M.O.C.A. stands for the Museum of Contemporary Art. It’s located in downtown Los Angeles, and I visited it in April last year when I was attending a conference at U.C.L.A. I liked it as a compact gallery with some interesting modern art installations, so I was pleased to hear that MOCA has evaded the ignominious fate of being merged with the huge Los Angeles Country Museum of Art, LACMA for short. LACAMA is more like an adventure playground of art- MOCA’s collection and identity would have been swallowed up by that great cultural behemoth.
What I didn’t know- but I do now from Richard Lacayo of Time- is that when I visited it, MOCA was in the throes of a financial crisis. This has been going on since 2007, and it looked as if an amalgamation with LACMA was unavoidable- until now. Thanks to a challenge loan of $30 million from Eli Broad-an LA billionaire who owns one of the largest modern art collections- MOCA has raised $60 million this year. Broad is famous for his good works in downtown L.A., so I guess his help isn’t a great surprise.
I’m often accused of not liking modern art- but it’s simply not true. I’m not fond of conceptual art, or artless art, but I do like modern art of the early 20th century, especially that links back with the early modern. I do try to see modern art from time to time, and I do try to visit museums of modern art. If I had to single out my favourite modern art museum, I’d have to say Guggenheim Bilbao. But MOCA is definitely worth a visit.
