Exhibit attests to Hammer’s climbing status
By Kathleen Mitchell
Oct. 8, 2003 9:00 p.m.
UCLA’s Hammer Museum stands inconspicuously on the corner
of Wilshire and Westwood Boulevards. Students are unaware that the
once-little museum now ranks with such art powerhouses as the
Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art
in Chicago.
One of the current exhibitions, “Lee Bontecou: A
Retrospective,” serves as a testament to the Hammer’s
growing reputation in the national art community.
The Hammer is the collection’s first stop in its
three-city tour across the United States. The Bontecou exhibit will
travel to MCA Chicago and then MoMA. The retrospective,
co-organized by the Hammer and the Chicago MCA, is the most
comprehensive exhibition ever compiled of the highly renowned,
influential artist. It unveils the past 30 years of, until now, her
previously unknown work.
“For the Hammer, a university museum in Los Angeles, to
send an exhibition to the Museum of Modern Art; that is a big
deal,” said Ann Philbin, director of the Hammer Museum.
“MoMA barely ever takes exhibitions from other institutions.
If they do, it’s from the Tate or the National Gallery (both
in London, England), not from a university museum on the West
Coast.”
The Hammer Museum’s beginnings were humble. Armand Hammer,
an art collector, businessman and philanthropist, originally opened
the Westwood site to share his private collections with the
community. The institution struggled after it opened in 1990
because, according to Philbin, its mission and identity were
unclear. After negotiations to become part of UCLA, and under new
leadership from Henry Hopkins (who joined the Hammer in 1994), the
museum began taking on outside exhibitions. In the past four years,
the Hammer has progressed from simply taking on exhibitions to
generating original collections.
Philbin is confident the Bontecou exhibit will open eyes, and
will earn national and international recognition. Perhaps more
importantly, the Hammer hopes the exhibit will raise the profile of
its artistic mission at the local level.
“I would like us to be seen as a place that fits in with
the whole notion of a research university, like UCLA is,”
said Philbin. “Our whole idea is that we want artists to be
at the center of what we do. For us in this university context, we
see artists as important to society as scientists, engineers and
doctors, so we want the university to recognize that teaching their
students about arts and about culture is as important as anything
they could possibly give to young people.”
The Hammer is certainly striving to make itself a rich resource.
In addition to its visual arts holdings, the museum has initiated
literature and film programs, lecture series and symposia open to
the public. Plans for a theatre are also in progress.
“Everyone knows the Los Angeles community is one of the
hottest places in the world for living artists,” Philbin
said. “People are really looking at us as a place to show
emerging artists as well as to do exhibitions with serious
scholarship like this one.”
Thursday, Oct. 30 at 6 p.m.: Gallery Talk by Mona Hadler.
Sunday, Nov. 2 at 2 p.m.: “Out of the Woods and into the
Market: The Value of Lee Bontecou,” panel discussion led by
Elizabeth Smith, Serge Guilbaut, and Mona Hadler. Wednesday, Nov.
12 at 7 p.m.: “Mysterious Spaceframes: Bontecou’s Work
Then and Now.” Lecture given by Robert Storr. Sunday, Dec. 7
at 3 p.m.: Gallery Talk by Lawrence Kruger.
