Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum in Los Angeles, California, dedicated exclusively to contemporary art. Founded in 1979, it is the only museum in Los Angeles devoted solely to art created after 1940, with its exhibits consisting primarily of American and European contemporary art. The institution operates two locations in downtown Los Angeles: the main branch on Grand Avenue near the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the Geffen Contemporary in the Little Tokyo district. Between 2000 and 2019, it also operated a satellite facility at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. Since its inception, MOCA's programming has been defined by a multi-disciplinary approach to contemporary art.

The museum traces its origins to a 1979 political fundraising event at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, Councilman Joel Wachs, and philanthropist Marcia Simon Weisman discussed the city's need for a contemporary art museum. Following this, the Mayor's Museum Advisory Committee, led by William Albert Norris, was organized to create a museum from scratch, securing funds, trustees, directors, curators, a gallery, and an art collection. That year, Weisman and five other collectors pledged chunks of their private collections, worth up to $6 million, to establish the institution. In 1980, a board of trustees was assembled, setting a goal to raise $10 million in their first year. An artists advisory council was formed, Richard Koshalek was appointed chief curator, and negotiations began for artwork and exhibition space. Contributions from Eli Broad, Max Palevsky, and Atlantic Richfield Co. secured construction funding, with Broad becoming the founding chairman and Palevsky chairing the architectural search committee. Leadership over the years has included directors Jeffrey Deitch from 2010 to 2013, Philippe Vergne in 2014, Klaus Biesenbach from 2019 to 2021, and Johanna Burton starting in 2022.

Gifts from major private collectors form the cornerstones of MOCA's permanent collection, making up well over 90 percent of its holdings. Much of the collection has come from board members who donated, bequeathed, or sold art to the museum on highly favorable terms. The museum's scope encompasses nearly 8,000 objects as of 2026, featuring primarily American and European contemporary art created after 1940. The collection includes classical works of contemporary art as well as new works by emerging and established artists from California and elsewhere. The institution has historically focused on abstract expressionism, pop art, minimalism, post-minimalism, and neo-expressionism, alongside conceptual and installation art.

MOCA rapidly established its international profile through major acquisitions. In 1984, it purchased 80 seminal works of abstract expressionism and pop art from board member Giuseppe Panza for $11 million, including pieces by Jean Fautrier, Franz Kline, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, and Antoni Tapies. In 1985, Virginia Dwan donated Michael Heizer's earthwork Double Negative in the Nevada desert. A 1986 bequest by television executive Barry Lowen added 67 works of minimalist, post-minimalist, and neo-expressionist art by artists such as Dan Flavin, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, Elizabeth Murray, Julian Schnabel, Joel Shapiro, Frank Stella, and Cy Twombly. The 1989 Rita and Taft Schreiber donation included 18 works by Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondrian, and Arshile Gorky. That same year, founding members Phil and Beatrice Gersh donated 13 pieces, including Pollock's Number 3, 1948 and David Smith's Cubi III. Co-founder Marcia Simon Weisman bequeathed 83 works on paper by Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Jasper Johns, Richard Diebenkorn, and Sam Francis. Further additions include Scott Spiegel's 1991 donation of works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, a 2003 gift from Clifford and Madeline Einstein featuring Kiki Smith and Nam June Paik, and a 2004 donation of 123 works by 78 artists from E. Blake Byrne. Artists themselves have also contributed, including Paul McCarthy, Doug Aitken, Andreas Gursky, and Ed Moses.

MOCA's main branch on Grand Avenue, opened in 1986, was designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki. The building features sandstone cladding and consists of a playful arrangement of reddish, geometric blocks, which Isozaki described as a small village in the valley of skyscrapers. The Geffen Contemporary, located on North Central Avenue in the Little Tokyo district, originally opened in 1983 as a temporary exhibition space while the main facility was under construction. It is housed in a 1940s storage facility, formerly a police car repair workshop, renovated by architect Frank Gehry. Initially leased from the city and named the Temporary Contemporary, its lease was extended to 50 years in 1986 due to popularity, and later extended again. Following a gift from the David Geffen Foundation in 1996, it was renamed The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. It is the largest of the museum's spaces and is particularly suited for monumental sculptures, installation art, and conceptual art. The former satellite at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, designed by Cesar Pelli and Associates, opened in 2000 and closed in 2019.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles is located in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its primary venue, MOCA Grand Avenue, is situated on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The second active venue, the Geffen Contemporary, is located at 152 North Central Avenue in the Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles. The museum can be accessed via its website at https://www.moca.org/. As the only museum in Los Angeles exclusively dedicated to contemporary art, it continues to serve a vital role in presenting multi-disciplinary programming and exhibitions from its permanent collection and beyond.