Centralizing the Mobile: The County Museum of Art’s Outdoor Installations

BY KATIE ANTONSSON

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been struggling with its role in Los

Angeles life since its creation in 1961. Originally part of the Los Angeles Museum of Science,

History and Art (est. 1910), LACMA branched off and established itself as a separate art museum in 1961, opening its doors to the public in 1965. During the late 80s and early 90s, the museum devoted itself to opening up new buildings and galleries for new acquisitions, which both expanded and fragmented the museum. For its most recent crusade, LACMA strives to become the cultural center of Los Angeles under the tutelage of director Michael

Govan. In a county of nine million citizens spread over 4700 square miles, centralization is a near impossible proposition, but Govan’s innovative thinking has helped propel LACMA to its highest status within Los Angeles life yet, commissioning massive outdoor installations to engage an audience and symbolize a city.

From its inception, LACMA’s founders determined to make their museum the west coast answer to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. John Walker, a board member during the museum’s early years, explained, “Of course, the Met has a 100-year advantage, but I believe Los Angeles to have the financial resources and the civic enthusiasm to build a great general collection [from] AD 1200 to our own time.”1 With the founding

1 Christopher Knight, "LACMA's Overhaul Is a Work in Progress." Los Angeles Times, 02 Mar. 2013. Valley Humanities Review Spring 2015 1

members so determined to turn LACMA into the go-to encyclopedic museum in Los

Angeles, the museum did amass an impressive encyclopedic collection, but it never quite gained the stature of the Met. Fortunately, with the development of the Getty, the

Huntington, and the Norton Simon in Los Angeles County, LACMA no longer needed to be everything to everyone, and the “west coast Met” proposition was abandoned. Its status as a core, centralizing figure in Los Angeles was no longer its top priority. In a city so large, no one facet of Los Angeles life has ever centralized the community.

In 1945, Jean-Paul Sartre wrote of Los Angeles:

Los Angeles is rather like a big earthworm that might be chopped into twenty pieces without being killed. If you go through this enormous urban cluster, probably the largest in the world, you come upon twenty juxtaposed cities, strictly identical, each with its poor section, its business streets, night-clubs and smart suburb, and you get the impression that a medium-sized urban center has schizogenetically reproduced itself twenty times.2

Sartre’s observation is keen, even seventy years later. It is one of the many reasons why Los

Angeles has failed to develop a central point or unifying factor; it is a city of sub-cities, summing fragments into a whole picture of Los Angeles county. Because the county varies so widely, there is no “essential” Los Angeles. LACMA’s charge to become the central point of the county is a bold ambition; where Central Park ties New York together, Los Angeles has no equivalent, and it is unlikely to.

Architectural theorist Reyner Banham believed that Los Angeles could never become a centralized city due to its constant state of mobility, on top of its fractured state. When Los

Angeles became the pioneer in automobile culture in the 1950s with the development of

2 J.-P. Sartre, ‘American Cities’ (1945), in Literary and Philosophical Essays, transl. A. Michelson, New York 1962, p. 121 (as cited in Bedford, Christopher. "Monument to an Aniconic City: 's '' [2008]." Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. Nov. 2008: 765-66) Valley Humanities Review Spring 2015 2

mass freeways, the city departed from the previous urban norm. “The language of design, architecture, and urbanism in Los Angeles is the language of movement,” Banham argued.

“Mobility outweighs monumentality there to a unique degree.”3 In recent years, LACMA has been countering this aspect of Los Angeles by turning itself into a “town square” for the county. To draw a county of nine million to one museum is a tall order, but with the addition of sensational outdoor installations, the buzz around LACMA has proved fruitful. Both

Michael Heizer’s “” (2012) and Chris Burden’s “Urban Light” (2008) have drawn massive crowds to the museum and generated interest in LACMA itself. Even before either of these pieces was realized, Govan was in talks with Jeff Koons for some time, looking into a towering outdoor installation to spark interest in the museum and create a highly- visible symbol for Los Angeles other than the sign.

