{"id":791108,"date":"2026-05-12T13:04:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T13:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/791108\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T13:04:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T13:04:51","slug":"siteline-l-as-exciting-new-landmark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/791108\/","title":{"rendered":"Siteline | L.A\u2019s Exciting New Landmark"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot has been written about the spectacular new David Geffen Galleries building at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art<\/a>, but none of those people who attended press previews had to worry about parking. We pulled into the usual lot on 6th Street, only to be told that it was full and handed the postcard below. That the new addition has put stress on parking capacity is to be expected, but why doesn\u2019t LACMA email this map to visitors before they show up? I\u2019ll waive my consultancy fee this time. (There was plenty of parking at the SAG AFTRA garage; it costs $3 per 15 minutes, so you\u2019ll likely hit the $24 maximum.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Anyway, the new 110,000-square-foot building really is fantastic. I don\u2019t know what to compare the shape to\u2014a Matisse cut-out? a cartoon head about to eat the Pavilion for Japanese Art?\u2014but the most remarkable thing about Peter Zumthor\u2019s design is the way it extends over Wilshire Boulevard.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> And it\u2019s no mere walkway over the street. The engineering is impressive.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There are elevators, but the main entrance is up a dramatic set of stairs near the \u201cUrban Light\u201d installation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The galleries are all on the upper level, in an open-plan layout, with a glass perimeter and rooms dotting the interior. The irresistible views of the cityscape are the main benefit of being upstairs. Unlike at most museum spaces, however, there\u2019s no intuitive route. From an architectural perspective, that\u2019s not a demerit\u2014on the contrary, it makes for very interesting exploring.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>Metallic gauze draperies soften the light without sacrificing the view.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Interiors are a concrete lover\u2019s dream. Zumthor must be paying homage to Tadao Ando, who\u2019s known for his use of the material, including at high-profile art museums in Japan. I would\u2019ve loved to see it before any of the art was installed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>In some rooms, the concrete has been tinted\u2014a process<\/a> that\u2019s more interesting than you might expect. They feel like different worlds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>While the building is clearly a winner, the curatorial choices have been more controversial\u2014not which pieces from the permanent collection are and are not included, but how it\u2019s all organized. \u201cA single, non-hierarchical exhibition level inspired by the flow of oceans,\u201d is how the museum describes it, but it feels the Metropolitan Museum of Art got shaken like a snow globe. (One benefit is surely that it hides shortcomings in the collection.) I like wandering in a museum, more so on the first visit; I wonder what returning would feel like. How do you break off a part, the way you might at the Met?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The higgledy-piggledy arrangement is sometimes enlightening, as at the table with water vessels from different periods and regions displayed side by side and the European garments shown alongside figurative paintings and Asian textiles.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>There\u2019s an undeniable element of surprise. You really don\u2019t know what might be around the corner\u2014like a eucharistic urn from Bolivia, or a 1961 Studebaker designed by Raymond Loewy, or an 18th-century Paraguayan cabinet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Any large museum can leave you feeling drunk on art, but the curation can lead to whiplash as you ping-pong from era to era, style to style, region to region. And this may sound crazy when talking about such a rich, varied stash of amazing stuff, but all that looking at things\u2014things on the wall, things on the floor, things in vitrines, maybe a thing hanging from the ceiling\u2014gets repetitive. I found myself wishing for something experiential, an installation or two like James Turrell Skyspace or a Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror Room. The only moment along those lines was a free-form performance involving a guy kicking a soccer ball, a violinist, a bicyclist, and a dancer. It wasn\u2019t especially additive, although the music wafting through the galleries was pleasant. And I suppose it did broaden our sense of what else might be a performance\u2014the woman who brought her dog? The guy rolling calls? The wailing baby that seemed to be tailing us?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>That said, if you want fabulous pieces from marquee artists\u2014including ones that particularly delighted me by Henri Matisse, El Anatsui, Ren\u00e9 Magritte, Francis Bacon, and Henri Fantin-Latour\u2014you\u2019ve come to the right place.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Do Ho Suh, Kees van Dongen, and Robert Henri, meanwhile, were among the artists I was pleased to discover.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>And I loved the wave lithographs by June Wayne, but why is one missing? There were a few empty vitrines, too, and an installation still under construction\u2014odd in such a high-profile opening.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>When you couldn\u2019t identify the artist by looking at the work, good luck. The labels might be outside the room\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u2026or arranged in a puzzling fashion.