Collection: MOCA's First Thirty Years

Presented in celebration of the museum's 30th anniversary, Collection: MOCA's First Thirty Years is the largest- ever installation of the museum's world-renowned permanent collection, which numbers nearly 6,000 artworks dating from 1939 to the present day.

While works from the collection have been seen in more than 100 thematic exhibitions at MOCA since the museum's founding in 1979, the new installation makes a significant portion of the collection accessible to the public on a long-term basis, filling the galleries at both of MOCA's downtown Los Angeles locations with more than 500 artworks by over 200 artists and providing a comprehensive survey of the past 70 years of contemporary art history.

Organized by MOCA Chief Curator Paul Schimmel, Collection: MOCA's First Thirty Years occupies 24,000 square feet of exhibition space at MOCA Grand Avenue and an additional 26,000 square feet of exhibition space at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.

Organized chronologically, the installation at MOCA Grand Avenue traces the full range of art-historical movements and styles since World War II, from abstract expressionism of the late 1940s and '50s to pop, minimal, and conceptual art of the 1960s and '70s.

Emphasizing the variety that is a hallmark of contemporary art, the installation at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA features a proliferation of concepts, forms, and media, representing artwork made during the last three decades by a wide range of artists.