Society for Contemporary Art (Los Angeles)

Society for Contemporary Art (Los Angeles)
Name	Society for Contemporary Art (Los Angeles)
Founded	1930s
Location	Los Angeles, California
Type	Arts organization
Focus	Contemporary art

Society for Contemporary Art (Los Angeles) is a nonprofit arts organization in Los Angeles dedicated to supporting, exhibiting, and collecting contemporary visual art. Founded amid the interwar period, the Society has engaged artists, patrons, museums, and educational institutions across Southern California, contributing to dialogues involving modernism, postwar movements, and contemporary practices. Over decades the Society has intersected with museums, galleries, and cultural foundations to influence curatorial practice, public programming, and collecting strategies.

History

The Society traces roots to civic arts movements that involved entities such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Getty Center, California Institute of the Arts, and patrons connected to the Arts Commission of Los Angeles. Early leadership included figures linked to Walt Disney, Howard Hughes, J. Paul Getty circles and local collectors who also supported institutions like the Huntington Library, Hammer Museum, Norton Simon Museum, and Pasadena Museum of California Art. The Society’s development paralleled exhibitions at the Crocker Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, and international events such as the Venice Biennale, Documenta, and the São Paulo Art Biennial. Throughout the 20th century the Society engaged with artists from movements associated with Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and later with conceptualists like Sol LeWitt, Yayoi Kusama, Marcel Duchamp, and John Cage via interdisciplinary programs.

Mission and Activities

The Society’s mission emphasizes exhibition support, acquisition, and public engagement, connecting donors, collectors, curators, and artists from networks including the Getty Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, and university art programs at UCLA, USC, California State University, Los Angeles, and ArtCenter College of Design. Activities have included commissioning works that intersect with institutions such as the Broad, LACMA, Hammer, Getty Research Institute, and international partners like the Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Guggenheim Museum, and Museo Reina Sofía. The Society has partnered with foundations like the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Kresge Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Ford Foundation to underwrite fellowships, catalogues, and touring exhibitions.

Programs and Exhibitions

Programmatically the Society organized curated exhibitions, artist residencies, lectures, and symposia featuring curators and critics from institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Princeton University Art Museum, Columbia University, New York University, Smithsonian Institution, The Getty Institute, and galleries including Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner, Pace Gallery, and Haunch of Venison. Notable exhibition initiatives engaged artists associated with Cindy Sherman, Edward Hopper, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Brice Marden, Richard Serra, Anish Kapoor, Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, Kara Walker, Terry Allen, and Ed Ruscha. The Society has sponsored collaborative projects with performing arts institutions such as Los Angeles Philharmonic, Center Theatre Group, Hollywood Bowl, and academic programs at CalArts and UC Berkeley, producing catalogues and critical essays that involved writers from Artforum, October (journal), Art in America, Frieze, and Artnews.

Membership and Governance

Governance has included a board of trustees composed of collectors, museum directors, curators, philanthropists, and cultural leaders from communities linked to Philippe de Montebello, Linda Nochlin, Alison Gass, Christopher Knight, Michael Govan, and patrons related to Eli Broad, Ann Philbin, Deborah Cullinan, Esther Rothschild, and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn. Membership tiers have mirrored models used by Museum of Modern Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, Walker Art Center, and National Gallery of Art, offering donor councils, fellowship committees, and advisory boards that coordinate with legal counsel experienced with Internal Revenue Service nonprofit regulations and arts nonprofit governance practices taught at Harvard Business School and Yale School of Art.

Notable Artists and Collaborations

The Society has exhibited, supported, or collaborated with a broad roster of artists and cultural figures including Mark Bradford, Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Lari Pittman, Mary Corse, David Hockney, Cai Guo-Qiang, Ai Weiwei, Yoko Ono, Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter, Marina Abramović, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Do Ho Suh, Shirin Neshat, Tracey Emin, Richard Prince, Jenny Saville, Zoe Leonard, and Theaster Gates. Cross-disciplinary collaborations have involved curators and critics affiliated with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Nicholas Serota, Sir Norman Rosenthal, Thelma Golden, Kara Walker, and scholars from The J. Paul Getty Museum and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Facilities and Collections

Facilities associated with the Society include gallery spaces, curatorial study rooms, and climate-controlled storage comparable to those at LACMA Conservation Center, Getty Conservation Institute, and university museums like UCR ARTS. The collection strategy has emphasized contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and new media from artists represented by Matthew Marks Gallery, Pace Gallery, Gagosian, White Cube, Sadie Coles HQ, and regional galleries such as L.A. Louver and Francesca Pia. The Society’s cataloguing practices align with standards used by the Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, and international museum registrars.

Impact and Reception

Critical reception of the Society’s programs has appeared in publications such as Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Guardian, Artforum, Art in America, and Hyperallergic, with scholars from UCLA School of Art, USC Roski School of Art and Design, CalArts, and University of Southern California evaluating its contributions to curatorial practice, collecting, and public engagement. The Society’s legacy is noted in exhibitions and symposia alongside institutions like the Getty Research Institute, Hammer Museum, The Broad, and international museums, influencing philanthropic support models used by contemporary arts organizations across the United States and abroad.

Category:Arts organizations based in Los Angeles