These outdoor installations are much like blockbuster exhibitions, only highly artistic and permanent. While LACMA has had its fair share of blockbuster exhibitions – including recent Stanley Kubrick and Tim Burton shows – they have not proved nearly as successful for drawing patrons to the museum as any of LACMA’s outdoor pieces. “Urban Light” and

“Levitated Mass” are proof of experience; even if a patron never sets foot in the galleries, a snapshot in front of either of these pieces stands in for a trip to LACMA. As the pieces have become more ingrained in Los Angeles culture, they have come to typify the city in the way similar to how the Empire State Building signals New York.

LACMA has been working with Jeff Koons since 2007, making strides toward an enormous outdoor installation, “Train.” The piece garnered great attention in the news

3 P.R. Banham, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies, (London and Harmondsworth 1971; repr., Berkeley 2001), p.5 (as cited in Bedford) Valley Humanities Review Spring 2015 3

during its brainstorming stages but has since fallen into irrelevance. Govan has given no indication as to whether the project is still feasible and the Los Angeles Times has not mentioned it since 2012, when New York City’s High Line was also considering having

“Train” installed somewhere between 30th and 34th streets.4 The piece itself involves a life- size replica forties-style train suspended nose-down from a crane, towering over the museum buildings. Every day at noon, three, and six, the train would roll its wheels and spew steam as it gradually picks up “speed.”

Koons says of the piece, “I really didn’t have any ideas, but I saw off in the distance a crane out in the field. And I thought, you know, the crane’s such a great image, it’s a wonderful readymade, it’d be really nice to do something with it. And I guess also, on a kind of subconscious level, it’s like a Led Zeppelin stairway to heaven or something.”5 As both

Govan and Koons see it, LACMA’s place at the center of Los Angeles is missing a crucial

“town square” element: a clock that chimes the hour. The train would serve as this clock, or a fitting substitute.6 It was to be placed at the entrance, a 161-foot-tall piece, visible from “downtown to the east, Sunset Boulevard to the north, the 10 freeway to the south, and Canter’s Deli to the west,” according to Govan.7 “Train” would be LACMA’s most expensive commission to date, running an estimated $25 million.8

“Train” is a magnification of an extreme fantasy. Cranes have a majestic quality to them, the ultimate symbol of modern progress with trains as a symbol of original progress.

4 Jori Finkel, "Jeff Koons Train: Destination LACMA or the High Line?" Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2012. 5 Tom Drury, "Mystery Train" Unframed: The LACMA Blog. LACMA, 2 Oct. 2008. 6 Diane Haithman, "LACMA Considers Train Sculpture." Los Angeles Times, 03 Feb. 2007 7 Tom Christie, "This Is Not a Very Large Train Engine Hanging From a Crane at LACMA." LA Weekly, 2 Feb. 2007. 8 Christopher Knight, "Jeff Koons' 'Train' Would Break a Record." Los Angeles Times, 3 Mar. 2009. Valley Humanities Review Spring 2015 4

The work is an intersection of past and present modes of innovation coming together to denote power and inspire wonder. As ’s “Levitated Mass” has done, there’s a broad appeal to a work like this. “I have a fantasy,” Govan says, “that when kids see it they will drag their parents to the museum — not just literally, but that it inspires that kind of curiosity.”9 Children and adults alike can find something awe-inspiring about a piece like this, something that awakens a childlike fascination in them. “Train” would be a huge draw for the museum; it would welcome the same reaction as “Levitated Mass” has, a head- scratching moment of disbelief coupled with inspiration.

As Govan puts it, “The [LACMA] board never made a commitment to the train; they made a commitment to studying it… [It] proves much more complicated that anyone imagined. That’s what the initial feasibility study proved: that it was safe, possible, and more complicated that anyone thought.”10 Its completion is in question and it seems that “Train” has slid off of the table for consideration, but Los Angeles’ need for a center point is a prominent one. Whether a train hanging from a crane will fix that is a dubious question, but one certainly worth consideration. It would take a miracle to truly centralize Los Angeles, but a sense of community around one object has already proven useful and possible with

Burden’s “Urban Light.”

