Coordinates: 34°03′46″N 118°21′28″W / 34.062895°N 118.357837°W / 34.062895; -118.357837

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Established	1910[1][2]
Location	5905 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, California United States
Type	Encyclopedic, Art museum
Director	Michael Govan
Public transit access	Bus: 20, 217, 720 or 780 to Wilshire Bl and Fairfax Av
Website	LACMA

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits.

LACMA is the largest encyclopedic museum west of Chicago and attracts nearly one million visitors annually.^[3] Its holdings include more than 100,000 works spanning the history of art from ancient times to the present. In addition to art exhibits, the museum features film and concert series throughout the year.

History[link]

Early years[link]

LACMA West, the former May Department Stores building on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art was established as a museum in 1961. Prior to this, LACMA was part of the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art, founded in 1910 in Exposition Park near the University of Southern California. Early trustee Howard F. Ahmanson Sr. made the lead donation of $2 million, convincing the museum board that sufficient funds could be raised to establish the new museum. In 1965, the museum moved to a new Wilshire Boulevard complex as an independent, art-focused institution, the largest new museum to be built in the United States after the National Gallery of Art.

The museum was built in a style similar to Lincoln Center and the Los Angeles Music Center and consisted of three buildings: the Ahmanson Building, the Bing Center, and the Lytton Gallery (renamed the Frances and Armand Hammer Building in 1968). The board selected LA architect William Pereira over the directors' recommendation of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the buildings.^[4] The LA Music Center and LACMA were concurrent large civic projects which vied for attention and donors in Los Angeles.

Money poured into LACMA during the boom years of the 1980s, a reportedly $209 million in private donations during director Earl Powell's tenure.^[5] To house its growing collections of modern and contemporary art, and to provide more space for exhibitions, the museum hired the architectural firm of Hardy, Holzman, Pfeiffer Associates to design its $35.3-million^[6], 115,000-square-foot Robert O. Anderson Building for 20th-Century Art, which opened in 1986 (renamed the Art of the Americas Building in 2007). In the far-reaching expansion, museum-goers henceforth entered through the new partially roofed central court, nearly an acre of space bounded by the museum's four buildings.^[7]

The museum's Pavilion for Japanese Art, designed by maverick architect Bruce Goff, opened in 1988, as did the B. Gerald Cantor Sculpture Garden of Rodin bronzes. In 1994, LACMA purchased the adjacent May Department Stores building, an impressive example of streamline moderne architecture designed by Albert C. Martin Sr. LACMA West increased the museum's size by 30 percent when the building opened in 1998.

Transformation[link]

In 2004, LACMA's Board of Trustees unanimously approved plans to transform the museum, led by world-renowned architect Renzo Piano. An earlier plan for LACMA's transformation by architect Rem Koolhaas proposed razing all the current buildings and constructing an entirely new museum,^[8][9] estimated to cost $200 million to $300 million.^[10] The transformation consists of three phases.

Phase I started in 2004 and was completed in February 2008. The renovations required demolishing the parking structure on Ogden Avenue and with it LACMA-commissioned graffiti art by street artists Margaret Kilgallen and Barry McGee.^[11] The entry pavilion is a key point in architect Renzo Piano's plan to unify LACMA's sprawling, often confusing layout of buildings. The BP Grand Entrance and the adjacent Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) comprise the $191 million (originally $150 million) first phase of the three-part expansion and renovation campaign. BCAM is named for Eli and Edythe Broad, who gave $60 million to LACMA's campaign; Eli Broad also serves on LACMA's Board of Directors.^[12] BCAM opened on February 16, 2008, adding 58,000 square feet (5,400 m²) of exhibition space to the museum. In 2010, the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion opened to the public, providing the largest purpose-built, naturally lit, open-plan museum space in the world.

