The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has announced the acquisition of a major collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings by leading modern artists that will significantly transform the museum’s collection of Twentieth Century art. The fractional and promised gift of 130 works from the Janice and Henri Lazarof collection is remarkable for its concentration on the leading figures of modern art, and for individual objects that in many cases represent LACMA’s first major work by that artist.
Among the highlights of the gift are 20 works by Picasso that span the years 1905 to 1970. Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky are represented by 21 watercolors and paintings that form a fundamentally interrelated group. Seven bronzes and one painting by the Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti are a particular strength of the collection. Numerous works by Alexander Archipenko, Constantin Brancusi, Georges Braque, Edgar Degas, Lyonel Feininger, Fernand Léger, Henry Moore and Camille Pissarro are also included as part of this transformative addition to the museum’s collection.
Works from the collection will be on view beginning January 13, with no closing date announced. They will be installed in three galleries on the plaza level of the Ahmanson Building within the 22,000-square-foot modern art galleries where a new presentation of paintings, sculpture and selections of works on paper and decorative arts collection will be exhibited.
Among the 20 works by Picasso are 17 portraits, including three portraits of Dora Maar, his companion for more than a decade; Jacqueline Picasso, his second wife, who dominated his oeuvre during his last two decades; and a series of paintings based on Delacroix’s “Women of Algiers,” completed in February 1955.
Seven bronze sculptures by Giacometti, as well as a single great oil painting, grace the collection. Kandinsky, often credited with the initial transition from representational to abstract art, was a crucial figure in the development of Twentieth Century modernism. Between 1909 and 1914 Kandinsky’s landscapes evolved into increasingly abstract compositions, the remainder of the Kandinsky works date from his years as a teacher at the Bauhaus school in Germany.
An ensemble of 11 works afford an overview of Swiss artist Klee”s career as one of the most imaginative artists of the Twentieth Century, and a teacher at the Bauhaus.
One of the sculptors who revolutionized modern art, Constantin Brancusi, increasingly abstracted and simplified them into essential organic shapes. The collection includes two versions of “Bird in Space”; these are the first works by Brancusi to enter the museum’s collection.
Degas was one of the great masters of pastel, and he tirelessly explored movement, light and color, producing a body of work unrivalled in beauty and innovation. This is only the second Degas pastel to enter the collection.
Three paintings by Camille Pissarro illustrate the artist’s versatility; one image of a peasant’s house at Eragny shows Pissarro’s interest in pointillism.
LACMA is at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard. For general information, www.lacma.org or 323-857-6000.
