Los Angeles County Museum

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Calif. The original museum, the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art, opened in 1913. Among its important patrons was William Randolph Hearst, whose enormous collection, largely donated from 1945 to 1955, brought the museum major status among the country's art houses. In 1961 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was founded as a separate institution, and it opened to the public in 1965. The museum's collections include European, Asian, Latin American, and American painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts. It also has an extensive collection of mosaics. The museum buildings on Wilshire Boulevard (1965) were designed by W. L. Pereira and Associates and renovated and extended by Hardy Holtzman Pfeiffer Associates (1986). In 2008 a new addition to the museum, the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, opened to the public. Designed by Renzo Piano and largely lit by natural light from its glass panel and sunshade roof, it showcases works of art from the mid-20th cent. to the present.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.