It’s hard to know whether Burden or Govan could have anticipated the success of

“Urban Light.” The piece has only been a part of LACMA since 2008 and was placed on the

Wilshire Boulevard plaza intended for “Train.” An aggregate of 202 1920s Los Angeles street

9 Diane Haithman, "LACMA Considers Train Sculpture." 10 Finkel, "Jeff Koons Train" Valley Humanities Review Spring 2015 5

lamps, “Urban Light” has become a landmark symbol of Los Angeles, seemingly trumping the Hollywood sign in popularity, at least among locals.

When Burden brought “Urban Light” to Los Angeles, he formed a landmark.

Outdoor art is often cordoned off from the public, but “Urban Light” is an interactive experience. With this concentrated plot of street lamps, the public is invited to explore all angles, going deep inside or staying on the fringes. All 202 lights are restored and functional and when the sun goes down, the lights turn on.

“Urban Light” “is architecture — it’s a building with a roof of light,” according to

Burden, “and it evokes the kind of awe we are preprogrammed by the history of Western architecture to feel when we walk through classical buildings with multiple colonnades.”11

Because “Urban Light” toes the line between art and architecture, there’s an immediate mass appeal. A patron can see the lights as an architectural structure from afar, or they can get up close to the art and examine the details. Either way, it makes for a unique experience.

Govan believes the popularity of “Urban Light” is due to the fact that “it literally embraces the fabric of the city,” since each lamp was in integral part of Los Angeles life nearly a century ago.12 Burden started collecting the lamps in 2000, when he found two in

Pasadena. The lamps were built to last, but most were replaced in the 1950s and 60s when

Los Angeles automobile culture was on the rise. Burden says, “Their human scale was out of synchronization with the modern urban/suburban auto culture of Los Angeles,” so they were disposed of, with only 1,000 of the original 40,000 still in place today.13 Putting

11 Finkel, "'Urban Light' Lights up the Screen." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 25 Jan. 2011. 12 Ibid. 13 Bedford,"Monument to an Aniconic City.” Valley Humanities Review Spring 2015 6

Banham’s argument about mobility with the loss of these streetlamps in sync, Los Angeles’ highly mobile character is both what decentralizes the city and rendered obsolete the street lamps, so the irony of these particular street lamps becoming a centralizing force for Los

Angeles is a fitting one.

The structure itself is relatively simple. 202 street lamps in perfect rows, starting at the shortest street lamps on the edges and reaching an apex of grand street lamps in the middle. It simultaneously brings forth a sense of nostalgia and progress, much as Koons’

“Train” would have done. Urban Light is primarily about mobility, about the automobile age rendering these pieces of the past obsolete, but even without the meaning, the installation has inspired joy since its inception. In many ways, Michael Heizer’s “Levitated Mass” follows Burden’s example nicely, especially in the media attention it developed when

Southern California saw the rock as something to celebrate.

There was enough fanfare surrounding “Levitated Mass” that it’s possible the megalith’s journey is more important than the installation itself. Fondly referred to as “the rock,” “Levitated Mass” came to LACMA in 2012 after an eleven-night journey across

Southern California. The rock was moved on a 176-wheel 200-foot-long transporter, held in place by a sling over a 105 mile trek from a Riverside County quarry to downtown Los

Angeles.14,15 Nobody could have anticipated the media hype surrounding the rock, and not long into its journey, the rock’s every movement was tirelessly documented. Everything from live Tweets from Los Angeles Times reporters to block parties in Long Beach to a

14 Deborah Vankin and Phil Willon, "Westward, Ho! for LACMA's Art Rock." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 01 Mar. 2012. 15 Susan Brenneman, "LACMA's $10-million Rock." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 1 Mar. 2012. Valley Humanities Review Spring 2015 7

wedding proposal in front of the rock made the journey of this 340-ton monolith a cause for celebration. It was a feat of engineering, if nothing else. In fact, the entire piece is a testament to the power of technology, from the rock’s discovery in the quarry to its installation atop a concrete channel at LACMA.

