A survey of forty-nine significant new works that entered the museum's collection in 1991 by purchase or donation. This heterogenous show was remarkable for highlighting their range and diversity rather than examining relationships of theme, chronology, or sensibility — a different tack taken than in previous MOCA permanent collection exhibitions. The earliest works were photographs by Paul Strand made in 1940 and paintings by Josef Albers and Ad Reinhardt. Abstract painting from the late 1950s to the late 1980s were represented by Albers, John Altoon, Karl Benjamin, Robert Irwin, Ellsworth Kelly, Imi Knoebel, John McLaughlin, Kenneth Noland, Raymond Saunders, and Terry Winters. Also included were two-dimensional works incorporating representational imagery by Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Billy Al Bengston, Wallace Berman, Ross Bleckner, Jonathan Borofsky, Barbara Ess, Neil Jenney, Robert Longo, Malcolm Morley, Allen Ruppersberg, Edward Ruscha, Meyer Vaisman and Andy Warhol. Richard Deacon, George Herms, Georg Herold, Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, Wolfgang Laib, Liz Larner, Allan McCollum, David Nash, Kenneth Price, Sarah Seager, and Nancy Shaver were represented by sculptural works.
Recent Acquisitions: Selected New Works in the Permanent Collection was organized by Elizabeth T. Smith, Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.