Hammer Museum

The museum was founded by Dr. Armand Hammer and opened to the public on November 28, 1990, with an exhibition of work by the Russian artist Ilya Glazunov. Hammer died less than a month after the opening, leaving the institution mired in litigation over its financing and the disposition of his estate. The museum's initial operating budget was supported by a $36 million annuity purchased by the Armand Hammer Foundation.

In 2007, the Hammer Museum and the Armand Hammer Foundation dissolved their relationship, dividing the original collection of 195 objects; the museum retained 103 objects valued at $250 million, while the foundation kept 92 paintings valued at $55 million. By 2020, the museum planned to use its bond portfolio to purchase the building.

The original building was designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes and opened in 1990. In 2000, architect Michael Maltzan was commissioned to create a master plan for the museum, leading to a multi-decade transformation. Key interventions included the addition of the Billy Wilder Theater in 2006, the John V. Tunney Bridge connecting the museum to the adjacent tower, and the renovation of the third-floor galleries in 2017.

The most recent phase, completed in 2023, added a new ground-floor lobby in the adjoining tower (originally built in 1962 for Occidental Petroleum), a sculpture terrace, and a 5,600-square-foot gallery with a glazed wall facing Wilshire Boulevard. This final phase, dubbed the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Cultural Center, cost $90 million.

The Hammer Museum manages five distinct collections. The Hammer Contemporary Collection, inaugurated in 1999, focuses on post-1960s art. The UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, housed at the Hammer since 1956, is one of the largest collections of works on paper in the country, holding over 40,000 prints, drawings, photographs, and artists' books.

Notable holdings within the Grunwald Center include the Rudolf L. Baumfeld Collection of landscape drawings and prints and the Honoré Daumier and Contemporaries Collection. The museum also holds the Susan and Larry Marx Collection and the Valentine-Adelson Collection. Selections from these collections are displayed in the third-floor galleries.

Despite early institutional hurdles that earned it the nickname 'America's vainest museum,' the Hammer is now widely acknowledged as a premier venue for contemporary art and serious historical exploration. It is particularly noted for its public programs, including the annual Unmonumental exhibition, the inaugural biennial devoted exclusively to Los Angeles artists launched in 2010, and the Hammer Conversations series featuring cultural and political leaders. The museum's budget grew from $5 million to roughly $20 million annually under current leadership, with a staff of over 100.

In 2010, attendance reached an estimated 175,000. The institution remains a critical resource for UCLA faculty and students while serving the broader public through free admission and diverse programming.