17 Must-see Artworks In Lacma's New David Geffen Galleries—and Why You Won't Experience The Same Thing Twice

Context matters. The acquainted looks and feels different erstwhile its mounting has changed, and nan Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s David Geffen Galleries are all about change.

Roughly 2,000 useful from LACMA’s encyclopedic postulation of much than 150,000 objects are installed successful nan caller building, and each is seen successful a caller context, among a caller constellation of related works, successful accumulation spaces physically and conceptually dissimilar those of nan past.

Concrete, nan structure’s ascendant material, whitethorn beryllium a synonym for fixed and definite, but nan acquisition wrong is inescapably fluid. The single-level expanse of accumulation abstraction has 2 introduction points and countless options for covering its formidable length. The architecture insists that you meander and loop.

LACMA is hardly nan only institution to group astir refreshing nan narrative, but its mode of position is distinct, possibly moreover radical. Gone is nan accepted depository format of organizing creation successful sequential, neatly contained rooms according to nationality, clip play and medium. Works successful nan postulation are grouped according to 4 awesome bodies of water—the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans and nan Mediterranean Sea. These wished nan conditions of nan art’s creation done activity of resources, speech of ideas, blending of cultures, and forces of conflict and commerce.

By designating h2o arsenic nan cardinal organizing principle, nan depository is priming visitors to expect dynamism and change. The installations will continually evolve, and repeated visits are apt to uncover caller work, and caller affinities among them.

Water is besides a guiding metaphor for transition done nan galleries, some nan wide unfastened spaces and nan enclosed rooms, meant for contemplative eddying. Whether you spell pinch nan flow, surrendering to its whims, aliases consciousness tossed by nan unpredictability of an erratic tide is up to you. A bully woody of nan acquisition is, and that, too, is portion of nan museum’s intent. In spite of nan commanding beingness connection made by nan building, agency and authority wrong are diffuse and shared — pinch a larger work than accustomed assigned to nan individual visitor.

The pursuing creation pieces — grouped according to nan conception successful which they are installed — are suggested stepping stones, places to pause, orient, reorient, discover, savor, question. Some of nan useful are caller to LACMA, immoderate are nan museum’s avowed top hits and immoderate are quieter pieces susceptible to being overlooked.

ATLANTIC

Francis Bacon, “Three Studies of Lucian Freud”

1969; lipid connected canvas

© The Estate of Francis Bacon, each authorities reserved, DACS Images 2025

(Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd)

Irish-born British creator Francis Bacon (1909-1992) was haunted by galore things, soul and outer — astatine slightest 2 of which prevail successful this triptych. One was a 1650 image of Pope Innocent X by nan Spanish awesome Diego Velázquez, which Bacon repurposed for decades. He riffed connected nan seated format, nan finials of nan papal throne (looking present a batch for illustration furniture posts), and nan psychological strength that appearances some uncover and conceal. Bacon was besides obsessed pinch photography, namely nan 19th-century mobility studies of Eadweard Muybridge that splintered nan continuous activity of humans and animals into discrete frames, for illustration nan stills that accrete into a cinematic flow. Freud, a salient creator himself, shared Bacon’s thought of nan quality arsenic an endlessly fascinating package of soma and acheronian secrets. This is nan first activity by Bacon to participate LACMA’s collection, and it’s a doozy.

Kuba peoples, Shoowa group, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ceremonial Textile Panel

Late 19th to early 20th century, raffia-palm fibre plain weave pinch raffia trim heap and embroidery

(Museum Associates / LAC)

This is 1 of six Kuba panels connected show together, each a move marvel of pattern, hit and contrast. Lines interlace for illustration captious circuitry. Flatness flirts pinch depth, and symmetry playfully tussles pinch asymmetry. Likely made to beryllium draped complete altars, aliases hung down thrones, Kuba cloth was avidly collected by European ethnographers and missionaries successful nan precocious 19th and early 20th centuries. Henri Matisse, who had an extended textile collection, prized his Kuba pieces, which hung successful his workplace arsenic decoration and inspiration. He remarked, pinch a primitivist aerial emblematic of his generation, “I ne'er tyre of looking astatine them for agelong periods of time, moreover nan simplest of them, and waiting for thing to travel to maine from nan enigma of their instinctive geometry.”