The second phase was intended to turn the May building into new offices and galleries, designed by SPF Architects. As proposed, it would have had flexible gallery space, education space, administrative offices, a new restaurant, a gift shop and a bookstore, as well as study centers for the museum's departments of costume and textiles, photography and prints and drawings, and a roof sculpture garden with two works by James Turrell. However, construction of this phase was halted in November 2010.^[13] In October 2011, LACMA entered into an agreement with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences under which the Academy will establish its proposed Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, originally planned to be adjacent to its Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Hollywood, in the May building at a future date after a fundraising campaign.^[14]

Specifics about the third phase, which involves renovations to older buildings, have not yet been disclosed.^[13] In November 2009, plans were made public that LACMA's director Michael Govan was working with Swiss architect and Pritzker Prize laureate Peter Zumthor on plans for rebuilding the eastern section of the campus from the two new Renzo Piano buildings to the tar pits.^[9][15]

Preserving the Watts Towers[link]

In 2010, LACMA partnered with Los Angeles's Department of Cultural Affairs in an effort to ensure the preservation of the Watts Towers, offering its staff, expertise, and fundraising assistance.^[16]

Exhibitions[link]

The museum's best-attended show ever was "Treasures of Tutankhamun," which drew 1.2 million during four months in 1978. The 2005 "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" drew 937,613 during its 137-day run. A show of Vincent van Gogh masterpieces from the artist's eponymous Amsterdam museum is the third most successful show, and a 1984 exhibition of French Impressionist works is fourth.^[17]

Collections[link]

LACMA's more than 100,000 objects are divided among its numerous departments by region, media, and time period and are spread amongst the various museum buildings.^[18]

Modern and Contemporary Art[link]

The Modern Art collection is displayed in the Ahmanson Building which was renovated in 2008 to have a new entrance featuring a large staircase, conceived as a gathering place similar to Rome's Spanish Steps. Filling the atrium at the base of the staircase is Tony Smith's massive sculpture Smoke (1967).^[19] The modern collection on the plaza level displays works from 1900 to the 1970s, largely populated by the Janice and Henry Lazaroff collection. The plaza level galleries also house African art and a gallery highlighting the Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies. The second floor of the Ahmanson Building has Greek and Roman Art galleries.

The Contemporary Art collection is displayed in the 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m²) Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM), opened on February 16, 2008. BCAM's inaugural exhibition featured 176 works by 28 artists of postwar Modern art from the late 1950s to the present. All but 30 of the works initially displayed came from the collection of Eli and Edythe Broad (pronounced "brode").^[20]

In December 2007, the Modern Art holdings were greatly expanded by the gift of the 130-item Janice and Henri Lazarof Collection. The collection features significant works from: Constantin Brâncuşi, Edgar Degas, Alberto Giacometti, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, and Camille Pissarro.^[21]

"Back Seat Dodge ’38 (1964) by Edward Kienholz, is a sculpture portraying a couple engaged in sexual activity in the back seat of a truncated 1938 Dodge automobile chassis. The piece won Kienholz instant celebrity in 1966 when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors tried to ban the sculpture as pornographic and threatened to withhold financing from LACMA if it included the work in a Kienholz retrospective. A compromise was reached under which the sculpture's car door would remain closed and guarded, to be opened only on the request of a museum patron who was over 18, and only if no children were present in the gallery. The uproar led to more than 200 people lining up to see the work the day the show opened. Ever since, Back Seat Dodge ’38 has drawn crowds.^[22]

American and Latin American Art[link]

The Art of the Americas Building has American, Latin American and pre-Columbian collections displayed on the second floor and temporary exhibition space on the first floor.

