BMW Art Guide by Independent Collectors

Broad Minded

Artist Tomasz Kobialka on The Broad – Los Angeles, USA

Jeff Koons, "Rabbit", 1986. © Jeff Koons. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio, L.A.
Jeff Koons, "Rabbit", 1986. © Jeff Koons. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio, L.A.

Walking down the Grand Avenue in Los Angeles, right by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), you can’t help but be struck by the angular construction of The Broad and its bright white honeycomb exterior. Opened in 2015, and designed by the renowned architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the museum is home to artworks from The Broad Collection. The museum founders, Eli and Edythe Broad, have been collecting postwar and contemporary art for over five decades and their collection is representative of some of the most important American and international artists from that period.

Jeff Koons, "Michael Jackson and Bubbles", 1988. © Jeff Koons. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio, L.A.
Jeff Koons, "Michael Jackson and Bubbles", 1988. © Jeff Koons. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio, L.A.
The Broad museum on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. Courtesy The Broad and DIller Scofidio + Renfro. Photo: Benny Chan.
The Broad museum on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. Courtesy The Broad and DIller Scofidio + Renfro. Photo: Benny Chan.

Spanning over 35 000 square meters and situated on two expansive floors, the museum’s inaugural installation has been carefully selected and curated – not an easy task given the diversity and breadth of the works housed in the collection (which are all stored and archived away securely onsite). Upon entering the lobby, visitors are greeted on the first floor by the Infinity Mirrored Room, the dazzling installation by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, which is also a very popular Instagram favorite among visitors. Moving through the first floor exhibition space, Takashi Murakami’s massive eighty-two-foot-long painting, In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow, is an intense expression of sentiment and emotion. Illustrated in Murakami’s hyper-anime style, the painting was inspired by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan.

Installation of works by Christopher Wool and Jeff Koons in The Broad’s third-floor galleries. Courtesy The Broad and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Photo: Bruce Damonte
Installation of works by Christopher Wool and Jeff Koons in The Broad’s third-floor galleries. Courtesy The Broad and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Photo: Bruce Damonte

Taking the long escalator up to the third floor, popular American artists are well accounted for, including the likes of Roy Lichtenstein, Jean‐Michel Basquiat, Chris Wool and Jeff Koons. These obvious crowd pleasers are a strong aesthetic draw card for audiences well versed in popular contemporary culture. That’s not to say that The Broad is a one-liner. Popular works act as frame for perhaps less accessible, but equally important artists. Artists whose concerns are more cerebral and conceptual, including John Baldessari, Barbra Kruger and Joseph Beuys.

Yayoi Kusama, “Infinity Mirrored Room - The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away“, 2013. © Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York
Yayoi Kusama, “Infinity Mirrored Room - The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away“, 2013. © Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York
The Broad museum’s lobby with escalator. Courtesy The Broad and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Photo: Iwan Baan
The Broad museum’s lobby with escalator. Courtesy The Broad and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Photo: Iwan Baan
Barbara Kruger, "Untitled (Your body is a battleground)", 1989, © Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger, "Untitled (Your body is a battleground)", 1989, © Barbara Kruger
Roy Lichtenstein, "Live Ammo (Blang)", 1962. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio, L.A. – © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
Roy Lichtenstein, "Live Ammo (Blang)", 1962. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio, L.A. – © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

In addition to housing the collection, the museum acts as the headquarters to The Broad Art Foundation. The foundation runs an art-lending programme, which generously shares the experience of the collection with a worldwide network of museums and institutions. Recently the collection acquired Jordan Wolfson’s Untitled (Female Figure), a surreal animatronic-dancing robot that proved a showstopper when it was premiered at David Zwirner gallery in Manhattan late 2014. If this acquisition is anything to go by, we can be sure that The Broad will continue to be an exciting and engaging experience for locals and L.A. visitors alike.

Tomasz Kobialka is a Polish born, Australian artist currently doing his MA at Goldsmiths University in London. He is a contributing writer to Sleek Magazine.

More Information on The Broad