The World Class Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Hollywood

Well over 100 years after the invention of the cinema, Hollywood is now moving forward fast to create a world-class museum of Hollywood history. The museum will help anchor the LACMA campus and should generate phenomenal volumes of visitors to both the Hollywood museum and that of LACMA.

Vincent Johnson in Los Angeles

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“The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Thursday that the first major American museum dedicated to film will occupy the historic May Company Wilshire building in Los Angeles. The design of architects Renzo Piano and Zoltan Pali restores the street-front facades of the 1938 building and will include a new modern movie theater.”

” According to LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director Michael Govan, “This represents a seismic shift in the cultural landscape of Los Angeles, and an extraordinary new resource for residents proud of their local history, and for fans of cinema worldwide.”

“The museum will feature approximately 230,000 square feet of public programming space including galleries, an education center, a state-of-the-art 650-seat theater, screening rooms, a demonstration lab, and special event spaces.”

“Located on the LACMA campus, the nearly-300,000-square-foot Academy Museum will fully restore the Wilshire and Fairfax streetfront facades of the 1938 Streamline Moderne building and will include a spherical glass addition at the back of the original building, the Academy said. Designed to represent the marriage of art and technology, the addition will house a state-of-the-art theater, which replaces an extension made to the structure in 1946.”

“It is appropriate and long overdue for the city that is home to the motion picture industry to recognize this art form with a museum of its own. The LACMA Board is delighted to be facilitating this important cultural event, which has special resonance for me, having spent most of my life dedicated to the great art of movies,” said co-chair of the LACMA Board of Trustees Terry Semel. “The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will provide a much needed destination for cultural tourists and Los Angelenos to learn more about cinema, and the setting could not be more ideal, nestled next to the largest encyclopedic art museum in the Western United States.” According to Academy President Tom Sherak, “The new museum will be a world-class destination that is a tangible representation of the Academy’s mission. And the idea of our museum being part of a larger cultural center for the arts, in this city that we love, was incredibly compelling to the Academy Board.”

(Hollywood Reporter photos)
18 October 2012 |

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures by Renzo Piano

News: architect Renzo Piano has unveiled designs for a museum of movie history for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles.

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures by Renzo Piano

The $250 million Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, designed in collaboration with Californian architect Zoltan Pali, will be built on the campus of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures by Renzo Piano

The project will involve the restoration of the former May Company building on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, which was originally built in 1938 in the Streamline Moderne style as a department store but which has remained empty since suffering damaged in the 1987 earthquake.

A new, spherical glass structure designed by Piano will be built next to the May Company building. The museum will exhibit items from the collection of the Academy, which is best known for organising the annual Oscars awards.

“The design for the museum will finally enable this wonderful building to be animated and contribute to the city after sitting empty for so long,” said Piano. “Our design will preserve the May Company building’s historic public profile while simultaneously signaling that the building is taking on a new life that celebrates both the industry and art form that this city created and gave to the world.”

See all our stories about Renzo Piano.

Here’s the press release from the The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:


THE ACADEMY UNVEILS VISION FOR NEW MUSEUM BY ARCHITECTS RENZO PIANO AND ZOLTAN PALI

ACADEMY MUSEUM OF MOTION PICTURES WILL BE
FIRST MAJOR MUSEUM IN U.S. DEDICATED EXCLUSIVELY TO
THE ART, SCIENCE OF MOVIES

$100M RAISED TOWARD $250M CAPITAL CAMPAIGN GOAL

LOS ANGELES –- The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that it has reached its initial goal of $100 million toward a $250 million capital campaign to fund the upcoming Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Concurrently, the Academy unveiled its vision for the first major U.S. museum dedicated exclusively to the history and ongoing development of motion pictures. Designed by award-winning architects Renzo Piano and Zoltan Pali, the non-profit museum which will be located in the historic May Company Wilshire building in Los Angeles, is slated to open in 2016.