Julio Le Parc, “Mural: Virtual Circles”

1964–66, wood, aluminum, stainless alloy and polished metal

© Julio Le Parc / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris

(Museum Associates / LAC)

Sculpture is described arsenic kinetic erstwhile it has elements that move. In nan lawsuit of this piece, we are nan moving parts, activating nan work’s dazzling patterns and forms. Each compartment of this open-faced, cabinet-like “mural” contains a level sheet of achromatic half moons against black, each facing a curved mirror. When you locomotion on nan piece’s length, nan half moons look to move into afloat moons, aliases agelong into nan style of an hourglass. In 1960, Le Parc, who was calved successful Argentina successful 1928 and now lives successful France, co-founded a group that utilized nan preamble of mobility and clip to upend nan accepted narration betwixt creation and viewer. This portion follows their stated principles spectacularly, by coming crossed little arsenic a fixed entity than nan “unfolding of a fixed situation.”

Ansel Adams, “Surf Sequence”

1940, printed aft 1972, gelatin metallic prints

© 2015 The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, integer file

(Museum Associates/LACMA)

Adams (1902–1984) trained to beryllium a performance pianist earlier turning afloat to photography, but retained a philharmonic sensibility successful his ocular work. This progression of 5 water views changeable from atop a cliff on nan Northern California seashore complete a 20-minute play exudes a emotion of rhythm, shape and variation. Absent a sky line, nan pictures thin toward nan abstract. Scale is ambiguous, and nan images of waves, bedewed sand, rocky statement and protector besides publication arsenic bands of reside and texture. “He entered photography arsenic a performing creator and still sustains nan role,” wrote photographer Minor White of Adams.

Walter Dorwin Teague, “‘Nocturne’ Radio, Model #1186”

1934, devices and equipment, powered devices, colored mirrored solid and chrome-plated and lacquered metal

(Photo © Museum Associates / LAC)

If an early 19th-century luxury water liner parked itself successful your surviving room, it mightiness look thing for illustration this. Advertised by its manufacturer, Sparton, arsenic “A Vision successful Midnight Blue Crystal Mirror Glass and Satin Chrome,” nan Nocturne epitomized Art Deco elegance. It sold for $350 erstwhile it was made (equivalent to astir $10,000 today), and was marketed successful advertisements for nan “Smart Home pinch Moderne Appointments — for Studios and Clubs — for Connoisseurs of Beauty and Originality.” Fewer than 25 of these vintage intermezo centers are believed to still exist.

Betye Saar, “I’ll Bend But I Will Not Break”

1998, mixed media including vintage ironing board, level iron, chain, achromatic bedsheet, wood clothespins and rope

© Betye Saar, courtesy of nan creator and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles

(Museum Associates / LACMA)

Saar’s sculptural tableau visualizes a bitter irony: “The female who irons nan expanse that nan [Ku Klux Klan] personification wears,” nan creator has explained, “is a Black female and is simply a slave.” A crisp, achromatic KKK-monogrammed expanse hangs present connected a makeshift clothesline, down a worn woody ironing board. The board’s aboveground is imprinted — branded, arsenic it were — pinch nan infamous 18th-century engraving illustrating really tightly Black bodies could beryllium packed connected a azygous platform of a enslaved ship. Saar, who was calved successful 1926, has been repurposing nan worldly detritus of racism and oppression to poetic and piercing effect for overmuch of her 60-year career. She is simply a surviving wealth of L.A.

Vincent Van Gogh, “Tarascon Stagecoach”

1888, lipid connected canvas

(Bruce White)

Van Gogh (1853–1890) moved to Arles successful nan southbound of France successful 1888, drawn to nan landscape, nan ray and nan rustic lifestyle. Rustic is nan operative connection successful describing nan stagecoach portrayed here. The constitution of obstruction recreation successful nan 1870s had rendered specified coaches secondary, mostly utilized to scope mini towns not served by nan train. Tarascon, a colony northbound of Arles, was conscionable specified a spot, a quaint area Van Gogh described successful a missive to his relative Theo arsenic “something retired of Daumier travel to life.” In nan aforesaid letter, nan creator refers to a celebrated satirical caller astir nan inhabitants of Tarascon, successful which a carriage complains astir its difficult life. Van Gogh imbued his image of nan stagecoach pinch empathy for nan worn and tired conveyance. He makes up for nan subject’s humility pinch juicy brushwork and a palette agelong connected verve.

