They’re having member visits for a few weeks before opening to the public on May 4, 2026.
Just outside the elevator doors.
Above we’ve got Standing Warrior, a slip-painted earthenware figure from the Jalisco culture of ancient West Mexico, dated between 200 BCE and 400 CE.
And almost around the corner is this guy below, Vikatonarva (2024), a monumental 12-foot-tall terracotta work by the Indian contemporary artist Manjunath Kamath. I like that they’re pals here.
There we are, Susie, me, Cynthia. too bad I didn’t find a better reflecting surface especially considering all the reflections from the glass.
Entertainment! The violin wasn’t playing a song, more like free-form sound, and we had soccer players and then a bicyclist rolled in.
Oh goodie, Levitated Mass. And down there you can see the Weiwei Chinese zodiac. You’ve probably noticed by now that the entire cladding of the museum is windows and all the views are worth a look.
Above are some of the tags available identifying the work. Every tag I saw was ‘A gift of..’ or ‘Purchased with funds provided by..’. Pieces that the museum bought for itself don’t seem to be identified.
There were a very few explanatory panels and that was it. You could use QR Codes to find information but basically it is in the intention of the museum and the curators that you get lost, wander to the next space, find yourself wondering what the heck you’re looking at. The organization, the juxtapositions, they’re all designed to intrigue. I actually liked it but in that I might be in the minority.
Below, the four pictures straight ahead all have tags and were all gifts.
Another view from another wing of Levitated Mass.
A LACMA commission, Jagyeong Hall, Gyeongbok Palace by artist Do Ho Suh. “The installation is a life-size, translucent fabric recreation of a section of the Cheongyeonru pavilion from Seoul’s Gyeongbok Palace.”
Notice how great the tapestry looks on the burgundy wall.
You can’t see this picture so well and neither could I until I was nose to nose. I really like this, it pulled me straight in to its story. It had a tag too: Louis-Jean Desprez, France, 1743-1804, active Sweden The Funeral Procession of Agamemnon 1787. Pen and ink, watercolor, and gray and brown washes heightened with gouache on paper. Purchased with funds provided by the Joseph B. Gould Foundation. (We get a tag because it was ‘Purchased with funds..’.)
What a joy, our Calder is back! It was commissioned for the opening of LACMA in 1964 and delightfully called “Three Quintains (Hello Girls)”. The Café is going there by the fountain, looks like some tables are out already, so that should be lovely. The wonderful Pavilion for Japanese Art is reflected in the windows.
The 2000 Jeff Koons piece called Split-Rocker will dominate it’s place on the south side of Wilshire.
Tlalli is a 2026 sculpture of an Indigenous woman by Mexican contemporary artist Pedro Reyes.
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Cynthia took this picture to illustrate how the reflections are so dang annoying, and they are my only real complaint.
We saw probably less than half of the objects available to look at and I need to go back to solidify my feelings of the experience in general but as of this moment, I love it, reflections and all.