“The Academy museum will be a landmark that both our industry and our city can be immensely proud of,” said Academy CEO Dawn Hudson. “I appreciate the unwavering support of our board, our members, and especially our campaign chairs, all of whom have led us through this crucial stage.”

Launched in early 2012 by Campaign Chair Bob Iger and Co-Chairs Annette Bening and Tom Hanks, the campaign has raised $100 million through private donations towards a $250 million goal. “The early response to our fundraising campaign has been outstanding and is incredibly encouraging,” said Iger. “We are so grateful to the founding supporters of the campaign, who share our vision and passion for creating the Academy Museum.”

Located on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art campus, the nearly 300,000 square-foot Academy Museum will revitalize the historic building, which has been vacant or underutilized for nearly 20 years, and weave it back into the fabric of the city.

The design fully restores the Wilshire and Fairfax street-front facades of the 1938 Streamline Moderne building, and includes a spherical glass addition at the back of the original building. Designed to represent the marriage of art and technology, the addition will house a state-of-the-art theater which replaces an extension made to the structure in 1946.

“The design for the museum will finally enable this wonderful building to be animated and contribute to the city after sitting empty for so long,” said Piano, the Pritzker Prize winning architect. “I am very inspired by the Academy’s name and mission, the idea of the arts and sciences working together to create films. Our design will preserve the May Company building’s historic public profile while simultaneously signaling that the building is taking on a new life that celebrates both the industry and art form that this city created and gave to the world.”

“A major movie museum in the heart of this city has been a long-held dream of the Academy,” said Academy President Hawk Koch, “Thanks to the latest technological developments we can take the visiting public through time, back into our history and forward toward our future.”

Through immersive exhibitions and galleries, special screening rooms, and an interactive education center with demonstration labs, the museum will draw from the Academy’s extensive collections and archives, which include more than 140,000 films, 10 million photographs, 42,000 original film posters, 10,000 production drawings, costumes, props and movie-making equipment, as well as behind-the-scenes personal accounts from artists and innovators – the Academy’s membership – working in the motion picture industry.

“Hollywood has played an unparalleled role in bringing American art, culture and creativity to people around the world,” said Antonio Villaraigosa, mayor of Los Angeles. “The Academy Museum will be a remarkable resource for L.A. that will both celebrate the industry that has defined our city and provide an essential resource that reinforces our position as leader and innovator.”

The $100 million raised includes significant commitments from:

* Campaign Chairs and their families: Annette Bening and Warren Beatty, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, and Bob Iger and Willow Bay

* Academy Governors, Past Presidents and their families, including: Bill Condon and Jack Morrissey, Richard and Bonnie Cook, Rob and Shari Friedman, Sid and Nancy Ganis, Jim and Ann Gianopulos, Gale Anne Hurd, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, Hawk and Molly Koch, John and Nancy Lasseter, Walter Mirisch and Lawrence Mirisch, Bob and Kay Rehme, and Tom and Madeleine Sherak

* Film studios and entertainment conglomerates, including The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros. Entertainment, and Lionsgate

* Individuals and foundations, including Cecilia DeMille Presley, Lucasfilm Foundation, Shirley Temple Black and Family, Ken and Carol Schultz, The Mary Pickford Foundation, Alan and Cindy Horn, Frank and Fay Mancuso, Bob and Eva Shaye, The Four Friends Foundation, the Film Music Foundation, and Jerry and Linda Bruckheimer

* Corporate partners, including Dolby Laboratories, Panavision, Technicolor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Entertainment Partners/Central Casting, Girard-Perregaux Watches, and The New York Times

* Industry guilds, including the Directors Guild of America, Producers Guild of America, SAG-AFTRA, and the Writers Guild of America, West.

The Academy will also provide an endowment to support the Museum’s long-term programming.

