In
honor of LACMA's 50th
anniversary and with
a focus of underscoring diversity, 50 for 50
presents magnificent
artworks spanning several centuries and cultures, gifted or promised
to all curatorial areas of the museum. The
transformative gifts include African, French Baroque, Italian,
neoclassical paintings, Spanish colonial, German, Indian, Japanese,
Chinese, American pop art and works from 1960's LACMA founding point.
From
the A. Jerrold Perenchio collection is the largest single gift of art
promised in LACMA's history. Approximately 50 objects including 19th
century European Art and Masterpieces from the 12th
century. The majority, from 1870 to the 1930's, reveal significant
stages of development of Modernism: Impressionism,
Post-impressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Of the 50 masterpieces, six are on view including works of Edgar Degas (At the Café-Concert: The Song of the Dog, 1875), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Jane Avril: Profile of a Woman, 1893) and Edouard Vuillard (Sacha Guitry in His Dressing Room, 1911), as well as Jean Baptiste Carpeaux's (1827-1875) Study for Dance (1865).
Showcased
from the collection of Jane and Marc Nathanson, are works by Roy
Lichtenstein (Interior with Three Hanging Lamps, 1991), James
Rosenquist (Portrait of the Skull Family, 1962), George Segal
(Laundromat, 1966-67), and Andy Warhol's seminal Two
Marilyns (1962). Featured are also gifts promised from the collection of Lynda and Stewart Resnick, with masterpieces by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (The Virgin with the Host, 1860), the Medici court sculptor Giambologna, (Flying Mercury,
probably 1580s), and François Boucher's mythological (Leda and the Swan, 1742). Included is Christ Blessing (1480-85), the first Hans Memling to enter LACMA's collection and a crucial addition of one of the most important artists working in the late 15th-century Flanders.
Debuting
in 50 for 50 is also Claude Monet's Two Women in a Garden
(c. 1872-73), a future gift of Wendy and Leonard Goldberg; an African
Serpent Headdress (possibly late 18th century)
sculpture made by the Baga peoples, Republic of Guinea, a promised
gift of trustee Bobby Kotick; and Vija Celmins' seminal 1964 painting
T.V., a gift of trustee Steve Tisch, marking the first
painting by Celmins to enter LACMA's collection and joining Celmins'
sculpture Untitled (Comb) (1970), acquired by LACMA in 1972.
Noteworthy
are a Albrecht Dürer's
Melencolia (c. 1514), the leading artist of the German
Renaissance, Bernini's sculpture Portrait of a Gentleman
(1670) a gift of The Ahmanson Foundation and, following Giotto's
tradition, is Taddeo Gaddi's Crucifixion with the Madonna and
Saint John the Evangelist (c. 1360), one of the most important
painters in 14th century Florence, a promised gift of
Suzanne Deal Booth.
Pioneering
Los Angeles artist DeWain Valentine's Red Concave Circle
(1970), at the entrance of the exhibit, will also join LACMA's
collection, thanks to the generosity of Bank of America, one of the
sponsors of the 50 for 50 exhibition.
A
number of large scale works and installations acquired in honor of
the 50th
anniversary are on view throughout the campus: Robert Irwin's Miracle
Mile
(2013), Frans Snyder's Game
Market (1630's) and
Kiki Smith's Jersey
Crows
(1995) collection.
50
for 50 will be open to the public free of charge on the opening
day, in honor of LACMA's 50th Anniversary Free Community
Day.
The
exhibit runs from April 26, 2015 through September 13, 2015, at the
Resnick Pavilion, at 5909 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036.
For
more information call (323) 857-6000 or visit http://www.lacma.org/
