![]() LA art critic Mat Gleason said: "Deitch is actually inoculating the museum from conflicts of interest with high-wealth collectors." By putting on more pop-culture orientated shows, "he can go to low-level donors and say, 'We throw really cool parties, why don't you donate to us?' " In response, Deitch wrote to museum members saying the institution's programme was "a response to and an articulation of the current art and cultural landscape today". We want to know the direction of the museum and to know that curators are respected and their shows are being funded." LA artists expressed dismay that educational aspects of the institution have been cut from the budget and said they worried that Moca was becoming "a cliche of Los Angeles or a part of the entertainment industry. "Art is highly professionalised and market-determined at every level." "The influence of collectors is probably at an all-time high," says McCormick. ![]() In addition, the original trustees of the museum have been bolstered by big-money figures such as hedge fund whale Steven S Cohen and Victor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian who collects Damien Hirst. While Broad saved Moca and wants to keep it viable, he is also constructing a rival museum across downtown LA to house his own collection. "They feel he's dumbing down the cultural values of the art world."Īnd behind that, many suspect, is a billionaire whose motives are not entirely clear. He goes for spectacle more than scholarship," says New York art critic Carlo McCormick. "Jeffrey represents a populist streak that many in the art world consider vulgar. Earlier this year, the actor James Franco curated a show that drew inspiration from Rebel Without a Cause. That was followed by a retrospective of Dennis Hopper's artwork. With Broad's backing, Deitch, they claim, effectively engineered the removal of the museum's long-serving chief curator, Paul Schimmel, setting up a confrontation between artists and a deep-pocketed collector allied with museum managers charged with raising revenue and exhibition attendances.Īrt in the Streets, a Deitch-orchestrated survey of the graffiti and street art movement, drew a record number of visitors. It's a complicated situation."Īngry fingers are being pointed at Eli Broad, a billionaire property developer and art collector who bailed out the financially struggling institution three years ago with a $30m donation, and his choice of director, the pop-art minded, former New York dealer Jeffrey Deitch. ![]() "The artists in LA are very upset," said Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, author of Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s. Their resignations, they said, could be read as a protest at the commercial, pop-culture direction of the museum at the expense of education and scholarship. Then Ed Ruscha, possibly the city's best known artist internationally, followed suit. The conceptual artist John Baldessari was first to resign, followed by agit-prop graphic artist Barbara Kruger and "queer-space" photographer Catherine Opie.
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