MOCA Announces Major 2004 Acquisitions

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) announced a number of major acquisitions in 2004, bringing the total for the calendar year to over 280 gifts and purchases added to MOCA's permanent collection. Among the artists represented are Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Michael Asher, John Baldessari, Stephan Balkenhol, Michaël Borremans, Robert Gober, Mike Kelley, William Kentridge, Barbara Kruger, Gordon Matta-Clark, Paul McCarthy, Steve McQueen, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Bill Owens, and Gregor Schneider.

“This exceptional year for acquisitions is a testament to the outstanding generosity and commitment of MOCA’s Trustees and donors,” said MOCA Director Jeremy Strick. “The large bodies of work by leading artists as well as a significant number of single works by emerging artists have greatly enhanced our existing holdings. This year, we have both diversified and augmented MOCA’s already singular collection of contemporary art.”

A record gift of 123 works from Los Angeles collector and MOCA Trustee Blake Byrne, which was previously announced in 2004, included John Baldessari’s monumental photographic work, “Mesa” (1990); Robert Gober’s “Untitled” (1998), a sculpture of two doors folded into a corner; Mike Kelley’s mixed media assemblage, “Silver Ball” (1994); and Gordon Matta-Clark’s seminal sculpture, “Office Baroque” (1977). Stephan Balkenhol’s multi-part sculpture, “Vier Figurerengruppen” (1999), and Steve McQueen’s breakthrough video installation, “Drumroll” (1998), are the first works by the aforementioned artists to enter MOCA’s collection. A major exhibition featuring selections from the gift, including many works that will be seen by the public for the first time, will open at MOCA Grand Avenue (250 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles) on July 3, 2005 and remain on view through October 10, 2005.

“This past year, MOCA Trustees and collectors have been extraordinary supporters,” said MOCA Chief Curator Paul Schimmel. “No gift was more significant than Blake Byrne’s exceptionally rich and diverse group of post-war American and European art.”

MOCA Trustees made several important gifts of art to the museum. MOCA Trustee Michael Sandler and Brenda Potter provided funds for the acquisition of three works by South African artist William Kentridge, who is best known for his films featuring coal-laden drawings that endlessly disappear, transform, and reproduce. The three works include two recent video works, “7 Fragments for George Méliès” (2003) and “Journey to the Moon” (2003), in addition to “Drawings from “Journey to the Moon” (Large Lunar Landscape) and (Large Night Sky with Pale Patch)” (2003), and join three Kentridge works already in MOCA’s collection, also purchased with funds provided by Sandler and Potter. MOCA Trustee Dean Valentine and Amy Adelson gave18 works on paper, including Takashi Murakami’s “Untitled (eye)” (1995), Frances Stark’s “My Sweet Lord (MSL)” (1996), and bodies of work by John Bock, Jennifer Bornstein, Kathleen Schimert, and Jim Shaw. Elizabeth Peyton’s “Nick Reading Moby Dick” (2003) was a partial and promised gift of MOCA Board Chair Cliff Einstein and his wife Mandy. MOCA Trustee Vivian Buehler and her husband Hans gave two works: Barbara Kruger’s “Untitled (Not cruel enough)” (1997) and Christian Marclay’s “Telephones” (1995). Chris Burden’s drawing “Exposing the Foundation of the Museum” (1986) was given by MOCA Trustee Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy. Former Trustee Councilman Joel Wachs donated eight works by artists including Jennifer Pastor, Laura Owens, Paul Sietsema, and Richard Tuttle. Edward Weston’s “Rock, Point Lobos (Duck-Shape)” (1930) was a gift from The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection.

Twenty-three major purchases were funded by The Buddy Taub Foundation, Jill and Dennis Roach, directors. The group includes significant paintings by European artists such as Karin Mamma Andersson’s “Fatherland” (1997–2004), Michaël Borremans’ “Four Fairies – design for a groundsculpture” (2003), Eberhard Havekost’s “Versteck (Hide Out) 1 and 2” (2004), Christopher Orr’s “Of Both Worlds” (2004), Philippe Perrot’s “Migraine” (2004), and Matthias Weischer’s “Zimmer” (2004).

MOCA and The Art Institute of Chicago jointly acquired Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s “Talo/The House” (2002). In this triple projection installation, images of a woman with supernatural powers in concert with an enveloping soundtrack form a gripping domestic surrealism. This work is the first by the Finnish artist to enter MOCA’s collection, where it joins signature works by leading video artists of Ahtila’s generation, including Diana Thater, Doug Aitken, Douglas Gordon, and Pipilotti Rist.

The Acquisition and Collection Committee made several important purchases, including the first works by Gregor Schneider and Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba to enter MOCA’s collection. Schneider’s “Lead Room” (2003) was featured in MOCA’s 2003–04 presentation of his large-scale installation “Dead House ur,” an obsessively altered version of the interior of Schneider’s family’s house in Rheydt, Germany. Among the most significant, personal, and haunting works from the “Dead House ur,” this room is lined with lead, a material long associated with his family’s business, a manufacturer and provider of insulation and roofing material. Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s video projection, “Happy New Year – Memorial Project Vietnam II” (2003), examines the ongoing problems of cultural translation and the aftermath of the Vietnam War through imaginative underwater films. Nguyen-Hatsushiba was born in Tokyo and is currently based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and this acquisition adds to MOCA’s growing collection of work by contemporary Asian artists.

Michael Asher’s “no title” (1966), featured in the major exhibition “A Minimal Future? Art as Object 1958–1968,” and Rineke Dijkstra’s “Stephany, Saint Joseph Ballet, Orange County, California, USA, March 22, 2003” (2003), were also purchased with funds provided by the committee. Thomas Demand’s “Space Simulator” (2003) is a large-scale photo purchased with funds provided by the Acquisition and Collection Committee and Beth Swofford. The Scott D. F. Spiegel Endowment Fund enabled MOCA to purchase Luisa Lambri’s “Untitled (Banco Boavista #01)” and “Untitled (Banco Boavista #02)” and Sam Durant’s “We Are The People,” all from 2003.

The Drawings Committee provided funds for the purchase of an important body of early works on paper by Los Angeles artist Paul McCarthy. “Stoned Blue Drawings” (1968–69), a suite of 26 drawings, explores the connections between McCarthy’s longstanding practice of drawing and his well-known fusion of sculpture and performance, often with controversial combinations of pop culture clichés, social taboos, and art historical references. The group joins McCarthy’s significant performance-based sculptural work, “Tokyo Santa, Santa’s Trees” (1999), the only other work by the artist in the permanent collection. McCarthy’s work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, such as MOCA’s 1992 exhibition “Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s”and the 1995 and 1997 Whitney Biennials. In 2000, MOCA presented a survey of his work (organized by the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York).

Expanding MOCA’s holdings of works on paper, the Drawings Committee also funded the purchase of Ed Ruscha’s “Stains” (1970), a portfolio of 75 mixed media stains that were recently on view in conjunction with MOCA’s presentation of Ruscha’s “Chocolate Room” installation. Additional highlights include Francesca Gabbiani’s “Hot Panorama” (2003); Kim Jones’s “Untitled War Drawing (Elevation)” (1991/1995/2003); Marlene McCarty’s “Melinda Loveless, Toni Lawrence, Hope Rippey, Laurie Tackett, and Shanda Sharer – July 11, 1992 (1:39 am)” (2000–01), a partial and promised gift of David Teiger; and Jennifer Pastor’s “Untitled (Drawing for Fall)” (1994), purchased with funds from the Committee and Tony and Gail