The Broad. Photo: Iwan Baan.
The Broad in Downtown Los Angeles is a magnificent addition to the art world comprised of many artists’ finest pieces. The museum is curated by founding director Joanne Heyler and housed in a space designed by architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with ample space to appreciate each room of this unique collection.
Highlights include a cross-section of Andy Warhol artworks that include “20 Jackies” and “Small Torn Campbell’s Soup Can (Pepper Pot)“. The presentation of the pop artist explores the still relevant symbols of his era, especially the dichotomy between the contrived nature of “commercial” works and reality.
Center: Jeff Koons, “Tulips”,1995-2004; On walls: Christopher Wool, “Untitled”, 1990. Photo: Bruce Damonte.
On the third floor landing we embrace the beautiful joyous cheer of Jeff Koons‘ sculptures: the brightly colored metallic “Giant Tulips” – where his art arrives at the kind of splendor seen in nature. In the same location, Christopher Wool repeated canvas of “Run Dog Run” has us reread the words over and over until the viewer recognizes the interrupted response to a familiar moment.
Center: John Ahearn, “Raymond and Toby”, 1989; On walls: Works by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Photo: Bruce Damonte.
In another room Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Horn Players” create the sensation of jazz’s exciting dissonance, his vibrant color and literal brushwork intermixing words and images. Center room, the colorful “Raymond and Toby” by John Ahearn, a sculpture of a young man in a hood and his dog, simultaneously looking so fake and real that they almost jump off the platform and make us feel like the imposters.
Other works of note are the great filmic photographs by Cindy Sherman of four very different women, titled Untitled #85, 1981, Untitled #92, 1981, Untitled #94, 1981,Untitled #86, 1981. Each woman is poised, in a unique dramatic moment, lit with special color in relation to her intense expression; all scenes are composed at the brink of something about to happen, thereby transposing still photography into the action and emotion of the silver screen.
Robert Longo, “Untitled (Ferguson Police, August 13, 2014)”, 2014.
Downstairs there are also several prizes: a stunning self-portrait by Luc Tuymans, “Me”, emblematic of his use of multiple colors in muted tones; “Untitled”, an oil painting by Rudolf Stingel of a snowy mountain peak in northern Italy establishes a cold temperature setting with beautiful snow flurries on a rocky terrain; plus Robert Longo’s exceptional dexterity with charcoal is viewable on two floors, his dismay especially vivid in “Untitled (Ferguson Police, August 13, 2014)”, found on the lower level.
Political statements are made, characters are discovered, places resurface in new ways – we meet our world through art in every way possible. A wonderful gift to us, the Broad Museum is free to the public by ordering complementary tickets online.