LACMA's Latin American Art galleries reopened in July 2008 after several years renovation. The Latin American collection includes pre-Columbian, Spanish Colonial, Modern and contemporary works. Many recent additions to the collection were financed by sales of works from an 1,800-piece holding of 20th century Mexican art compiled by dealer-collectors Bernard and Edith Lewin and given to the museum in 1997.^[23]

The pre-Columbian galleries were redesigned by Jorge Pardo, a Los Angeles artist who works in sculpture, design and architecture.^[23] Pardo's display cases are built from thick, stacked sheets of medium-density fiberboard (MDF), with spacing of equal thickness in between the 70-plus layers. The laser-cut organic forms undulate and swell out from the walls, sharply contrasting to the rectangular display cases found in most art museums.^[24]

The museum's pre-Columbian collection began in the 1980s with the first installment of a 570-piece gift from Southern California collector Constance McCormick Fearing and the purchase of about 200 pieces from L.A. businessman Proctor Stafford. The holdings recently jumped from about 1,800 to 2,500 objects with a gift of Colombian ceramics from Camilla Chandler Frost, a LACMA trustee and the sister of Otis Chandler, former LA Times publisher, and Stephen and Claudia Muñoz-Kramer of Atlanta, whose family built the collection.^[23] A sizable portion of LACMA's pre-Columbian collection was excavated from burial chambers in Colima, Nayarit and other regions around Jalisco in modern-day Mexico.^[24] LACMA boasts one of the largest collections of Latin American art due to the generous donation of more than 2,000 works of art by Bernard Lewin and his wife Edith Lewin in 1996.

The Spanish Colonial collection includes work from 17th and 18th century Mexican artists Miguel Cabrera, José de Ibarra, José de Páez and Nicolás Rodriguez Juárez. The collection has galleries for Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo. The Latin American contemporary gallery highlights works Francis Alÿs.^[24]

Asian Art[link]

The Hammer Building houses the Chinese and Korean collections.^[19] The Korean art collection began with the donation of a group of Korean ceramics in 1966 by Bak Jeonghui, then president of the Republic of Korea, after a visit to the museum. LACMA today claims to have the most comprehensive holding outside of Korea and Japan.^[25] The Pavilion for Japanese Art displays the Shin'enkan collection donated by Joe D. Price.

Permanent art installations[link]

Los Angeles sculptor Robert Graham created the towering, bronze Retrospective Column (1981, cast in 1986) for the entrance of the Art of the Americas Building. The Ahmanson Building's atrium was remodeled to hold Tony Smith's Smoke, which had not been displayed since its original 1967 presentation at Washington, D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery of Art. The massive black painted aluminum artwork is made up of 43 piers, and is 45 ft (14 m). long, 33 ft (10 m). wide and 22 ft (6.7 m). high. The newly fabricated work was initially on loan from the artist's estate,^[26] but in 2010 after several months of intense fundraising efforts, "the museum acquired the work for an undisclosed amount reported to exceed $3 million and [with an insurance valuation of] 'over $5 million.'"^[27] The purchase was "made possible by The Belldegrun Family's gift to LACMA in honor of Rebecka Belldegrun's birthday," per the museum.^[28]

Eli and Edythe Broad contributed $10 million to fund the purchase of Richard Serra's Band sculpture, on display on the first floor of BCAM when the building opened.^[20][29]

Surrounding the BCAM building and LACMA's courtyard is a 100 palm tree garden, designed by artist Robert Irwin and landscape architect Paul Comstock. Some of the 30 varieties of palms are in the ground, but most are in large wooden boxes above ground.^[30][20] Directly in front of the new entrance to LACMA on Wilshire Boulevard is Chris Burden's Urban Light (2008), an orderly, multi-tiered installation of 202 antique cast-iron street lights from various cities in and around the Los Angeles area. The street lights are functional, turn on in the evening, and are powered by solar panels on the roof of the BP Grand Entrance.