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In the case of this sculpture, we walked all around the gallery trying to figure out which label might apply. We deduced it must be Manjunath Kamath\u2019s \u201cVikatonarva.\u201d<\/a> Knowing the name of the artist or work may not be that enlightening, but this piece dates from 2024, which is important information, given that it\u2019s surrounded by antiquities. But then most of the labels at the museum include little info beyond who donated it, and honestly, who besides the donor gives a fig? Tell me about the art! This is extra frustrating because\u2014as you can see if you click \u201cVikatonarva\u201d above\u2014they have the info. (Every now and then there was a QR code, but I don\u2019t want to spend my time at a museum staring at my phone.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Speaking of donors, seeing a country among the names of rich people was a little disorienting. We vowed that if we\u2019re ever in the position to buy naming rights, we\u2019ll opt for a restroom. I\u2019m confident that 90% of people who entered this one noticed Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>At one point, we took a break and went down and around to the Erewhon snack bar inside the building. With an entrance resembling some kind of temple, it was even more pretentious than a normal Erewhon. (A wine bar elsewhere in the building is due to open in the fall.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The main reason we were in L.A. was to attend a show at the Hollywood Bowl, so we stayed at The Sun Rose Hotel<\/a> in West Hollywood, which was born as a Pendry. The design is trying too hard, and the room was a little meh, but it got the job done.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>For dinner, we took a Waymo\u2014which has expanded service way beyond greater Santa Monica\u2014to Antico Nuovo<\/a>, in a grotty strip mall east of Hancock Park. The meal was excellent, topped off with freshly fried and filled cannoli. As for the Hollywood Bowl, it probably would\u2019ve seemed more magical if we didn\u2019t have a smaller, more charming version right here at home.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7<\/p>\n

Previous travel coverage:<\/strong>
\u2022\u2022\u2022 The Majesty of Angkor Wat<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022 From Vietnam With\u2026 Ambivalence<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Singapore: The City That Never Spits<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022 Las Vegas: The Original Sim City<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0That\u2019s Life in Death Valley<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0The Glorious Isolation of Santa Barbara Island<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Hiking From Hotel to Hotel in the Dolomites<\/a>
\u2193\u2193\u2193 A Ramble Through the English Countryside<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Notes from Up North: Healdsburg, Mendocino, and San Francisco\u00a0<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022 There\u2019s More to Peru Than Machu Picchu<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0On a Backroads Tour of New Zealand\u2019s South Island<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Navigating the North Island of New Zealand<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Don\u2019t Be So Quick to Write Off Phoenix<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0The Most Magical City in the World<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0One and Done in Sedona<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0A Proper Visit to Santa Monica<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0A Quickie in San Francisco<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Dipping a Toe Into Southern Corsica<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0The Exquisite Luxury of Taking Paris for Granted<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Santa Rosa Island in One Day<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Soaking Up History at Castle Hot Springs<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Driving Through the Heart of Hokkaido<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Tokyo Is a World Unto Itself<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Paso Robles, Pinnacles National Park, and Beyond<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0A Review of the Inn at Mattei\u2019s Tavern<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Another Quickie in L.A.<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Sitting Pretty at the One & Only Mandarina<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0The Mysteries of Istanbul<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Palm Springs: Midweek at the Oasis<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Exploring the Sea Caves of Santa Cruz Island<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0A Summer Swing Through the Northeast<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Why Is Everyone Going to Portugal?<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Patagonia Made Easy<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0A Quickie in L.A.<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0From Penthouse to Pavement in Mexico City<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Do Greek Islands Live Up to the Fantasy?<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Splendid Isolation at Utah\u2019s Lodge at Blue Sky<\/a>
\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0Three Reasons to Visit Paso Robles Now<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7<\/p>\n

Sign up for the\u00a0Siteline email newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and you\u2019ll never miss a post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lot has been written about the spectacular new David Geffen Galleries building at the Los Angeles County…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":791109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-791108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116561757154003266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}