Independent Collectors

The Broad Collection

Walking down the Grand Avenue in Los Angeles, right by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), you can’t help but be struck by the angular construction of The Broad and its bright white honeycomb exterior.

Installation of works by Christopher Wool and Jeff Koons in The Broad’s third-floor galleries. Courtesy The Broad and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Photo: Bruce Damonte
Installation of works by Christopher Wool and Jeff Koons in The Broad’s third-floor galleries. Courtesy The Broad and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Photo: Bruce Damonte

Opened in 2015, and designed by the renowned architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the museum is home to artworks from The Broad Collection. The museum founders, Eli and Edythe Broad, have been collecting postwar and contemporary art for over five decades and their collection is representative of some of the most important American and international artists from that period.

Spanning over 35 000 square meters and situated on two expansive floors, the museum’s inaugural installation has been carefully selected and curated – not an easy task given the diversity and breadth of the works housed in the collection (which are all stored and archived away securely onsite). Upon entering the lobby, visitors are greeted on the first floor by the Infinity Mirrored Room, the dazzling installation by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, which is also a very popular Instagram favorite among visitors. Moving through the first floor exhibition space, Takashi Murakami’s massive eighty-two-foot-long painting, In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow, is an intense expression of sentiment and emotion. Illustrated in Murakami’s hyper-anime style, the painting was inspired by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan.

Taking the long escalator up to the third floor, popular American artists are well accounted for, including the likes of Roy Lichtenstein, Jean‐Michel Basquiat, Chris Wool, and Jeff Koons. These obvious crowd pleasers are a strong aesthetic draw card for audiences well versed in popular contemporary culture. That’s not to say that The Broad is a one-liner. Popular works act as frame for perhaps less accessible, but equally important artists. Artists whose concerns are more cerebral and conceptual, including John Baldessari, Barbra Kruger, and Joseph Beuys.

In addition to housing the collection, the museum acts as the headquarters to The Broad Art Foundation. The foundation runs an art-lending program, which generously shares the experience of the collection with a worldwide network of museums and institutions. Recently the collection acquired Jordan Wolfson’s Untitled (Female Figure), a surreal animatronic-dancing robot that proved a showstopper when it was premiered at David Zwirner gallery in Manhattan in late 2014. If this acquisition is anything to go by, we can be sure that The Broad will continue to be an exciting and engaging experience for locals and L.A. visitors alike.

Tomasz Kobialka is a Polish-born, Australian artist and a contributing writer to Sleek Magazine.

The Broad museum on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. Courtesy The Broad and DIller Scofidio + Renfro. Photo: Benny Chan.
The Broad museum on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. Courtesy The Broad and DIller Scofidio + Renfro. Photo: Benny Chan.
Yayoi Kusama, “Infinity Mirrored Room - The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away“, 2013. © Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York
Yayoi Kusama, “Infinity Mirrored Room - The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away“, 2013. © Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York
Jeff Koons, "Michael Jackson and Bubbles", 1988. © Jeff Koons. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio, L.A.
Jeff Koons, "Michael Jackson and Bubbles", 1988. © Jeff Koons. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio, L.A.
Barbara Kruger, "Untitled (Your body is a battleground)", 1989, © Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger, "Untitled (Your body is a battleground)", 1989, © Barbara Kruger
Jeff Koons, "Rabbit", 1986. © Jeff Koons. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio, L.A.
Jeff Koons, "Rabbit", 1986. © Jeff Koons. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio, L.A.
Roy Lichtenstein, "Live Ammo (Blang)", 1962. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio, L.A. – © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
Roy Lichtenstein, "Live Ammo (Blang)", 1962. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio, L.A. – © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
The Broad museum’s lobby with escalator. Courtesy The Broad and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Photo: Iwan Baan
The Broad museum’s lobby with escalator. Courtesy The Broad and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Photo: Iwan Baan

USA (55)

West Collection

Since 1996, Al & Paige West have been building an impressive collection, including works by artists such as Donald Judd, Martin Boyce, and Candice Breitz.

Valeria Napoleone

The Italian-born collector actively seeks out under­represented positions and therefore only acquires works by women artists.

Christine and Andrew Hall

Interview with the collectors behind Hall Art Foundation

Gary Yeh

IC talks to Gary Yeh.

de la Cruz Collection

Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz, the co-founders of the renowned collection that bears their name, are always quick to highlight the importance of education when discussing the role the De La Cruz Collection plays in the Miami community.

Marciano Art Foundation

Maurice and Paul Marciano, founders of the GUESS jeans brand, in their five-thousand-square-meter exhibition space

The Mallin Collection

Nestled on 15 acres in the scenic town of Pound Ridge, New York, Buckhorn Sculpture Park features gardens, woodlands, a lake and an orchard.

Transformer Station

Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell’s transformation of an electrical power station in Cleveland

The Goss-Michael Foundation

A place that grew out of a romantic connection between Kenny Goss and the late pop music legend, George Michael

Franks-Suss Collection

Initially focused on China, collectors Simon Franks and Robert Suss soon widened their purview

Mera & Donald Rubell

Five quick questions, five short answers by the famous couple behind the Rubell Family Collection

Thoma Foundation

Two intimate art spaces in Chicago and Santa Fe encourage dialogue between work and viewer

Martin Margulies

Interview with the collector behind the Margulies Collection

Seth Stolbun

The Houston native collector almost exclusively acquires works from artists that he has a personal relationship with

The Donum Collection

Wine tasting and Crouching Spider by Louise Bourgeois

March 8th 2022

The Stolbun Collection presents “March 8th 2022”, likely the only exhibition at Ferndale–Seth Stolbun’s rental home, as captured by his iPhone

Rubell Family Collection

Curator Joey Lico teams up with artist Alexis Diaz to visit the mighty Rubell Museum in Miami

Saint Georgina Slays The Dragon

A new collection on IC, see inside The Bennett Collection, which is focused on figurative realism, specifically the realistic, painted depiction of women by women.

