Think about Paris with I.M. Pei — it's changing the landscape of this place,' he added, referring to the impact of the skylit Louvre Pyramid as he gazed at the vista with his wife. 'Over time, it's going to be something important for us in L.A.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Los Angeles Times
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
LACMA opens its new building for a sneak peak: Photos from the first preview
The concrete walls of the David Geffen Galleries were still bare Thursday evening. The landscaping outside is still settling in, and pockets of construction were still visible. But the minute the music poured out of the upstairs entryway, it finally hit: The new LACMA is actually here. After five years of construction, so much debate about its scale, design and ambitions, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art held its first event Thursday night inside the Peter Zumthor-designed building. A sprawling, immersive concert by composer and SoCal jazz hero Kamasi Washington called for multiple bands, each with about a dozen musicians, to play site-specific arrangements throughout the empty galleries before art has been installed. A woodwind ensemble overlooked Park La Brea through floor-to-ceiling glass; a choir stacked harmonies that floated over the span of the structure as it crossed Wilshire Boulevard. Hundreds of VIPs and members of the media took it all in. The project has its skeptics, including how the museum's permanent collection will function in it. But for now, museum members could slink about the echoing halls of L.A.'s newest landmark and ponder the possibilities. Guests at the sneak peek inside the new building Thursday cross a glass-lined expanse that crosses over Wilshire Boulevard. LACMA Director Michael Govan addresses members of the media assembled for the first public peek inside the empty building, which still needs to complete some construction details and install the art before opening, targeted for April 2026. The design of the museum has morphed over the years, from a dark, curvaceous amoeba-like form that echoed the nearby La Brea Tar Pits to a design that retains the curves up top but shifts to rectilinear glass on the galleries level below. The preview event Thursday featured musicians staged throughout the building. Preview events give museum members a chance to view Zumthor's design before art is installed. One of the lingering questions is how the concrete walls will fare given the museum's new plan to shift from permanent collection displays to ever-rotating exhibitions — and all the rehanging of artworks that will be required. The setting sun casts long shadows from visitors looking out toward the rooftop of Renzo Piano's Resnick Pavilion and, off in the distance on the left, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures' domed terrace. Artist Tony Smith's installation 'Smoke' has a new home outside the David Geffen Galleries. The museum recently announced the addition of a forthcoming Jeff Koons' sculpture, 'Split-Rocker.' 'Smoke' rises near a long entry staircase to the new building. When the new building opens in April 2026, LACMA has said, the ticketing process will be handled at kiosks on the ground level. Inside another one of the galleries. Some of the architecture-circle speculation about the building has centered on the finish of the building's concrete, inside and out. The view from the David Geffen Galleries as it crosses Wilshire Boulevard. Times art critic Christopher Knight, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his early analysis of the LACMA building plan, and Times music critic Mark Swed attended the preview concert event Thursday. Check back for their first impressions of the new space.
Time Out
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
It may not have any art yet, but LACMA's new building offers plenty to look at inside
There's not a single piece of artwork to see on the concrete walls of LACMA's new building right now. And yet, this is undoubtedly the most exciting art destination in Los Angeles this weekend. Months ahead of the galleries' planned April 2026 debut, and before the institution begins installing artwork, LACMA has allowed the public to take a peek inside its new David Geffen Galleries—to the tune of a one-of-a-kind performance from local saxophone extraordinaire Kamasi Washington, no less. For the museum members and everyday Angelenos who were lucky enough to secure tickets, they'll find more than 100 musicians split between 10 performance areas, with each ensemble playing a different component of the six-part jazz suite Harmony of Difference; you might catch Washington soloing on sax toward the center of the building, but round a corner and you'll hear the buzz of a brass section or the echoing voices of a choir. But what about the building itself? The Peter Zumthor-designed replacement for LACMA's myriad mid-century buildings on its eastern campus consolidates collections into a single-floor, 110,000-square-foot amoeba-shaped space. It's also, since its unveiling in 2013 and start of construction in 2020, invited plenty of strong opinions about everything from its aesthetic to its footprint. So what's it like to actually step inside (still sans art, of course)? I was invited to the museum on Thursday for the first of three performances. About an hour before sunset, I filed past the familiar spider-like lines of Tony Smith's Smoke sculpture and hoofed it up the long staircase into the David Geffen Galleries (there are elevators, as well). I passed by what looked like a ground-floor restaurant space and a future bookshop but could only gawk from outside. Upstairs, though, I was free to roam across the entire floor—and roam I did. The building isn't broken up into traditional rooms; instead, there are roughly two dozen enclosed galleries toward the center of the structure, while the entirety of the exterior is lined with floor-to-ceiling windows. The views are absolutely dreamy and offer a fresh vantage point that makes it feel as though you're floating above one of L.A.'s most crowded cultural corridors. Each curve unveils a new, unexpected perspective: overlooking the lake at the La Brea Tar Pits, eye-level with the bubble-like theater of the Academy Museum and literally on top of the traffic on Wilshire Boulevard. Yes, the building spans the busy road (Jeff Koons's floral Split-Rocker sculpture will eventually anchor the outside of the southern side), and it's tough to articulate just how wild it is to shuffle along the museum floor and suddenly find yourself crossing over the iconic street. At every point, the architecture perfectly frames each vista, so—for better or worse—expect plenty of posing, particularly as the setting sun floods the west side with dramatic lighting. Despite all of those windows, it was easy to get a little bit turned around inside of the space—but I imagine that'll be much less of an issue once there's actually artwork installed. For now, it's a lot of unadorned concrete, so if you're not looking out a window, there are no other visual cues to place exactly where you are. Without paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations, the interior galleries feel raw and empty because they're, well, raw and empty right now—so I'll hold off any sort of proper judgment until after the installation process has wrapped up. (You can see how the galleries will look with art inside over on LACMA's site.) When Washington's performance wound down, it was dark out. As I descended the staircase out of the David Geffen Galleries, Urban Lights' rows of streetlamps glowed in the background. On my way in, I thought some angles of the building were more flattering than others; the profile of the tar pits side looks beautiful, but stand close enough to the western tip and it feels a little like a low-angle selfie. But as I was exiting and looked back up the staircase at night, it was as if the entire building was floating. It was oddly peaceful—and already difficult to imagine the museum and Wilshire Boulevard without it. Check out some more photos below. Kamasi Washington continues his performances on Friday and Saturday—tickets are unfortunately sold out—followed by a series of member previews of the building. The David Geffen Galleries open April 2026.
Hypebeast
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hypebeast
Jeff Koons' 37-Foot 'Split-Rocker' to Blossom at LACMA
Summary After stops at Versailles and Rockefeller Center,Jeff Koons' 37-foot-tallSplit-Rockerwill call the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) its permanent home. Gifted to the museum by art collectors Lynda and Stewart Resnick, the large-scale artist proof will be planted outside the new David Geffen galleries later this year, and will anchor the new outdoor public art program integral to LACMA's freshly completed expansion. Koons marries two halves of children's toys for the flower-forward piece – his son's rocking belonging to his son and a dinosaur – evoking the cartoonish, nostalgic charm at the heart of his most famed works. Planted in its metal skeleton are 50,000 native succulents, perennials, annuals and other blooms. According to theLos Angeles Times, the acquisition and attuning ofSplit-Rockerwas years in the making, as Koons and LACMA consulted a team of local horticulturalists for the selection of drought-tolerant flowers fit for the SoCal climate. The Peter Zumthor-designed Geffen Galleries, which will house the museum's permanent collection, include a new building and outdoor spaces spanning 3.5 acres across both sides of Wilshire Houlevard. Additional works to look forward to feature the likes of Diana Thater, Mariana Castillo Deball, Liz Glynn, Pedro Reyes and more. Split-Rockerwill be seeded later this summer with hopes to be fully bloomed by next April. In the meantime, Kamasi Washington and his 100-person ensemble are taking over the 110,000-square-feet Geffen galleries for a run of performances on June 26-28. Head to the museum'swebsitefor more details.
