LACMA So Far: Portrait of a Museum in the Making
Written by:Suzanne Muchnic
Category:Art
Format:198 pages, 9 x 10, 66 color illus., hardcover
Release Date:2015-10-17
ISBN:978-0-87328-266-6
Price: $45.00
About this BookWinner of the Los Angeles Public Library’s John D. Bruckman Award for Excellence in a Book about Los Angeles
In LACMA So Far, Suzanne Muchnic draws on decades of experience as a Los Angeles Times arts writer to relate the complicated story of how LACMA emerged as the largest art museum in the western United States. Her in-depth reporting, fleshed out with private interviews and archival research, offers a lively tale about the convergence of art, money, people, and buildings that has produced a museum perpetually in the making.
About the AuthorSuzanne Muchnic, a longtime art writer for the Los Angeles Times and contributor to many art publications, has followed the evolution of Los Angeles’s art scene since the 1970s and traveled widely to report on important artists, museums, exhibitions, and cultural issues. She won first prize for arts and entertainment reporting from the Greater Los Angeles Press Club in 1993. Her critically acclaimed biography, Odd Man In: Norton Simon and the Pursuit of Culture, was awarded the 2002 Donald Pflueger Local History Award of the Historical Society of Southern California. Her most recent book is Helen Lundeberg: Poetry Space Silence.Notes:Reviews:
Suzanne Muchnic's meticulous research and compelling writing style bring to light an outstanding history of a major cultural institution and the community that created and maintains it.–Sheryn Morris, LAPL Reads
Former L.A. Times art reporter Suzanne Muchnic has written "LACMA So Far: Portrait of Museum in the Making," an indispensable book charting the century-long evolution of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art — “one of America's best known and least understood museums,” as she aptly puts it. –Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times
Muchnic tells a clear and even-handed story as she relates the shenanigans of major collectors...and gives individual curators their due.–Graham W. J. Beal, Museum History Journal
The book is filled with personalities ... There are people wars and museum wars, politicians, donors and staff working for and sometimes against one another...Muchnic capitalizes upon her newspaper career to build an important book.–Los Angeles City Historical Society Newsletter
Radio Interview:
Suzanne Muchnic speaks with KCRW's Madeleine Brand at the 43:00 mark.
LACMA So Far in the News:
"The Abominable Museum"—ArtInfo.com
"LACMA and the Jews"—Jewish Journal
LACMA So Far excerpt
LACMA So Far index
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