Flippin The Script with Armand-Paul Family Collection

In “Flippin The Script” we warmly welcome the Armand-Paul Family Collection in New York to IC, with its focus on the African and Latin diasporas, and interest in performance.

Donna Huanca – Obsidian Ladder

Skin painting artist Donna Huanca participates in the current MAF project series, exploring gender and sexuality in contemporary life.

We Still Have Wild Birds Here

Overlooked American artist Gene Beery (b. 1937), declared and depicted reflections in his paintings with a relevant truth and irony that is no less today.

Life Cycle

The Marciano Art Foundation hosted Ai Weiwei for the third MAF Project in their Theatre Gallery.

The Wig Museum

LA's MAF was inaugurated in 2017 with a solo show of Jim Shaw, curated by Philipp Kaiser.

Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation

Delve into the digital art of the collection exhibited across two spaces.

Art Now, Art Forever: Damon Zucconi

As collectors dedicated to following artist careers in depth and breadth, Clayton Press and Gregory Linn describe their on-going relationship to the work of Damon Zucconi, whose works are frequently accessible online.

www.Simco Web Works

In context of exposing art digitally and exposing digital art, we wanted to present artworks that have only and always existed on the web, as URLs, here in the collection of Stefan Simchowitz.

Responding to Nature

Tucked away in the vineyard’s of San Francisco you’ll find the secret sculpture park of Nancy and Steve Oliver.

Go Figure / Alec Soth

This summer, the Pizzuti Collection will feature two exhibitions featuring works taken from the private collection of Ron and Ann Pizzuti.

John Morrissey

Discover is a keyword for the American attorney and art collector John Morrissey, who directs his focus towards emerging contemporary artists.

Roberto Toscano

It all started with the purchase of an etching by Richard Serra in 2011, which turned out to serve as the very foundation for Roberto Toscano’s art collection.

Stefan Simchowitz Collection

L.A.’s most controversial art collector opens up his private collection of contemporary painting.

Carole Server

The New York-based collectors with an enthusiasm for patronage and education.

Force and Form

The private collection studying contemporary visual culture.

Elayne & Marvin Mordes

The sun has just risen over the eaves when we meet on Park Avenue one peaceful January morning and Marvin and Elayne Mordes seem just the way we’d had hoped – warm, open and sympathetic.

Buckhorn Sculpture Park

Located in the scenic town of Pound Ridge, New York, you’ll find the private home of collector couple Sherry and Joel Mallin and their Buckhorn Sculpture Park.

Visions From India

The exhibition “Transforming Vision” includes some of the most prominent Indian artists working today, with all forty works coming from the Pizzuti Collection.

Clayton Press & Gregory Linn

Since 1980, Clayton Press and Gregory Linn – New Jersey collectors – have evolved from being energetic art aficionados to art market specialists.

Steve Shane

Manhattan-based collector Steve Shane is completely in love with art.

Soul Of A Nation: Art In The Age Of Black Power 1963-1983

HEAR this Online Exhibition, exclusively put together with an abundance of images, to view whilst listening to a curated playlist by Quincy Jones.

The Broad Survey Of Shirin Neshat

Downtown L.A.’s The Broad presents Shirin Neshat in an immersive survey.

PHANTASMAGORIA

Exhibition at the Stolen Collection

The Herskovic Collection

A fanatic collector of Abstract Expressionist Painting.

The Dikeou Collection — Part III

A variety of artworks by both established and emerging artists.

The Dikeou Collection — Part IV

A variety of artworks by both established and emerging artists.

The Dikeou Collection – Part II

Artworks by both established and emerging artists, ranging from installations, sculpture, photographs, videos, drawings, to painting.s.

The Dikeou Collection – Part I

Founded in 1998 by the siblings Pany and Devon Dikeou, the Dikeou Collection is located in downtown Denver.

Times of Change

New York-based collector Gregory Vinitsky has been dedicated to collecting contemporary since the 1970s.

Working Hard for Art

An art consultant and curator by day, the Brooklyn-based Collector is a self proclaimed “gutsy newcomer”, working with emerging artists to help her push her collection further.

Chaotic Contemporary

Chicago based collector Troy Klyber, is a contemporary art collector that loves to engage in a bit of chaos.

No Man’s Land

Just in time for the opening of Art Basel Miami Beach 2015, the Rubell Family Collection/Contemporary Arts Foundation has opened its new exhibition, “NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection”.

Letters to Pia

Having been given the chance to acquire intimate images of Morrisroe’s muse, Pia Howard, Boston-based collector Adam Larson speaks to IC about his relationship with the following photographs, and of course about Pia.

Select Works from the Stolbun Collection

The Stolbun Collection has turned its attention to featuring younger American artists

R F Jefferies – Don’t Postpone Joy

A look inside the collection of San Diego-based collector R F Jefferies.

THE OJIKUTU COLLECTION

Exquisite showcase of treasures of African art, culture, and history