Centralizing the Mobile: The Los Angeles 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: Chris Burden's 'Urban Light' [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 “Levitated Mass” (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 Hollywood 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 Wilshire Boulevard 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 Michael Heizer’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.