Los Angeles is a sprawling metropolis that’s ground zero for some of the biggest names and movements in the global art world. From its award-winning museums to trend-setting visionaries, few cities in the world can compare to this creative center. LA, as it’s affectionately known, is the center of the global film industry. It’s also the place where global cultures collide to create expressions of art that are unique and far-reaching. Below is a guide to LA’s top museums and spaces.
1. The Getty: A Cultural Icon of Los Angeles
Few art museums in the world are as beautiful and influential as the Getty. The enormous space overlooks the city from the edge of Topanga State Park and Brentwood. Its sprawling modern architecture is now one of Los Angeles’ most iconic structures.
In 1976, art collector and businessman J. Paul Getty created a trust that set up two art spaces: the Getty Villa near the coast in Pacific Palisades and the massive Getty Center. The massive Getty Center opened in 1997 and has since become one of the world’s leaders in art education, outreach, and preservation. It sees over a million visitors every year.
The Getty holds several millennia’s worth of art, spanning from Roman and Greek pieces displayed in the Villa to the over 100,000 objects and paintings in the Getty Center. Works of art are preserved and acquired through the Getty Foundation, which awards grants to people around the world. In honor of J. Paul Getty’s request, entrance to the Getty Center and Villa remains free. This makes it one of the most accessible centers for fine art and art education in the world.
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2. The Murals of LA
Street art has a long history in Los Angeles and since the 1930s, Angelinos have been decorating their homes and businesses in colorful murals. One of the first and most influential murals is 1932’s América Tropical by David Alfaro Siqueiros. Originally, Siqueiros was tasked to paint a lively Mexican-themed mural for the Los Angeles Plaza Art Center. Instead, Siqueiros painted a depiction of Mexico’s occupation by Anglo-Americans.
In the 1970s, African American artists began creating new and powerful works that symbolized the struggle for equality and hope. Ignorance and Poverty (1970-76) by Eliot Pinkney is one of the most famous examples of this, with its bold colors and flowing depictions. The convergence of social protest, bold colors and calligraphy, and socially conscious depictions of community, struggle, and excess, have created a mural style that’s unique and influential. Today, new murals such as Tristan Eaton’s City of Angels and stencil artist HiJack’s Beverly Grove are continuing this lineage.
3. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Since 1910, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been one of LA’s most cherished museums. The institution houses one of the world’s finest collections of pieces spanning throughout art history. You’ll find works such as Hokusai’s print of The Great Wave by Kanagawaga and Diego Rivera’s Flower Day here. There are over 150,000 works that cover the best international and local art in the world. You’ll see collections separated into contemporary, Japanese, Latin American, pre-Columbian, American, Egyptian, Korean, and Chinese art.
Renzo Piano, the architect behind the Shard building in London, designed the beautiful main building. Architect Bruce Goff designed the beautiful Pavilion for Japanese Art. Outside of the museum, you can enjoy the beautifully manicured grounds showcasing the finest of Southern California gardening.
4. The Museum of Contemporary Art LA
The Moca is a Los Angeles icon. Located downtown near the iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall and Angels Flight Railway, this wonderful museum has been at the center of the city’s contemporary art world since 1979. Inside are over 5,000 prized works, spanning works from globally adored artists to local heroes. The collection covers various mediums, all from 1940 and onwards. You’ll find a rotating collection of exhibits. Many exhibits, such as Mapping an Art World: Los Angeles in the 1970s-80s tell the story of Los Angeles’ contributions to contemporary art. Famous artists who have been featured include Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko.
5. The Broad
The Broad Museum is the center of LA’s modern art. The museum houses around 2,000 works covering the period from the 1950s to the current day. This beautiful collection exists in a grand honeycomb-shaped building that stands out amongst the skyscrapers of LA’s downtown.
You’ll see works such as Andy Warhol’s 40 Gold Marilyns and Jean‐Michel Basquiat‘s Melting Point of Ice. The museum rotates its collections and keeps a theme of creativity and expression that has made it so popular amongst the global art community.
The museum’s construction cost around $140 million. The building itself is an expression of LA’s tight-knit art scene. Inside are halls built to resemble caverns and a ceiling of honey-combed skylights known as The Veil. Every year, almost a million people visit the museum, making it one of the busiest art spaces in LA. Like the Getty, admission is free. For many visitors, the highlight is Yayoi Kusama’s enchanting Infinity Mirror Rooms.
6. The Hammer
When Dr. Armand Hammer, the Chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, established the museum in 1990 it was originally meant to house his personal art collection. Then, two years after Hammer’s death and the opening of his museum, the nearby University of California, Los Angeles stepped in. In 1994, UCLA began moving in its collections, making this place one of the most impressive art museums in the United States. Today, you can see timeless pieces from artists such as Paul Cezanne, George Bellows, and Claude Monet. Like other major LA art institutions, admission to the Hammer is free. The museum has a highly-rated restaurant and a store inside where you can find a vast amount of art books and items related to fine art and LA.
7. The Norton Simon Museum
In the nearby city of Pasadena is the spacious and popular hub of art the Norton Simon Museum. This beautiful space features a wide range of pieces that were collected by the philanthropist Norton Simon. The museum was created in 1922, originally as the Pasadena Art Institute. After hitting financially troubling times, Norton Simon took control in 1974. Since then, the museum has gone through renovations and built a popular sculpture garden within its space. Inside the museum, you can see 12,000 revolving pieces ranging from European art such as Picasso’s Woman with a Book and Rafael’s Madonna and Child with Book to American works such as Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes.
8. The Huntington Library
Another Pasadena gem that’s been a major player in LA’s art world is the Huntington Library. The sprawling library features 45,000 pieces of global fine art spanning a multitude of mediums. You’ll find revolving collections spanning continents. The museum’s highlights include European classics such as Virgin and Child by Rogier van der Weyden and rare Chinese masterpieces from the Yuan dynasty. If you love global art and historical pieces, few museums in the world can match the Huntington Library. What makes this space even more special are the gardens located outside. The Huntington Gardens are some of the most striking landscapes in the United States.
9. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
No visit to LA would be complete without exploring the city’s cinema history. For a place that summarizes film history and its contributions to global art, few places are as important as the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Inside this spacious and modern museum is a huge collection of artifacts, set designs, costumes, and more spanning American cinema history. You’ll see iconic objects such as R2D2 from Star Wars, the animatronic great white shark from Jaws, and costumes from some of the world’s most artistic and influential films. This beautiful museum opened in 2021 and is one of the city’s newest museums. Its exhibits take visitors through underground films, film noir, film production, and the art of set design.
10. Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles
Directly across from the La Brea Tar Pits is one of the city’s most beloved museums by local artists. For anyone who wants to experience the wildest expressions of art in the city, this is the place. Craft Contemporary was founded in 1973 by the painter Edith Robinson Wyle. It was originally called The Egg and the Eye and was part restaurant, part art gallery.
Today, it’s still a place where visitors can feel part of the creative energy of the museum. The museum highlights the power and creative energy of craft art. From mobiles to multimedia sensory exhibits, visitors will get an immersive dive into the world of craft in Los Angeles.
The museum is also a space that hosts activities and workshops led by the artists themselves. Craft Contemporary is the place to catch emerging local artists and support their work while diving into the creative spirit of Los Angeles, all in one museum.
