A Lasting Legacy: Selections from the Lannan Foundation Gift presented a wide-ranging selection from the recent donation of one hundred and ten works by fifty-two artists, one of the most significant gifts in MOCA’s history. The gift highlighted some of the most significant artists to have lived or worked in Southern California from the 1950s to the 1980s, a focus of the museum’s collection.
Organized both monographically and thematically, A Lasting Legacy began by highlighting the relationships between the New York School, California Abstract Expressionism, and Beat culture in the 1950s and 1960s, featuring works by John Altoon, Jay Defeo, Mark di Suvero, Mark Tobey, Wallace Berman, Robert Irwin, and others. Another room highlighted hard-edge abstract painters and Minimalists such as Sol LeWitt, John McLaughlin, Joe Baer, and Bridget Riley, followed by post-minimalists like Lynda Benglis, Richard Tuttle, and Joel Shapiro. One room featured 7 works by Charles Ray; another presented Chris Burden’s large-scale installation Big Wheel (1979). The exhibition concluded with contemporary works by Mike Kelley, Jeff Koons, Julian Schnabel, Kiki Smith, and others.
A Lasting Legacy: Selections from the Lannan Foundation Gift was organized by Ann Goldstein, Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.