\n<\/p>\n
In reaching for a comparison, I thought back to the hoopla tied to the completion of Crystal Bridges, the nonprofit art museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, founded by Alice Walton, or the debut of Glenstone, the astounding museum started by collectors Mitchell Rales and Emily Wei Rales in Potomac, Maryland. Neither was close to this. A better comparison would be the opening of the Whitney Museum of American Art\u2019s new building, designed by Renzo Piano<\/a>, in the Meatpacking District\u2014I was there for that bash; Rufus Wainwright sang Billy Joel\u2019s \u201cNew York State of Mind\u201d in front of the Hudson River, and the crowd went nuts.<\/p>\n But LACMA\u2019s new building, with its massive institutional footprint and giant budget to match\u2014the museum placed the final cost at $720 million\u2014puts it in another stratosphere.<\/p>\n \u201cReally, this might be the most important museum in the country built in, oh, I don\u2019t know, decades?\u201d Bob Iger<\/a>, the former CEO of The Walt Disney Company, told me. He was there with his wife, Willow Bay, who has been a board member for years and chaired the big party Thursday night. She also, with Iger, has funded the replacement of bulbs in Chris Burden\u2019s Urban Light,<\/em> the marvelous arrangement of old streetlamps in front of the museum that\u2019s become the most photographed object in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just the husband here,\u201d Iger said.<\/p>\n Willow Bay and Bob Iger<\/p>\n <\/span>Getty Images.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n He added that it was heartening to see that the artists present at the gala loved the new building. The David Geffen Galleries doesn\u2019t primarily exist to show work by living artists; the contemporary shows and collection will still mainly be housed in the Broad Contemporary Art Museum and the Resnick Exhibition Pavilion. But the artists in attendance last night did love the new building, in the way that artists in New York love going to The Met. I spoke with Lauren Halsey (who does have work in the new building, actually), Jonas Wood<\/a>, Mark Grotjahn, Julie Mehretu<\/a>, and Jordan Wolfson<\/a>. Discerning voices, all of them, not ones to bite their tongue\u2014but all seemed totally won over by the daring nature of the single-floor schematic, the old-new audacity of the patina-worn concrete walls. Alex Israel<\/a> walked up the stairs at the start of the evening, taking it in with the collector Joel Lubin, marveling at the wonder of it, looking at the ocean of bow-tie-wearing men and sequin-clad women entering the sculpture garden below. Catherine Opie<\/a> snapped selfies with patrons, and Ed Ruscha<\/a> walked through the atrium, where Tino Sehgal debuted a new performance, to find three of his photographs from the \u201960s installed just off the room with Renaissance paintings. Francesco Vezzoli said it was \u201cthe dream of America\u201d to have a building like this for art in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n