Pavilion for Japanese Art

The Pavilion for Japanese Art is a dedicated exhibition building on the campus of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in Los Angeles, California. Opened in 1988, it houses the museum's collection of Japanese art spanning from approximately 3000 BC through the 20th century. Designed by architect Bruce Goff as his final major project, the pavilion is celebrated for its innovative architecture that prioritizes the specific viewing requirements of traditional Japanese art, particularly the use of natural light for screens and scrolls. It stands as the only pre-millennium building that LACMA has deliberately preserved through successive campus master plans, including the current redesign by Peter Zumthor.

The pavilion originated from the collection of Joe D. Price, an oil heir who amassed what was widely considered one of the finest collections of Edo-period Japanese art in the Western world during the 1950s and 1960s. Goff and Price initially discussed building a private gallery at Price's estate in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, with the stipulation that the art itself would dictate the building's form. When Price decided to make the collection accessible to the public, the project relocated to LACMA, which was then undertaking a major capital campaign under director Earl A. Powell III.

In 1983, Price and his wife Etsuko Yoshimochi formally bequeathed approximately 300 Japanese screens and scrolls to LACMA and donated $5 million in seed funding. The museum committed to raising additional funds, ultimately securing $7.5 million from other donors against a total construction cost of $13 million. Longtime trustee Camilla Chandler Frost led fundraising efforts. Goff died in 1982 before the design was realized; his associate and disciple Bart Prince translated Goff's concepts into working drawings and oversaw construction, which began with groundbreaking in 1985. The building opened to the public on September 25, 1988, following a gala event two days earlier attended by the Prices.

The pavilion's construction faced significant challenges due to its site near the La Brea Tar Pits. The absence of bedrock required a raft-like foundation, while the need to vent methane gas and the discovery of prehistoric fossils beneath the foundation caused delays. Stringent California seismic codes necessitated rigorous engineering modifications to Goff's organic designs.

By 2018, the building had begun showing its age, and a retrofit and wholesale maintenance of structural, mechanical, and electrical systems commenced. The art was moved to stable storage, with nearly 5,000 objects relocated by the Collections Management department. The pavilion remains scheduled for renovation as part of Zumthor's campus redesign.

The pavilion's holdings center on the Shin'enkan Collection of Joe and Etsuko Price, comprising more than 300 Japanese scroll and screen paintings that form the core of LACMA's Japanese art holdings. The collection spans from approximately 3000 BC through the 20th century AD, encompassing archaeological artifacts, Buddhist and Shinto sculpture, ceramics, lacquerware, textiles, cloisonné, and armor. The print collection is particularly strong in woodblock prints from the Edo period (1615-1868) through the Shōwa period (1926-1989), including substantial holdings from the Meiji period (1868-1912) and Taishō period (1912-1926). The Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection of nearly 900 netsuke sculptures, ranging from the 17th through the 20th century, represents another encyclopedic strength. The collection also includes works from major schools such as Rimpa, ukiyo-e, and Maruyama-Shijo, as well as spontaneous creations by Zen monks.

The Helen and Felix Juda Gallery on the second level of the West Wing is primarily reserved for Japanese prints displayed in rotating exhibits that change every three months, organized by periods, themes, or styles. The Raymond and Frances Bushell Netsuke Gallery at the plaza level holds 827 works and provides visitors with a 360-degree view of these miniature sculptures, which served as toggles and counterweights for suspending tobacco pouches and inro from men's kimono sashes.

The East Wing displays a rotating selection of screens and hanging scrolls from the Edo period, exhibited on six levels. In 2014, LACMA presented The Color of Life: Japanese Paintings from the Price Collection to mark the pavilion's twenty-fifth anniversary, featuring masterpieces by artists including Itō Jakuchū, Nagasawa Rosetsu, Maruyama Ōkyo, Suzuki Kiitsu, Sakai Hōitsu, and Kawanabe Kyōsai. This exhibition subsequently traveled in 2013 to three cities in Japan's Tohoku region as a gesture of solidarity following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The 32,100-square-foot building is an exceptional example of Bruce Goff's organic, late modern architecture, characterized by expressive shapes, unusual materials, and spatially complex interiors. The structure comprises two triangular wings connected by curved walkways across three levels, with a prow-shaped roof and cylindrical towers. Its exterior walls consist of translucent Kalwall fiberglass panels that mimic traditional Japanese shoji screens, filtering sunlight to allow safe, natural illumination of artworks. This diffused lighting varies according to time of day, weather, and season, approximating original viewing conditions and enabling gold leaf to reflect in ways that create dimensional levels invisible under artificial light. The interior features spiraling ramps and petal-shaped viewing platforms that evoke a garden-like experience, with carpeted walls and muted cream, gray, and green tones reminiscent of clouds, stones, and leaves. Japanese screens can be viewed at a distance, while scrolls are presented in alcove-like settings that suggest the tokonoma viewing area of a traditional Japanese home. The roof structure incorporates supporting cables and tusk-like beams that reference both Japanese armor and the mastodon fossils from the adjacent La Brea Tar Pits. The architectural landscape was designed by the firm of Hannah Olin. Critics have noted the building's eccentricity, with William Wilson of the Los Angeles Times praising its romantic logic comparable to that of Antoni Gaudí, Paolo Soleri, or Simon Rodia. Three Pritzker Prize-winning architects, Rem Koolhaas, Renzo Piano, and Peter Zumthor, have deliberately preserved the pavilion in their respective master plans for LACMA's renovated campus, making it the sole pre-millennium building saved in the current transformation.

The Pavilion for Japanese Art is located on the campus of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wilshire Boulevard in central Los Angeles, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits. As part of LACMA, it operates under the museum's ownership and access policies. The building is currently closed for retrofit and maintenance that began in 2018, with art removed from the building due to the need to shut down climate control systems during renovation. The pavilion is slated to reopen following comprehensive renovations as part of Peter Zumthor's campus redesign, maintaining its role as a destination site for viewing Japanese art in a contemplative, naturally lit environment designed specifically for the unique requirements of traditional Japanese screens, scrolls, and objects.