Culture and Education in Modern Art at the Broad Museum

Angry Because its Plaster Not Milk, 1965, Edward Ruscha

What do you do at a museum when you know you've only got an hour to cover the whole facility?  Take lots of pictures and read the signs at home in your photos....What do you do when the subject is one you're not entirely familiar with?  Take selfies for your facebook profile. 

The Broad Museum downtown Los Angeles is one of the newest cultural establishments that are free and open to the public.  It's been around long enough to gnaw at me that I haven't been, so I finally went online for tickets, thinking I would go in six or eight weeks.  To my surprise, I got a four pack of tickets for the following Saturday at 7pm!  Less than a week to wait.  Later I realized the museum closed at eight, so I might rather have waited a month or so for available tickets that were earlier in the day.  But we had the tickets, so my friends and I went, thinking we'd get an overview and learn how to schedule a repeat trip. 

To my surprise, I did make it around to all the exhibits, though I probably would have lingered longer if I were not concerned about the closing time.  My favorite, of course, was the Jeff Koons, both the Balloon Dog and the Tulips, but there were so many great installations.  Most of what spoke to me came from their permanent collection.  The lower floor was a temporary exhibit called "Oracle," about the complexity of the systems that underlie our world.  The middle floor of the Broad is composed of their vault, where they store the collections not on view.  Interestingly, this area is exposed through a glass elevator and portals in the wall of the stairwell, so that the public can see how their operations work.  The upper 3rd level houses the permanent collection on view.

Oracle Exhibit Summary

Review, 2016, Andreas Gursky, part of "Oracle" exhibit

Untitled (You are a Very Special Person), 1995, Barbara Kruger

Why?, 1990, Christopher Wool

Untitled (Men in the Cities Ellen), 1981, Robert Longo

Balloon Dog Blue, 1994-2000, Jeff Koons

Balloon Dog Blue, 1994-2000, Jeff Koons

Jeff Koons Artist Statement

Tulips, 1995-2004, Jeff Koons

Black Flowers, 1961, Roy Lichtenstein

Mirror No. 1, 1969, Roy Lichtenstein

Green Blue Red, 1963, Ellsworth Kelly

Hustle n Punch by Kaikai and Kiki, 2009, Takashi Murakami

Untitled (Your Body is A Battleground), 1989, Barbara Kruger

Campbell's Soup Can (Clam Chowder Manhattan Style), 1962, Andy Warhol

Two Marilyns, 1962, Andy Warhol

Under the Table, 1994, Robert Therrien

Artist Statement of Under the Table, 1994, Robert Therrien

Angry Because its Plaster Not Milk, 1965, Edward Ruscha

Broad Museum Vault, portal in staircase