Collaboration among L.A.’s top art institutions reached new heights Monday as the Hammer Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art announced the joint ownership and management of a collection of 260 works of art gifted by philanthropists Jarl and Pamela Mohn.
The collection — consisting entirely of works by L.A.-based artists — has been accumulated by the Mohns over the last two decades and is being called the Mohn Art Collective: Hammer, LACMA, MOCA, or MAC3. The gift is accompanied by a $15-million to $20-million endowment for future acquisitions and is designed for annual growth. It also covers expenses incurred for storage and care of the art.
“I don’t want it to be a burden,” Jarl Mohn told The Times about his decision to pair MAC3 with an endowment. “I want this to be a really joyful experience and not a heavy lift for the institutions.”
Mohn said the endowment is larger than “all the things I’ve supported at all the art institutions in L.A., in the aggregate over the last 20 years.”
Mohn added that he wasn’t sure of the market value of the MAC3 collection, which was in the process of being appraised. He expected to know within the next four months.
The Hammer is augmenting the MAC3 collection with 80 works it has collected over the 12 years it has been staging its “Made in L.A.” biennials. An additional 16 pieces have been added to the collection from “Made in L.A. 2023” by curators from all three museums — for a total of 356 paintings, sculptures and mixed media works.
Mohn recounted walking through the Hammer at the end of last year’s “Made in L.A.” with its director, Ann Philbin, along with LACMA and MOCA Directors Michael Govan and Johanna Burton, respectively, and their chief curators.
“And then we sat in a conference room, we had lunch, we talked for three hours and we voted,” Mohn said.
Curators from each museum will jointly decide what to acquire each year going forward — with the sole stipulations being that the works be by L.A. artists and that every other year, acquisitions will be culled from future “Made in L.A.” biennials. Each institution will have access to the full collection for display, and arrangements will be made for the collection to be lent to museums globally — with financial aid offered to small institutions without the means to support such a program.
The MAC3 collection currently includes work by Lauren Halsey, rafa esparza, Aria Dean, Karon Davis, Martine Syms, Mark Grotjahn, Silke Otto-Knapp, Rodney McMillian, Analia Saban, Cauleen Smith, Luchita Hurtado and Kandis Williams. One of MAC3’s goals is to entice other collectors to donate additional works, creating an ongoing commitment to L.A. artists and the city’s art ecosystem.
Mohn said this collection has been decades in the making.
“I decided to build a collection around emerging L.A. artists because we’re all lucky that we live in a place like this where there’s something happening,” he said. “It’s like being in New York when the Abstract Expressionist movement was happening or in Paris around the turn of the century with the advent of Cubism.”
The idea for MAC3 fell into place over the last 18 months, Mohn said. He considers L.A.’s art scene to be remarkably harmonious, and he noted that all three museum directors quickly supported the idea. He doesn’t foresee a scenario in which the museums find themselves competing for the collection but rather envisions a future where all three institutions feature a few pieces in various shows according to theme. Govan, for example, has requested access to a particular piece intended to occupy a prime spot when the new David Geffen Galleries open at LACMA.
“I said, ‘Great, we’ll put it in the collection, but it’ll be for everybody,’” Mohn said of Govan’s request. “‘But this is something you wanted first, so you got first dibs on it,’ but [the museums] have been so collaborative and so cooperative, working with each other … it really is exactly as I had envisioned it would go.”
MAC3 is in line with the collaborative ethos espoused by major L.A. institutions, which have long worked together on citywide art festivals and projects, including the Getty’s massive “PST Art,” which opens next month with dozens of exhibits and programs scheduled for museums and public spaces across Southern California. Govan also has talked often about his goal of implementing a “strategic plan of regional partnerships” with museums throughout the area in order to better showcase LACMA’s vast collection.
The Mohns have a history of boosting local art and artists. They have provided significant financial support for “Made in L.A.” since its 2012 inauguration. They also support three awards given to L.A. artists — the Mohn Award, the Career Achievement Award and the Public Recognition Award. They have contributed financially to institutions such as the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Brick; and Los Angeles Nomadic Division.