Originally Jeff Koons' Tulips (1995–2004) sculpture was inside the Grand Entrance building and Charles Ray's Fire Truck (1993) was outside in the courtyard, both lent by the Broad Art Foundation,. Both sculptures were removed after being on display for 3 months due to unexpected damage from patrons and wear.^[31]

On February 2, 2007, Michael Govan, with Koons, revealed plans for a 161-foot (49 m)-tall Koons sculpture featuring an operational 1940s locomotive suspended from a crane. The sculpture would be located at the entrance on Wilshire Boulevard, between the Ahmanson Building and the Broad Contemporary Art Museum.^[32][33] By 2011, after "the fundraising climate soured and Koons’ California fabricator, Carlson & Co, went out of business after completing a $2.3-million feasibility study"^[34] and a $25 million estimated cost, Govan said "We don't have a final method of construction, and I don't have a final fundraising plan." ^[35] Koons said they are now working with the German fabricator Arnold, outside of Frankfurt, to do an additional engineering study, and Govan says he has committed to spending half a million dollars for that study.^[34] The museum has J.B. Turner Engine (1986), a small Koons piece which was shown in the 2006–2007 “Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images" exhibition.^[36]

Levitated Mass by artist Michael Heizer is the latest project at LACMA. On December 8, 2011, this 340-tons boulder, 21.5 feet wide and 21.5 feet in height, was ready to leave its quarry in Riverside County, after months of postponements.^[37] It will be installed atop the 456-foot-long trench which will allow people to walk under and around the mass rock. The move started on February 28, 2012 and completed on March 10, 2012. Opening date is scheduled for June 24, 2012.^[38]

Acquisitions and Donors[link]

Individual Donors[link]

The $54 million Resnick pavillon was made possible by a $45 million gift from the philanthropists for whom it is named.^[39] On March 6, 2007, BP announced a $25 million donation to name the entry pavilion under construction as part of LACMA's renovation campaign the "BP Grand Entrance." The $25 million gift matches Walt Disney Co.'s 1997 gift for Disney Hall as the biggest corporate donation to the arts in Southern California. Previously, in 2006, LACMA had announced that the new entrance would be called the "Lynda and Stewart Resnick Grand Entrance Pavilion", in honor of their $25 million gift.

An 18th-century painting of Hindu goddesses Matrikas fighting demons, from LACMA.

On January 8, 2008 Eli Broad revealed plans to retain permanent control of his roughly 2,000 works of modern and contemporary art in the independent Broad Art Foundation, which loans works to museums, rather than giving the art away. Mr. Broad, as recently as a year prior, had said that he planned to give most of his holdings to one or several museums, one of which was assumed to be LACMA. However, LACMA remains the "preferred" museum to receive works from the Foundation.^[40]

Broad, previously vice chairman of LACMA's board of directors, financed the $56-million Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) building at LACMA; he also provided an additional $10 million to buy two works of art to be displayed in it. BCAM displayed 220 pieces borrowed from Broad and his Broad Art Foundation when it opened in February 2008. In 2001, LACMA was criticized for hosting a major exhibition of Broad's collection without having secured a promised gift of the works, an act that is prohibited at many prominent art institutions because it can increase the market value of the collection.^[41]

In December 2007, Janice and Henri Lazarof gave LACMA 130 mostly modernist works estimated to be worth more than $100 million.^[41] The collection includes 20 works by Picasso, watercolors and paintings by Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky and a considerable number of sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, Constantin Brâncuşi, Henry Moore. Willem de Kooning, Joan Miró, Louise Nevelson, Archipenko and Arp.^[42][43]

In 2002, the Annenberg Foundation gave the museum $10 million to establish a special endowment fund to support exhibitions, art acquisitions and educational programs at the discretion of its director. In recognition of the gift, LACMA named its leadership position the Wallis Annenberg directorship. In 2001, Wallis Annenberg endowed a curatorial fellowship program with a $1-million gift. In 1991, the foundation contributed $10 million to LACMA's endowment and in 1999 it donated $100,000 to provide arts education training for Los Angeles elementary school teachers.^[10]

In 2001, the museum lost out on the modern art collection of Nathan Smooke, a former museum trustee and industrial real-estate developer whose heirs sold much of his collection rather than donating it.^[44]

In 1996 the museum suffered yet another serious blow when the Gilbert Collection of Italian mosaics and other decorative objects, promised as an eventual bequest, and parts of which had been on display for decades, was withdrawn. The would-be donor claimed that the Museum had reneged on a written agreement to provide more exhibit space for it.^[45][46] The collection is considered one of the finest in the world of its kind. Moreover, unlike the Hammer and Simon collections, it did not remain in the Los Angeles area but was removed to the United Kingdom.

