THE MAGNIFICENT ELEVEN

The LA Times asks the experts to name the greatest works from the permanent collections of Los Angeles museums.

Georges de la Tour, France, (Vic-sur-Seille, 1593-1652), The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, c. 1638-1640, oil on canvas, 46 1/16 x 36 1/8 in. (117 x 91.76 cm), gift of The Ahmanson Foundation.

Are permanent collections taken for granted? Maybe so, says the LA Times.Despite their status as relatively new kids on the culture block, the museums of Southern California “have developed broad collections with surprising stars,” observes arts journalist Suzanne Muchnic (“Beauty Beheld,” Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2006).

Yet, Muchnic notes, those stars are frequently overshadowed by blockbuster temporary exhibitions. As an example she cites any given day at LACMA, with visitors lining up to see the five legendary Klimts even as other galleries remain relatively untravelled.

Casting new light on “the heart and soul” of museums—that is, the permanent collections—the Times asked “a dozen curators and other art specialists to speak about what they consider the region’s great art, from ancient to contemporary.”

Eleven of LACMA’s permanently held artworks made the Times list. In era, subject, and form they are profoundly varied, ranging from ancient sandstone dryads to Georges de La Tour's seventeenth-century The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame to Vija Celmins’ monumental enamel-on-wood comb of 1970.

Celmins’ Untitled (Comb) and another of the LACMA selections, René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images (This is not a pipe), will be featured in this fall’s exhibition Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images.

Here are all eleven works, with links to photographs, detailed information from Collections Online, and current viewing status. Scan the list, and then visit in person. Not only will you see the works that captivate the experts, but you’re certain to find a few gems of your own as well.

India, Madhya Pradesh, Sanchi, Stupa I, South Asia, Two Addorsed Tree Dryads, 50 BC–AD 25, s andstone, 24 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 7 1/2 in., from the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, purchased with funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Allan C. Balch.

Two Addorsed Tree Dryads, 50 BC to AD 25, Indian sculpture.  

Ardabil Carpet, 1540, Persian textile.

The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, c. 1638-40, painting by Georges de La Tour.

Soap Bubbles, c. 1733-34, painting by Jean-Siméon Chardin.

Portrait of Sir Wyndham Knatchbull-Wyndham, 1758-1759, painting by Pompeo Batoni.

The Bellelli Sisters, 1865-66, painting by Edgar Degas.

Sous-Bois, c. 1894, painting by Paul Cézanne.

Furniture from the Robert R. Blacker House, 1907, by Greene and Greene.

The Treachery of Images (This Is Not a Pipe), c. 1928-29, painting by René Magritte.

Back Seat Dodge '38, 1964, sculpture by Edward Kienholz.

Untitled (Comb), 1970, sculpture by Vija Celmins.

(For the complete list of 61 works, by museum, go here.)

Edward Kienholz, Back Seat Dodge '38, 1964. 1938 Dodge, paint, fiberglass and flock, chicken wire, beer bottles, artificial grass, cast plaster, and recorded music and player. 66 x 120 x 156 in. (167.6 x 304.8 x 396.2 cm). Purchased with funds provided by the Art Museum Council Fund, M.81.248a-e. © Edward Kienholz and Nancy Reddin Kienholz.