What should we measure and count? Here again, MOCA offers one answer. Like many sectors today, museums, too, are struggling to demonstrate long-term value in a world of short-term gain. “It's about the role of museums in a culture where visual art is marginalized except for the buzz around secondary market sales, it's about the not so subtle recalibration of the meaning of ‘philanthropy,’ and it's about the morphing of the so-called ‘art world’ into the only speculative bubble still left floating … Parties and galas are OK, but sometimes these things called ‘museums’ have to have things called ‘exhibitions.’” “This is not about a particular cast of characters,” they wrote. In a letter printed in the Los Angeles Times, Kruger and Opie connect the erosion of the museum’s core purpose with the pervasiveness of speculation and power plays in today’s art market. This was clearly expressed by the widely respected artists John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Barbara Kruger and Catherine Opie - all of whom share a concern about the mission of MOCA all have been trustees at the museum, and all just resigned from its board. Rather, this raises important questions about museums today and what values they embody. He is doing a bang-up job of exactly what he was hired to do. With this combination of exhibitions, performances, stars and celebrities, Deitch has effectively increased the museum’s attendance from a low of almost 150,000 to 400,000 visitors clearly, he can deliver audience.īut this firestorm is not really about Jeffrey Deitch. To be fair, MOCA has also initiated projects with artists such as Amanda Ross-Ho, Mark Bradford and Shepard Fairey, balancing the more Hollywood-driven program. Under Deitch, it has been dominated by celebrities and youth culture, including a retrospective of artwork by the late actor Dennis Hopper, the exhibition “Art in Streets” and a show about James Dean staged by actor James Franco. Since then, MOCA’s program has moved in a new direction.
Deitch’s hire raised lots of questions about commercialism, scholarship and undue influence by one donor, but they were deferred with a wait-and-see attitude. After several years of budget deficits led to the drawdown of MOCA’s endowment – and a $30 million bailout by Eli Broad’s foundation - Jeffrey Deitch, the accomplished NYC gallery owner, business whiz and street-art impresario, was appointed director in 2010 with a charge to fix the finances. Significant exhibitions like these are expensive, labor-intensive endeavors. Critics from Christopher Knight of the LA Times and Roberta Smith of The New York Times to Tyler Green, author of the widely read blog Modern Art Notes, all recognize the curatorial leadership that MOCA defined and exerted under Schimmel and the position held by MOCA as the museum that treated contemporary art as a subject for rigorous scholarship. They excelled at groundbreaking exhibitions and collection building of historical sweep, meticulous research and the engagement of artists in the LA community. Why is this a national story? Is it simply a case of what Tolstoy described when he wrote, “Happy families are all alike every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”? Or is it closer to Jenny Holzer’s artwork, "Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise"? As a museum director, I see the issue as all about values: What is the definition of success in a museum and who defines it?įor many of us, MOCA was the standard-bearer of success. It seems that the renowned curator’s scholarly approach to contemporary art clashed with new director Jeffrey Deitch’s populist direction. Three weeks ago, longtime MOCA chief curator Paul Schimmel, one of the nation’s leading curators, was summoned to the office of LA philanthropist and MOCA life trustee Eli Broad there Schimmel was told he was out of a job.
What should we measure and count? (AP File Photo)įor the past few weeks, art museum aficionados and the art press have been apoplectic about changes at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. A recent dust-up at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles raises questions about what makes a museum successful. Twitter facebook Email This article is more than 9 years old.