“The Academy Museum will have a profound impact on the cultural landscape of Los Angeles. The decision to locate this museum in a historic building on LACMA’s campus will bring incredible benefits to both institutions and their visitors. It is a whole that is bigger than the sum of its parts,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, chairman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

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-Vincent Johnson

Los Angeles, California

July 29, 2012

Vincent Johnson is an artist and writer in Los Angeles

New Abstract Paintings: The Cosmos suite (2012)

Golden Dream (2012), part of the Cosmos Suite of paintings

California Toilet, Filthy Light Switch (2010) by Vincent Johnson. Archival Epson print (Private Collection, Miami, Florida). I provided this image as I realized its clear similarity to Golden Dream, which I completed a week ago in my studio in Los Angeles.

Two at Night (2012) from the Cosmos suite of paintings, Oil on canvas, 30×40 inches

Cosmos. Oil on canvas 2012 by Vincent Johnson

Cosmos Red Yellow Green. Oil on canvas 2012 by Vincent Johnson

Green God. Oil on canvas 2012 by Vincent Johnson

This new painting series is part of my ongoing exploration of painting materials and techniques from the history of painting. The works combine knowledge of painting practices of both abstract and representation paintings. The works concern themselves purely with the visual power that paintings can do through the manipulation of paint. Some of the underpaintings are allowed to dry for months; some of those are built dark to light, others light to dark. None are made in a single setting. Most are worked and reworked using studio materials. Each new series takes a different approach to the painted surface from how the paint is applied, to varying the painting mediums. This suite concerns itself with the layering of paint by building up the surface and altering and reworking the wet paint with studio tools.

Two larger paintings will be completed and photographed on Sunday, July 15, 2012 and posted here.

Vincent Johnson, Grayscale painting: The Storm (2012). Oil on canvas, 30×40 inches, created in studio in Los Angeles, California

Vincent Johnson, Grayscale painting, Snow White/White Snow (2012). Oil on canvas, 30×40 inches, created in studio in Los Angeles

Vincent Johnson is an artist and writer in Los Angeles

Vincent Johnson, Nine Grayscale Paintings, Beacon Arts Center, Los Angeles, (2001). Oil on canvas. Each panel is 20×24 inches.
photograph of silver paint on my hands in studio, Los Angeles, during the creation of Nine Grayscale paintings.
Vincent Johnson – in Los Angeles studio working on Nine Grayscale Paintings, 2011

Vincent Johnson

Los Angeles, California

http://www.vincentjohnsonart.com

Vincent Johnson received his MFA in Fine Art Painting from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California 1997 and his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is a 2005 Creative Capital Grantee, and was selected for the Baum: An Emerging American Photographer’s Award in 2004 and for the New Museum of Contemporary Arts Aldrich Art Award in 2007 and for the Art Matters grant in 2008, and in 2009 for the Foundation for Contemporary Art Fellowship, Los Angeles. In 2010 he was named a United States Artists project artist. His work has been reviewed in ArtForum, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, Art in America, Art Slant and many other publications. His photographic works were most recently shown in the inaugural Pulse Fair Los Angeles. His most recent paintings were shown at the Beacon Arts Center in Los Angeles.

2 thoughts on “The World Class Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Hollywood

  1. We know that over the past two years, LA MoCA almost died and was rallied around by hundreds of artworld friends. LA MoCA was offered to be absorbed into LACMA by that museum. It was given $30 million by Eli Broad, who also paid for UCLA’s new art school building and the new Broad Stage at the Santa Monica Community College.

  2. LOS ANGELES –- The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that it has reached its initial goal of $100 million toward a $250 million capital campaign to fund the upcoming Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Concurrently, the Academy unveiled its vision for the first major U.S. museum dedicated exclusively to the history and ongoing development of motion pictures. Designed by award-winning architects Renzo Piano and Zoltan Pali, the non-profit museum which will be located in the historic May Company Wilshire building in Los Angeles, is slated to open in 2016.

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