Art has been added to The David Geffen Galleries at LACMA in Los Angeles, USA, with colourful works enlivening the massive concrete structure designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.
Suspended from the ground over Wilshire Boulevard on 10 piers, the 347,500-square-foot (32,283 square metre) structure is nearing completion after being in the works for more than 20 years.
Along the undulating facade, two slabs of post-tensioned concrete sandwich a continuous wall of glass, and the top slab cantilevers over the sides as much as 40 feet (13 metres) out. SOM worked with Zumthor to ensure the structure would stand up in the seismic zone.
Exposed brass mullions give further rhythm to the window wall, and steep staircases lead up from the street.
Now, its rough concrete interiors have been shown full of the art for which it was made.
Much of the art has been positioned in the more open aspects of the building, open, at times to the large expanse of glass that offers views of Los Angeles.
The structural piers form more internal spaces.
Here, the walls have been painted with chemical paint. New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman said this paint gave the walls the appearance of “textured fabric”.
The range of contemporary to ancient art pieces gives the collection in these spaces a more residential feel. Some of the artwork sits directly against the glass walls, which can be covered by sputtered-chrome curtains.
For the more contained galleries, wall panels of different colours create spaces separate from the austerity of the circulation installations.
Overhead track lighting extends from the ceilings, and the floors have been overlaid with light wood planks.
The first round of installations in the new opening includes everything from Chinese fashion to Austrian expressionism and a solo exhibition for Bahamian conceptual artist Tavares Strachan.
It looks relatively similar to the set of renderings that Zumthor released in 2017, after four years of revisions.
LACMA is set to open this new gallery on 4 May. We took a closer look at the building’s architecture at its completion last year.
The photography is courtesy of Museum Associates/LACMA.
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