Long-time trustee Robert Halff donated 53 works of contemporary art in 1994. Components of that gift included Joan Miró, Jasper Johns, Sam Francis, Frank Stella, John Chamberlain, Matthew Barney, and Jeff Koons. It also provided LACMA with its first drawings by Claes Oldenburg and Cy Twombly.^[47]

In 1990, Max Palevsky gave 32 pieces of Arts and Crafts furniture to LACMA ; three years later, he added an additional 42 pieces to his gift. In 2000, he donated $2 million to LACMA for Arts and Crafts works. He supplied about a third of the 300 objects displayed in a 2004-05 LACMA exhibit, "The Arts and Crafts Movement in Europe and America: 1880-1920" and in 2009, the museum presented "The Arts and Crafts Movement: Masterworks From the Max Palevsky and Jodie Evans Collection."^[48]

Chola dynasty statue depicting Shiva dancing as Nataraja from LACMA.

Armand Hammer was a LACMA board member for nearly seventeen years, beginning in 1968, and during this time continued to announce the museum would inherit his whole collection. Hammer's collection included works from Van Gogh, John Singer Sargent, Thomas Eakins, Gustave Moreau, Edgar Degas, and Paul Cézanne. When LACMA was offered a collection of works by Honoré Daumier, Hammer bought the works on the promise that he would give them to the museum. To LACMA's surprise, Hammer instead founded the Hammer Museum, built adjacent to Occidental's headquarters in Los Angeles.^[49]

In the early 1970s Norton Simon, the Hunt's food magnate, donated his collection the Pasadena Art Museum, forming the Norton Simon Museum, after making some indication of donating the work to LACMA.^[40][41]

From 1946 to his death in 1951, William Randolph Hearst was LACMA's largest benefactor. He remains the largest donor to the museum in number of objects. His donations formed the museum's collection of Greek and Roman antiquities, medieval and early Renaissance sculptures, and much of the collection of European decorative arts.^[4]

Art Councils[link]

Over the course of the LACMA's history, ten art councils — each supporting a specific area of the collection — have acquired or helped acquire nearly 5,000 works of art for the museum. Founded in 1952, the Art Museum Council is LACMA’s first volunteer support council and supports the whole of the museum's endeavors. The Modern and Contemporary Art Council, founded in 1961, is the longest-running support group for contemporary art at any museum in the country.^[50] In 1986, the Annual Collectors Committee weekends were started and have raised a total of $16 million for the purchase of 157 works, valued at $75 million.^[51]

Management[link]

Andrea Rich won praise for doubling the museum's endowment, to more than $100 million, and for increasing attendance and pursuing programs and acquisitions that might appeal to the varied segments of the city's diverse population, like Islamic, Latin American and Korean art.^[52] Rich resigned in part because of disputes with Eli Broad, including one over hiring a curator for the new Broad contemporary art center.^[53] In 2008, LACMA made a formal offer to merge with MOCA and to help that museum raise new money from donors.^[54]

Although attendance has grown in recent years, it still remained at 914,356 visitors in 2010.^[55] In 2011, around 1.2 million visitors went to LACMA, making it the first time the museum has broken the one million mark.^[56] The museum's endowment grew from $99.6 million to $106.8 million that year.^[57] The Los Angeles County covers more than a third of the museum's operating expenses.^[58]

Directors[link]

• Dr. Richard (Ric) F. Brown - 1961 - 1966^[4]
• Kenneth Donahue 1966 - 1979
• Earl A. Powell III - 1980 - 1992
• Michael E. Shapiro - 1992 - 1993
• Graham W. J. Beal - 1996 - 1999
• Andrea L. Rich - 1999 - 2005
• Michael Govan - 2006–present

Selected collection highlights[link]

