MOCA
Begin in Downtown Los Angeles, where the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) holds one of the country's finest collections of American and European art created since 1940. The museum is an easy walk, subway ride or taxi ride from Downtown hotels.
With some 5,000 works in the permanent collection rotating throughout the year, you might find different landmark paintings depending on when you visit. Highlights include works by Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn and many other modern masters. A particular favorite is Robert Rauschenberg's Coca Cola Plan.
Your next stop is the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). If you’re driving, you can park in the underground garage at Sixth St. and Ogden Dr. If you’re traveling by public transit, take the DASH B bus from Second St. and Grand Ave. south to Fifth and Grand, then hop on the 720 Wilshire Rapid bus. Get off at Fairfax Ave.
At LACMA, you’ll find the largest and finest encyclopedic art museum in the western United States, with 150,000 artworks spanning five continents and time periods from the prehistoric to the present day.
First, visit the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) via the red exterior escalator on the north side. Don’t miss works by today’s revered modern artists such as Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein and dozens more.
After touring BCAM, walk through the piazza to the original LACMA campus, where you’ll find two excellent lunch options at the central court: The upscale Pentimento, featuring indoor and outdoor seating as well as a bar (reservations are recommended), and the cafeteria-style Plaza Cafe.
The Art of the Americas building is across the courtyard from the ticket booths. Here, you’ll find David Hockney’s panoramic Mulholland Drive: The Road to the Studio, a work that captures both LA’s vibrancy and driving culture.
The Pavilion for Japanese Art is a stunning, separate building filled with screens, scrolls and porcelains (second level). Notably exquisite is the pair of six-panel gold-leaf screens by Sakai Doitsu from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. The first floor features the remarkable collection of netsuke, highly prized and intricately carved button-like counterweights used to secure personal items from the sash of a kimono.
Walk back to the central court toward the grand staircase, then wind your way around the Bing Center and look over the railing. In the garden below is one of Alexander Calder’s whimsical, bright mobiles, Hello Girls (1964).
End your time at LACMA by stopping by the scrims on south side of BCAM’s exterior, where rotating artists showcase their work to the thousands of cars that pass by on Wilshire Blvd.
To continue the modern art tour, board the 720 bus at the Wilshire and Fairfax, heading west toward Santa Monica, then exit at the corner of Wilshire and Westwood blvds. at the Hammer Museum. In addition to classic works of art in its permanent collection, the Hammer has an impressive contemporary collection and often has the hippest traveling and special exhibitions in town. Occasionally, late-night parties there are open to the public and always recommended by locals.
