The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) opened its new David Geffen Galleries to the public last Monday, following an exclusive preview period for museum members that began in mid-April. This landmark opening marks the return of LACMA’s permanent collection to a dedicated space after a nearly six-and-a-half-year hiatus.
Designed by renowned architect Peter Zumthor, the building was created as the home for LACMA’s permanent collection and a vision of what a global art museum can be in today’s world. Departing from traditional narratives, the building’s inaugural installation uses the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea as a framework for creating vital and surprising connections across time and place.
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- Exterior view southeast toward Wilshire Boulevard with Tony Smith’s Smoke (1967) in foreground, David Geffen Galleries at LACMA, art © Tony Smith Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo © Iwan Baan
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- Exterior view northwest from Wilshire Boulevard with Tony Smith’s Smoke (1967) at left, David Geffen Galleries at LACMA, art © Tony Smith Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo © Iwan Baan
The horizontal design enables LACMA to present all artworks on a single level without giving precedence to any culture, tradition, or era. Visitors are able to follow their own curiosity, freed from prescribed paths, as they encounter a wealth of new artworks and see old favorites in a fresh light.
Forty-five curators from all departments collaborated on the gallery’s inaugural installation, in which works of art from the museum’s collection fill 10,200 square meters of gallery space.
Four Worlds
The Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea serve as a framework to explore innovative ways to connect cultures and artistic traditions. These “worlds” tell multiple stories that reimagine a singular art-historical narrative, creating new and surprising connections across time and place.
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- © Museum Associates/LACMA
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- © Museum Associates/LACMA
Mediterranean Sea
These galleries consider the region’s cultural interconnectedness expressed through shared materials and techniques. They feature paintings and sculpture from the Islamic world and Europe, highlights from territories once ruled by Spain, including the Low Countries, as well as Egyptian, Greek, and Roman antiquities. Notable displays include Baroque masterpieces shown alongside their classical inspirations and an elaborate eighteenth-century reception room from Damascus, Syria.
Atlantic Ocean
Works in the Atlantic Ocean galleries tell the story of how artistic traditions developed independently around the Atlantic rim for millennia and how the arrival of Europeans in the Caribbean initiated permanent contact between Europe and the Americas, transforming trade and artistic practice. Featured works include African and Black American textiles; modern Latin American paintings, sculpture, and furniture; LACMA’s deep holdings of 20th-century photography; and highlights from the museum’s expansive decorative arts and design collection.
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- © Museum Associates/LACMA
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- © Museum Associates/LACMA
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean galleries explore the dynamic exchange of the region, shaped by Indigenous voyaging, imperial expansion, and global trade. This section features works from across Oceania; figurative ceramics from West Mexico to the Pacific Coast of Peru; and blue-and-white porcelain from East Asia. The galleries also explore the historical and mythical aspects of the American West alongside the experimentation in design and engineering long associated with California.
Indian Ocean
As one of humankind’s longest maritime exchange networks, the Indian Ocean connects ancient port cities with overland routes like the Silk Road. Artworks here span the full chronological range of the collection. Sculptures from South and Southeast Asia—a core strength of LACMA—are considered through the lenses of religious practice and stylistic development. Textiles are also prominently featured, ranging from Indonesian batiks to the grand Ardabil Carpet.