• 

  Titian, Portrait of Jacopo (Giacomo) Dolfi, 1532

• 

  Rembrandt, The Raising of Lazarus, 1630

• 

  Rembrandt, Portrait of Martin Looten, 1632

• 

  Georges de La Tour, Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, 1640

• 

  Thomas Lawrence, Portrait of Arthur Atherley as an Etonian, 1791

• 

  Paul Cézanne, Still Life with Cherries and Peaches, 1885

• 

  Mary Cassatt, Mother About to Wash Her Sleepy Child, 1880

• 

  Paul Gauguin, The Swineherd, 1888

• 

  Claude Monet, Nympheas, 1897-1898

• 

  Thomas Eakins, Wrestlers, 1899

• 

  Pierre Auguste Renoir, Jean Renoir as a Hunter, 1910

• 

  George Bellows, Cliff Dwellers, 1913

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Los Angeles County Museum of Art

• Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) official website
• LACMA's online collection: Access to more than 60,000 artworks from the museum's permanent collection. You can also view numerous special exhibitions here that are only available online.

v t e County of Los Angeles Board of supervisors Gloria Molina, 1st Dist. · Mark Ridley-Thomas, 2nd Dist. · Zev Yaroslavsky, 3rd Dist. · Don Knabe, 4th Dist. · Michael D. Antonovich, 5th Dist. Departments CEO · Coroner · District Attorney · Fire · Health Services  · Lifeguards  · Department of Military and Veterans Affairs  · Probation · Public Library · Public Safety · Public Works · Sheriff's · Superior Court Airports Fox Field · Brackett Field  · Whiteman Airport  · Compton/Woodley Airport · El Monte Airport County hospitals LAC-USC General Hospital · Harbor-UCLA Medical Center · Martin L. King Jr.-Harbor Hospital · Olive View-UCLA Medical Center · Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center Culture Ahmanson Theatre · Arboretum and Botanic Garden · Dorothy Chandler Pavilion · Descanso Gardens · Walt Disney Concert Hall · John Anson Ford Amphitheatre · Bob Hope Patriotic Hall · Hollywood Bowl · La Brea Tar Pits · Music Center · Natural History Museum · Museum of Art · South Coast Botanic Garden · Mark Taper Forum · Whittier Narrows Others LAC Sheriff's Air Rescue 5 · LACMTA · Seal · Sheriff's Dept. Officers Killed in Line of Duty · LAC Hall of Records

v t e City of Los Angeles Topics History Transportation Culture Landmarks Historic sites Skyscrapers Demographics Crime Sports Media Music Notable people Lists Government Flag Mayors City Council Other elected officials Airport DWP Fire Department Police Public schools Libraries Port Transportation Regions Downtown Eastside/Northeast Harbor Area Greater Hollywood Areas north and west of downtown San Fernando and Crescenta Valleys South Los Angeles Westside Wilshire

v t e Wilshire area, Los Angeles Districts and neighborhoods Arlington Heights Brookside Park Carthay Country Club Park Fairfax District Hancock Park Harvard Heights Koreatown Lafayette Square Larchmont Little Ethiopia Mid-City Miracle Mile Park La Brea Picfair Village Wilshire Center Wilshire Park Windsor Square Points of interest La Brea Tar Pits Los Angeles County Museum of Art Downtown Eastside/Northeast Harbor Area Greater Hollywood Northwest of Downtown San Fernando and Crescenta Valleys South Los Angeles Westside Wilshire

Renzo Piano
Piano in 2007
Born	(1937-09-14) 14 September 1937 (age 74) Genoa, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Alma mater	Politecnico di Milano
Awards	Pritzker Architecture Prize AIA Gold Medal Sonning Prize Royal Gold Medal Kyoto Prize
Work
Practice	Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Buildings	Centre Georges Pompidou Parco della Musica Shard London Bridge

Nemo Science Centre in Amsterdam. The shape reflects the tunnel entrance it is built on

The Living Roof of the California Academy of Sciences, a museum and research facility in San Francisco, California

Kansai International Airport, Osaka, Japan (1991–1994)

Central Saint Giles, London, England (2010)

Renzo Piano, Ufficiale OMRI (born 14 September 1937 in Genoa) is an Italian Pritzker Prize-winning architect. Architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff said of Piano's works that the "...serenity of his best buildings can almost make you believe that we live in a civilized world."^[1]

In 2006, Piano was selected by TIME as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.^[2] He was selected as the 10th most influential person in the "Arts and Entertainment" category of the 2006 Time 100.

