Overview
- The new building opens to the public after nine months of installing about 1,700 works across 110,000 square feet of fresh space, lifting the museum to 220,000 square feet of galleries.
- The curving structure crosses Wilshire Boulevard on one raised level about 30 feet up and relies on UV-shading curtains to protect light-sensitive art, though last year’s preview exposed harsh acoustics in its hard concrete rooms.
- Notable works now on view include Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucian Freud, Vincent van Gogh’s Tarascon Stagecoach, Hokusai’s The Great Wave, Diego Rivera’s Día de Flores, and Henri Matisse’s La Gerbe.
- Funding for the final phase included $125 million from Los Angeles County, a reported $150 million gift from David Geffen, and major support from Elaine Wynn and the W. M. Keck Foundation.
- The project drew criticism for demolishing the 1965 Pereira buildings and prompted the Ahmanson Foundation to end a 50-year partnership in 2020, even as new public draws like the 75,000-square-foot W. M. Keck Plaza, Jeff Koons’s Split-Rocker, and an Erewhon juice bar debut on site.