LACMA reopening modern art collection in newly redesigned space

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Some of the city's best-known paintings and sculptures are going back on public display. The L.A. County Museum of Art is reopening its modern art collection with a major makeover.

The top floor of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA has been reimagined from floor to ceiling, with 250 works by 200 20th century artists, from German Expressionists to David Hockney.

Senior curator Stephanie Barron was able to assemble a wider view of Modern Art while the new David Geffen Galleries are being built.

"We've got the kind of core modern collection but because of our construction we were able to incorporate works from other departments from Latin American art," she said, "Our great Diego Riveras, both the Cubist still life, and the classic work from 1925 Flower Day now have joined other works from the teens and the 20s."

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LACMA announced it will reopen its doors to visitors starting April 1 - and the museum will feature several new exhibits.

If the original Renzo Piano gallery design feels different, it is. Architect Frank Gehry and his associates are behind the makeover.

"Behind me there are, there's beautiful light coming down on Brancusi and Henry Moore, an Archipenko, or even in our galleries of Giacometti suffused with natural light, all harnessed through the genius of Frank Gehry and his team," Barron said.

Bring your cellphone with earphones - because music has been curated for the art and there are QR codes to scan throughout the exhibit to hear it.

There are codes for a half-dozen self-guided tours. Among them: the Picasso collection.

The installation Central Meridian is back after 20 years. It's also known as The Garage, created by L.A. artist Michael McMillan in 1981, who oversaw this re-installation.

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It not only sounds like a garage of the '60s, but with the scent of musty oil, it smells like one.

"That's the whole beauty of an immersive environment. It hits you, it smells like something, it looks like something, it gets under your skin and you just come out, having had this experience. It's very different from looking at a painting hanging on the wall," Barron said.

Timed entry tickets must be purchased in advance online for admission. The current block of general admission is available through June 29. Tickets are released on month at a time.

For ticketing information, visit www.lacma.org/tickets.