MEDITERRANEAN

Damascus Room

1766–67

(Museum Associates/LACMA
)

The location this room erstwhile belonged to was apt austere and elemental connected nan outside, nary advertisement for nan gasp-worthy elegance within. Installed present arsenic a free-standing space, nan room again has a humble exterior, for illustration nan bare backside of a shape set. The original mounting and this caller 1 purpose for a akin sensation — nan revelation of a plush secret. Every quadrate inch of nan interior, meant for receiving and entertaining guests, is embellished pinch floral designs, geometric patterns and besides calligraphic panels of Arabic poetry. The walls abound successful textural variety, immoderate areas carved and painted, and others pinch shapes built up utilizing gypsum and animal glue, past glazed. The worldly richness broadcasts affluence, but besides exquisite taste. Quite nan clip capsule.

Georges de La Tour, “The Magdalen pinch nan Smoking Flame”

Circa 1635–37, lipid connected canvas

(Museum Associates/LACMA)

This is simply a image of a psyche examining itself, which makes it instantly relatable successful spite of nan symbolic elements not emblematic of our clip and world: nan skull resting connected Mary’s thigh (a reminder of mortality); nan penitential whip connected nan array awaiting its convulsive use. Mary’s communicative is suggested, alternatively than told. Instead of situating her arsenic witnesser to Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, De La Tour (1593–1652) focuses connected Mary arsenic witnesser to her ain soul transformation. The candle burns steadily and generously, a literal root of ray arsenic good arsenic an emblem of belief illumination. Its mesmerizing clasp renders Mary utterly still, and amid nan ocular commotion of 21st-century life, possibly america arsenic well.

Clara Peeters, “Still Life pinch Cheeses, Artichoke, and Cherries”

Circa 1625, lipid connected wood panel

(Museum Associates / LACMA)

Few schools of coating are arsenic sensorily gratifying arsenic 17th-century Dutch still life, wherever feasts for nan assemblage are transformed into feasts for nan eye. Peeters (c.1588/90–1636) was an early adopter of nan form, and nan uncommon female creator still recognized 4 hundreds of years later. Each constituent successful her coating is simply a conveyance for nan sumptuous invocation of texture: reflective metallic of weapon and platters; shiny skins of those juicy small orbs of fruit; a dome of crystalline salt; softly collapsing petals of butter; furry fibers lining nan artichoke’s heart. Legible connected nan aboveground arsenic axenic home bounty, each segment is besides densely coded pinch signifiers of people and conquest. That diamond-like heap of salt, for instance, was really arsenic precious arsenic diamonds. It was harvested by enslaved workers successful Africa and nan Americas and imported, not conscionable to heighten flavor, but arsenic a preservative earlier nan advent of refrigeration.

Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, “Interior of nan Mariakerk, Utrecht”

1651, lipid connected wood panel

(Museum Associates / LACMA)

This spare, hushed interior wasn’t ever truthful visually restrained. The Protestant Reformation stripped nan formerly Catholic Church of its stained glass, paintings and statues. Saenredam (1597–1665) made meticulous drawings and perspectival studies of nan 11th-century Romanesque structure, past distilled nan interior further to a authorities of quiet purity, a light-suffused, ineffable shell. Saenredam made only astir 50 paintings successful his lifetime, galore of them depicting houses of worship. A modern of nan creator wrote of his images of architecture: “Their principle and quality could not beryllium shown to a greater perfection.”

INDIAN

Map Shawl, Kashmir region, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Second half of 19th century, goat hair, embroidered

(Jonathan Urban / Museum Associates/LACMA)

Queen Victoria was talented 1 of these rare, labor-intensive embroideries, and now LACMA has 1 too. Somewhere betwixt a sketch of nan metropolis of Srinagar and a diary of its mundane life, this shawl is simply a thorough delight to explore. A ample quadrate astir 6 feet per side, it’s displayed level atop a level and invites scrutinous circling. Follow nan meandering aqua waterways, ribboned pinch food and boats each adjacent successful size. Spot nan hunters, hoisting muskets toward their prey, nan loungers lifting a cup, nan riders connected their horses. Scale and position displacement (some subjects are seen from above, immoderate head-on) according to nan demands of nan design, which vibrates pinch vitality and ingenuity. It’s not astonishing that useful of this benignant tin return decades to complete.

Do Ho Suh, “Jagyeong Hall, Gyeongbok Palace”

2026, polyester cloth connected stainless alloy and aluminum framework pinch ceramic coating

(Do Ho Suh, photograph by Jeon Taeg Su)

There’s a shade successful nan caller David Geffen Galleries. It’s not a quality spirit, but nan specter of a building, portion of nan Joseon Dynasty’s royal palace successful Seoul. Suh was calved successful Seoul successful 1962, but has lived successful galore cities astir nan world. Since nan 1990s, he has re-created galore of his ain residences astatine afloat standard successful translucent silk aliases polyester. His useful of “fabric architecture” conjure places, but besides memories, specific, yet elusive. This piece, a LACMA commission, behaves for illustration immoderate bully ephemeral tone and appears to walk done a wall. Pale white, tinged pinch pink, nan apparition has some delicate beauty and a formidable presence.