Heizer came upon the 340-ton boulder by accident. He had attempted another

“Levitated Mass” in 1969, setting a 120-ton boulder above a trench in a lakebed, but the crane broke when lifting the boulder, so the project was abandoned. About forty years later, Heizer stumbled upon this monolith when collecting three 100-ton boulders for other projects. “I was there when they did a black powder shot on that wall, and I saw a lot of dust,” Heizer says, “then I saw this rock land 40 feet up from the quarry floor.”16 Heizer and Govan were already in talks about bringing “Levitated Mass” to LACMA, even before Heizer found this rock, so its discovery caused a stir. Govan says, “Mike was calling from the Ontario airport and said, ‘I found this amazing rock.’ He referred to it as the Colossi of Memnon and compared it to the great pink granite Egyptian obelisks for the quality of the stone. He said it was one of the greatest rocks he’d ever seen.”17 Heizer noted how similar it looked to his original 1969 rock, but its scale was massive. “What I liked about this rock was 98% size, 2% looks,” Heizer says.18 The rock finally left the Riverside quarry on February 28, 2012 and arrived safely on March 10, 2012 thanks to a crew of over sixty.

Naturally, “Levitated Mass” has come under significant scrutiny. Much of the general public was outraged that LACMA would devote $10 million to moving a rock when the

16 Finkel, "Michael Heizer's Calling Is Set in Stone." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 25 May 2012. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid. Valley Humanities Review Spring 2015 8

economy was at such a low point and funds could be better used. The sensation “Levitated

Mass” caused was well worth the price tag, however. It brought the county together in celebration over a feat of mankind. Angelenos had and continue to have a strange affection for the rock. At its core, the whole idea of “Levitated Mass” from start to finish is simply cool, inspiring a youthful glee.

Audience fascination with the process rather than the product may be concerning for the artist or art historians, but it’s been nothing but beneficial for the museum. There is never a shortage of patrons stepping beneath the rock and around the rock, exploring every angle and stopping for photo-ops. Despite its artistic intentions (about which Heizer has said little), the rock is just cool. 19 It satisfies a childlike fascination in its viewers. The media the rock garnered during its journey prompted fascination, so even Angelenos who didn’t witness the rock’s journey want to go see the rock, leading them straight to LACMA.

“Levitated Mass” itself is a fascinating installation. Taking cues from ancient megaliths, Heizer places the rock in such a way as to let the audience pass beneath it. The

21.5-foot tall boulder rests atop a 456-foot long trench, which slopes down to a point fifteen feet below ground level, directly below the rock, which is bolted to two shelves on either side of the channel.20 It’s a play of opposites, a monumental natural form suspended as if floating.

The north lawn of LACMA’s campus was ripped up and replaced with 2.5 acres of desert gravel to surround the megalith, creating something of a rock garden.21

19 Ibid. 20 Christopher Knight, "Review: LACMA's New Hunk 'Levitated Mass' Has Some Substance." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 22 June 2012. 21 Ibid. Valley Humanities Review Spring 2015 9

What is primarily striking about “Urban Light”, “Levitated Mass”, and the pending

“Train” is not their monumentality, statement, or composition; it’s their sense of humor.

Each of these pieces is fun, something most art museums find themselves losing sight of in the pressure to remain sophisticated and au courant. LACMA’s greatest success is that it does not alienate its audience. Burden’s “Urban Light” installation and “Metropolis II” inside the museum both entertain a sense of childlike wonder at how genuinely cool cities can be. Based on how many photographs for which “Urban Light” has served as the background, it has made its mark on Los Angeles life.22 “Levitated Mass” already filled that role with its journey, and its placement on the LACMA campus gives it a chance to shine.

And though it may be slightly more serious-minded than “Urban Light”, “Levitated Mass” too has its sense of humor. It’s fun to go see the rock, whether a patron finds it inspiring or pointless, because there’s nothing quite like having a 340-ton boulder hovering over your head. Koons’ “Train” would surely have the same impact — lots of laughter alongside the confusion.

These works have changed LACMA’s role in Los Angeles culture perhaps indefinitely. Both “Levitated Mass” and “Urban Light” have reignited the county’s interest in

LACMA by drawing patrons in with accessible, exciting, and wondrous displays of artistic elements. Whether the museum will become the cultural center of the west coast is up for debate, but it is certainly an important landmark in Los Angeles. The addition of these pieces has unified a slightly schizophrenic museum campus, giving patrons a reason to get excited about art again.

22 Finkel, “‘Urban Light.’” Valley Humanities Review Spring 2015 10

Valley Humanities Review Spring 2015 11