Broad Museum Director Opens Up About First Exhibition

Despite a few bumps along the way, including a delayed opening and a $20 million lawsuit, LA’s Broad Museum is almost ready to open its doors.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the new museum, which is directly across the street from the Museum of Contemporary Art and will showcase the extensive collection of Eli and Edythe Broad, will let in the first visitors in early fall 2015, with a specific date yet to be determined.

Director and chief curator Joanne Heyler revealed that for the inaugural exhibition, the entire museum will be dedicated to displaying the collection in chronological order beginning with Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, moving into Pop, and then featuring a healthy representation of artists that emerged during the 1980s, when the Broad Art Foundation was established. This includes Cindy Sherman, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and of course, Jeff Koons.

“The collection has been seen publicly in relatively fragmented ways,” Heyler explained. “But what we’ve never been able to do is show how this collection, together, tells a particular story about postwar through today in terms of contemporary art.”

If you’re curious about younger artists to be shown at the museum, Heyler name-dropped both Ragnar Kjartansson and Jordan Wolfson, from whom an animatronic figure was recently acquired (see “Eli Broad Adds Jordan Wolfson’s Terrifying Robot to Collection“). Unfortunately it won’t be installed until a few months after the opening exhibition.

“We’re always visiting artist’s studios,” Heyler said. “We’ll continue to acquire things.”