December 17, 2012
Proposal for a Museum: Ed Ruscha
Ed Ruscha, The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire, 1968
Ed Ruscha’s painting The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire depicts that early prominent West Coast institution ablaze. Designed by William Pereira, the new museum complex (the same that continues to welcome visitors today) had just opened its doors in 1965. In its first public showing, at the Irving Blum Gallery in Los Angeles in 1968, Ruscha’s painting was displayed behind a protective velvet rope.
Comments (6)
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Sylvain says:
December 28, 2012 at 4:55 pm
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grupa o.k. says:
December 28, 2012 at 4:52 pm
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Sylvain says:
December 28, 2012 at 4:25 pm
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Suzanne says:
December 26, 2012 at 6:32 pm
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grupa o.k. says:
December 26, 2012 at 4:27 pm
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Suzanne says:
December 19, 2012 at 12:57 pm
See all responses (6)Thank you for your prompt answer, can’t wait to see the 2013 exhibitions offsite.
Hi Sylvain, We think your question opens immediately onto others: what exactly do we take a “museum” to be? Is it the building, the people who work there, the collection, the audience, or some aggregate of all of these?
There will be exhibitions, organized with other institutions, of the museum’s collection. The artists who’ve just won SECA made proposals for offsite projects, which will happen under SFMOMA’s direction. And some aspects like Open Space will (we think?) hum along, doing what they’re doing.
Of course, it’s valid and common to associate institutions with buildings—and to this extent, yes: SFMOMA will be totally closed for three years.
Will the museum be totally closed during 3 years?
the seasonal flames of LA are of course arson as often as wildfire — earthquake, flood, fire, riot, the California seasons, as they say
The evocation of seasonal fires is a small revelation; we’d always read the painting as (a dream of) arson.
Child of Los Angeles that I am, so familiar with its seasonal raging fires of every kind, and with intimate attachment to and resentment of its pools, grasses, architectures and infrastructures, I have a deep love of the building, and this painting — thanks for posting