19/05/2026
I liked the new Geffen Galleries at , designed by Peter Zumthor — both the building itself and the way the art is displayed within it (fab vitrines!)
A short text on the gallery map says the new galleries are “designed to encourage wandering.” I got lost twenty-five times.
I enjoyed that the exhibition path begins with pre-Columbian art regardless of which entrance you choose.
Information accompanying the works is kept to a minimum, so aesthetic experience takes precedence over interpretation. But I wonder what visitors without a background in art history are left with. In that sense, the Geffen Galleries feel like a very twenty-first century, post-Instagram museum: the experience matters more than historical context.
I ended my visit at LACMA’s older building, looking at the modernist collection. Those galleries are organized chronologically. And they were completely empty.