PACIFIC

June Wayne, “White Tidal Wave II”

1972, lithograph

© June Wayne Estate/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

(Museum Associates / LACMA)

Wayne (1918–2011) was a unit of quality who, arsenic here, was fascinated by forces of nature. She founded nan Tamarind Lithography Workshop successful 1960, bringing artists and printmakers together to experiment, importantly advancing nan scope and stature of nan medium. Tamarind was based successful L.A. for a decade earlier relocating to New Mexico, wherever it remains, arsenic nan Tamarind Institute, a vital, ongoing testament to Wayne’s legacy. The tidal activity successful this people (which hangs among 5 much of Wayne’s odes to monumental tidal energy) starts retired arsenic nan blank achromatic of nan paper, almost an absence, earlier heaving upward to its frothy tallness astatine nan very apical separator of nan sheet. Leaving nan achromatic of nan insubstantial untouched was a technically and formally adventurous move emblematic of Wayne, who asked, “What does a antagonistic style mean? I want to research nan point you don’t cognize about.”

Ruth Asawa, Untitled

1954, iron, copper and brass wire

© 2026 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc.

(Museum Associates / LACMA)

It took nan creation world — some museums and nan marketplace — until comparatively precocious to afloat incorporated Asawa (1926–2013) into nan ascendant history of postwar American art. As a Japanese American female utilizing craft-related moving methods, bias thwarted nickname connected each level. This untitled hanging portion epitomizes nan ingenuity and distilled beauty of Asawa’s champion work. She studied astatine nan famed Black Mountain College and became adjacent to Buckminster Fuller and Josef and Anni Albers, absorbing their ethos of resourcefulness and experimentation pinch communal materials. She learned nan method of utilizing continuous looped lines to build planar surfaces from basket-makers successful Toluca, Mexico, successful 1947. This became nan ground for a spectacular array of sculptures of repeating, interpenetrating and nesting geometric forms, suspended useful that prosecute hit and reversal, palpability and porousness.

Diego Rivera, “Flower Day (Día de flores)”

1925, lipid connected canvas

© 2026 Banco de Mexico Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

(Museum Associates / LACMA)

After spending 14 years successful Europe, Rivera (1886–1957) returned post-Revolution to his autochthonal Mexico successful 1921, and knowledgeable an soul gyration of his own. As he later described it, “My homecoming aroused an artistic rejoicing successful maine which is intolerable to picture ... Everywhere I saw a imaginable masterpiece — successful nan crowds, nan markets, nan festivals, nan marching battalions, nan workers successful nan workshops, nan fields — successful each sparkling face, each twinkling child.” He started to align creation pinch societal change, and was cardinal to nan flourishing of Mexican muralism. “Flower Day” embodies Rivera’s newfound appreciation for nan Indigenous population, arsenic good arsenic nan rhythms of mundane life. He many times painted Calla lily vendors, rendering them, arsenic here, pinch heroic, sculptural monumentality successful a segment of integrated interconnectedness and unity.

Kimsooja, “A Needle Woman”

2005, Six-channel video installation

© Kimsooja/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

(Courtesy of Studio Kimsooja)

We spot nan creator from down successful each constituent of this video installation, opinionated still successful nan midst of municipality bustle, a chromatic successful nan relentlessly churning stream. Kimsooja, calved successful 1957 successful Taegu, Korea, filmed these performative scenes successful awesome cities astir nan world complete nan people of 10 years, exhibiting them successful different iterations and scales. The LACMA activity includes footage from Nepal, Cuba, Brazil, Chad, Yemen and Israel. In different works, Kimsooja has utilized nan needle arsenic a instrumentality successful gestures of mending and joining. Here, nan needle’s straightness refers to her ain posture, a dependable vertical wrong nan horizontal flow. Because our position arsenic observers astir echoes her own, she becomes thing of a stand-in for nan cosmopolitan woman, a self-possessed beingness wrong and yet isolated from her surroundings. The needle arsenic an instrumentality of repair has metaphorical value here, too. These works, she has said, seizure her consciousness of solitude. Creating them formed her arsenic witnesser to “humanity’s ephemerality and suffering,” yielding successful her a heavy compassion.