LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM)—the centerpiece of the first phase of Transformation, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s (LACMA)’s ambitious program of expansion and renovation—will open in February 2008 with some 200 works by postwar artists.

Designed by Renzo Piano, founder, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, BCAM has been made possible thanks to a $60 million donation from Eli and Edythe Broad, including $50 million to the museum’s capital campaign and $10 million for an acquisition fund. Mr. Broad is a longtime LACMA trustee, and he and Mrs. Broad are among the world’s most generous philanthropists, with interests that include the arts, education, and science.

The three-story BCAM will include 60,000 square feet of exhibition space—one of the largest column-free art spaces in the United States—designed specifically for the display of art from 1945 to the present. Included in the initial installation will be some 200 works from the renowned collection of The Broad Art Foundation and the Broads’ personal collection, as well as from other lenders and LACMA’s own holdings in contemporary art.

LACMA Director Michael Govan stated, “The creation of BCAM greatly expands LACMA’s contemporary art program, both enriching our historical collections and placing us in a leadership position in the area of contemporary art among encyclopedic museums. We are additionally pleased that BCAM will show the work of several key artists in great depth, providing an exceptionally rewarding experience of their work. We are deeply grateful to the Broads for their generous contribution to LACMA and its future.”

Eli Broad added, “We are delighted to help ensure LACMA’s crucial role in the presentation of modern and contemporary art in Los Angeles. In addition to expanding and enriching the LACMA experience, BCAM will enhance the cultural vitality of our city, which is one of the great arts capitals in the world, attracting museum-goers from our hometown and around the globe. It has been a thrill to work with Renzo Piano in the creation of this superb, light-filled building, which offers both beauty and the flexibility required to show a wide variety of work.”

BCAM will comprise six loft-like exhibition spaces, each measuring over 8,300 square feet. These will be located on three floors, in two symmetrical wings that unfold on either side of a predominantly glass core containing a large glass-fronted elevator and passageways that connect to the wings. The main entrance will be on the third floor, which visitors will access by either an open-air vivid red escalator that traverses the building’s façade, or by the elevator. Except for the core, the building is clad in Italian travertine selected to complement existing historic buildings on LACMA’s twenty-acre campus.

Inaugural Installation - In a reflection of Eli and Edythe Broad’s practice of collecting particular artists in great depth, most BCAM galleries will be devoted to the work of a single artist. BCAM will thus provide rich representations of some of the most important artists of the last forty years. Visitors will begin in the dramatic, glass-roofed space of the third floor, which is infused with light. Here, they will experience galleries containing works by Los Angeles conceptual artist John Baldessari, including his ironic Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell (1967–68); the provocative Jeff Koons, with the artist’s well known stainless-steel Rabbit (1986) and ceramic Michael Jackson and Bubbles (1988); Andy Warhol, including his iconic Two Marilyns (1962) and Twenty Jackies (1964); Jasper Johns, with the important Watchman (1964); Robert Rauschenberg, including four of the artist’s “combines”; Ed Ruscha, perhaps the epitome of the Southern California artist, with works including his early masterpiece Actual Size (1962) and the painting Norms, La Cienega, on Fire (1964); Cy Twombly, represented by a strong group of works ranging in date from 1955 to 2003; Ellsworth Kelly, with four paintings dating from 1968 to 1972; and, finally, the late acclaimed Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, with works including Cold Shoulder (1963) and I…I’m Sorry (1965–66). Moving down to the second floor, visitors will find galleries containing work by British artist Damien Hirst, including examples from his famous “Natural History” series; Cindy Sherman, represented by a rich installation of her multilayered, complex photographs; eight of the late Jean-Michel Basquiat’s graphic, expressionistic paintings from the first half of the 1980s; Chris Burden, whose Bateau de Guerre (2001) measures over fourteen feet in length; five works by figurative painter Leon Golub from 1980 to 1985; a large-scale multi-media work, Gym Interior (2005), by Mike Kelley; and individual works by Robert Longo, David Salle, Julian Schnabel, Philip Taaffe, and Mark Tansey, ranging in date from 1982 to 1996. BCAM’s first floor will be entirely devoted to the work of Richard Serra, including two of his newest signature large-scale sculptures—the monumental Band (2006), recently purchased by LACMA with acquisition funds donated by Eli and Edythe Broad, and Sequence, also from 2006, on loan from the artist—and some thirty drawings.

Visitors will also encounter artworks in other areas of the building, such as the shaft that contains the glass-fronted elevator, where a work by Barbara Kruger will be sited, or the passageway connecting the building’s two wings on the south side, which will hold Jenny Holzer’s Under a Rock (1986), comprising ten granite benches and three LED signs. In addition, the building’s Wilshire Boulevard façade will be adorned with rotating series of specially commissioned artworks, displayed on scrims designed for the building by Mr. Piano. The scrims, measuring a total fifty-four feet wide by fifty-two feet tall on each wing, will serve as an outdoor canvas for artists. The inaugural work will be by Mr. Baldessari.

The Broad Collection - Eli and Edythe Broad have dedicated more than four decades to building two of the most prominent collections of postwar and contemporary art worldwide: The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Collection and the collection of The Broad Art Foundation.

Engaging a wide range of mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, and installation, the two collections together comprise approximately 1,800 works. Many artists are represented in exceptional depth, often spanning the entirety of a career.

In 1984, the Broads’ commitment to sharing their collections with the public led to the formation of The Broad Art Foundation. Dedicated to increasing access to contemporary art for audiences worldwide, the Foundation has made more than 3,000 loans of artwork to more than 400 museums. With the opening of BCAM, LACMA will host up to 200 loans from the Foundation’s collection, as well as from Eli and Edythe Broad’s personal collection.

Eli Broad - Eli Broad is a renowned business leader who over a five-decade career built two Fortune 500 companies from the ground up. He is the founder of SunAmerica Inc. and KB Home (formerly Kaufman and Broad Home Corporation). Today, Mr. Broad and his wife, Edythe, are devoted to philanthropy as founders of The Broad Foundations, which focus on advancing entrepreneurship for the public good in education, science, and the arts. The Broad Foundations, which include The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and The Broad Art Foundation, have assets of $2.5 billion. Mr. Broad was the founding chairman and is a life trustee of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. He is additionally a trustee of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and vice chairman of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2004, he joined the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian I