The Museum of Contemporary Art is a dazzling museum of contemporary art in Los Angeles, the primary facility is located downtown. This museum features primarily a style of contemporary American as well as European post-war art. The Museum of Contemporary Art was envisioned by Marcia Simon Weisman, who inspired the mayor of the city Tom Bradley, and Joe Wachs- a city councilman to the committee for the Museum in 1979. That committee began the journey to bringing the vision of a contemporary art museum to life. Within that year, Marcia Weisman in collaboration with several other local art collectors, come together in agreement to donate generously from their own collections which totaled more than six million dollars in value. A year later MOCA was in operation on Boyd ST. Led by a prestigious board of the city’s most elite collectors and entrepreneurs, MOCA continued on with growing and fundraising. They hired Richard Koshalek as the head curator, and through fund raising, they received one million dollars each from Broad, Palevsky, as well as Atlantic Richfield company. The community also pitched in, with a lot of MOCA’s donations coming from the younger generations who were new to the art scene and offering their support to the arts. The new facility opened in 1986 constructed by the architect Arata Isozaki ,and instantly placed itself on the map in 1983 internationally entering into a transaction with Giuseppe Panza who conceded to finance a collection of art for eleven million dollars allowing The Museum of Contemporary Art to pay on it for five years. The Panza art purchased boasted at least eighty pieces were to have contained popular works by Fautrier, Tapies, Roy Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, Rothko, as well as Robert Rauschenberg, to name a few. In 1985, they added more exhibits by artist Michael Heizer. More art kept coming, by 1986 another sixty-seven pieces were added to include minimalist and the neo expression styles, which brought more sculptures, photography, and prints. In 1989, another thirty-one more pieces arrived at the gallery by donation. Marcia Weisman co-founded eventually bequeathed almost one hundred works from famed artists such as Willem de Kooning, the renown Barnett Newman, and others. Over the years, donations continued from famous artists, major art collectors, celebrities, and politicians. MOCA is considered one of the most impressive contemporary art museums in America.
The permanent collection of The Museum of Contemporary Art contains more than six thousand pieces which were primarily donated or gifted from generous and serious private collectors. The primary collection makes up 90% of the showcases. The Museum of Contemporary Art has well appreciated also for exhibitions about postwar art among its contemporary themes. Located in the heart of Los Angeles the The Museum of Contemporary Art features exhibitions from all around the world. It is known as the only art museum in the area which is exclusively focused on contemporary art styles. The primary exhibits are under courtyard level and it’s illuminated by strategically placed skylights. If you are in the Los Angeles area, the Museum of Contemporary art is a must see.