Biography[link]

Piano was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1937 into a family of builders. He was educated and subsequently taught at the Politecnico di Milano. He graduated from the University in 1964 and began working with experimental lightweight structures and basic shelters.^[3] From 1965 to 1970 he worked with Louis Kahn and Z.S. Makowsky. He worked together with Richard Rogers from 1971 to 1977; their most famous joint project is the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (1977). He also had a long collaboration with the engineer Peter Rice, with whom he shared a practice (L'Atelier Piano and Rice) between 1977 and 1981.

In 1981, Piano founded the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, which today employs 150 people and maintains offices in Paris, Genoa, and New York.^[4]

In 1999, Piano designed a watch entitled "Jelly Piano (GZ159)" for the Swatch Summer Collection. The watch design is clear and the exposed inner workings were influenced by his Centre Georges Pompidou design.^[5]

On 18 March 2008, he became an honorary citizen of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[6]

Piano's recent expansion of the Art Institute of Chicago includes a 264,000-square-foot (24,500 m²) wing with 60,000 square feet (5,600 m²) of gallery space^[7] called the Modern Wing, which opened on 16 May 2009.^[1][8] It includes a "flying carpet", a sunscreen that hovers above the roof and a 620-foot (190 m) steel bridge connecting Millennium Park to a sculpture terrace that leads into a restaurant on the wing’s third floor.^[9]

Select projects[link]

Current[link]

• ARS AEVI Museum of Contemporary Art^[10] in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (1999–)^[11]
• Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Tjuvholmen, Oslo, Norway (2002–)^[12]
• Centro de Arte Botín, Santander, Spain (2011–)
• City Gate, Royal Opera House, Parliament of Malta, and Freedom Square, Valletta, Malta (2009–)
• Columbia University Manhattanville Campus Master Plan and Jerome L. Greene Science Center, New York, New York (2004–)
• Harvard Art Museums expansion and renovation, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2009–)
• Kimbell Art Museum expansion, Fort Worth, Texas (2008–)
• KT Corporation headquarters, Seoul, South Korea (2011–)
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California (2003–)
• Pathé Foundation headquarters, Paris, France (2006–)
• Renzo Piano Tower I & II, San Francisco, California (2006–)
• Sesto San Giovanni masterplan, Milan, Italy (2004–)
• Shard London Bridge, London, England (2000–)^[13]
• Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Athens, Greece (2008–)
• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York (2005–)

Completed[link]

• Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum wing, Boston, Massachusetts (2005–2012)
• Central Saint Giles, London, England (2010)
• Modern Wing expansion of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (2009)
• Nichols Bridgeway, Chicago, Illinois (2009)
• California Academy of Sciences rebuilding, San Francisco, California (2008)
• Vulcano Buono, Nola, Italy (2007)
• The New York Times Building, New York, New York (2003–2007)
• Rocca di Frassinello Winery, Gavorrano, Italy (2002–2007)
• Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland (1999–2005)
• The Morgan Library & Museum expansion, New York, New York (2003–2006)
• Cité Internationale, Lyon, France (1995–2006)
• Weltstadthaus, Cologne, Germany (2005)
• High Museum of Art Expansion, Atlanta, Georgia (2005)
• Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy (2004)
• Il Sole 24 Ore headquarters, Milan, Italy (1998–2004)
• Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas (1999–2003)
• Parco della Musica, Rome, Italy (2002)
• Maison Hermès, Tokyo, Japan (2001)
• Auditorium Paganini, Parma, Italy (2001)
• Aurora Place, Sydney, Australia (1996–2000)
• Potsdamer Platz master plan, Berlin, Germany (1992–2000)
• Ferrari wind tunnel, Maranello, Italy (1996–1998)
• Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center, Nouméa, New Caledonia (1991–1998)
• Ushibuka Haiya Bridge, Amakusa, Japan (1991–1997)
• Beyeler Foundation Museum, Basel, Switzerland (1991–1997)
• NEMO science museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1997)
• Cy Twombly Gallery, Houston, Texas (1995)
• International Terminal, Kansai International Airport, Osaka, Japan (1991–1994)
• Stadio San Nicola, Bari, Italy (1988–1989)
• Menil Collection, Houston, Texas (1982–1987)
• Banca CIS building, Cagliari, Sardinia (1985)
• IBM Travelling Pavilion, (1982–1984)
• IRCAM & the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (1971–1977)

Cancelled[link]

• City Tech Tower, New York, New York
• Trans National Place, Boston, Massachusetts

Awards[link]

Cavaliere di Gran Croce Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, 24 March 1990^[14]
Italian Order of Merit for Culture and Art, 28 March 1994^[14]

• In 1989, Piano was the recipient of the Royal Gold Medal.
• In 1990, Piano was the recipient of the Kyoto Prize.
• In 1998, Piano was the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
• In 2008, Piano was the recipient of the AIA Gold Medal.
• In 2008, Piano was the recipient of the Sonning Prize.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Renzo Piano

• Official website
• Pritzker Architecture Prize biography
• Profile at GreatBuildings.com

Ellie Goulding
Goulding performing at Lincoln Hall, Chicago, U.S., March 30, 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Elena Jane Goulding
Born	(1986-12-30) 30 December 1986 (age 25) Hereford, Herefordshire, England
Origin	London, England
Genres	Indie pop, electropop, synthpop, folktronica
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist, drummer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, drums, piano, clarinet, mandolin, tambourine
Years active	2007–present
Labels	Neon Gold, Polydor, Cherrytree, Interscope
Associated acts	Starsmith, Frankmusik, Diana Vickers, Gabriella Cilmi, Little Boots, Tinie Tempah, Erik Hassle, Lissie, Mumford & Sons, Skrillex,Swedish House Mafia, Lupe Fiasco, DJ Daaar
Website	elliegoulding.com

Elena Jane Goulding (born 30 December 1986),^[1] known professionally as Ellie Goulding, is an English singer-songwriter. In 2010 she became the second artist to both top the BBC's annual Sound of... poll and win the Critics' Choice Award at the BRIT Awards in the same year, following Adele's win of both in 2008. After signing to Polydor Records in 2009, she released her first EP in 2009, An Introduction to Ellie Goulding, followed by her debut studio album Lights in 2010. Her album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and has sold over 650,000 copies in the UK. "Lights" was released in America March 8th 2011, where the title track has been certified platinum by the RIAA (excess of 1 million units sold) ^[2].

Goulding is a soprano,^[3] and her musical style has been compared to that of Kate Nash, Meiko, Lykke Li and Tracey Thorn.^[4]

Background and personal life[link]

Goulding was born and brought up in a small town near Hereford, Herefordshire, the second of four children.^[5][6] She began playing the clarinet at the age of nine, and at 14 began learning guitar. She attended Lady Hawkins' School in Kington, where she won a main part in a school production, the Wizard Of Oz, as the scarecrow. She started songwriting at the age of 15 and while in college she won a singing competition.^[7]

After commencing a drama course, politics course, and an English course at the University of Kent,^[8] where she was exposed to electronic music, she developed her sound on the track "Wish I Stayed" with the help of Starsmith and Frankmusik. Starsmith went on to become her chief collaborator and primary producer of Lights. After two years at Kent, she was advised to take a gap year to pursue singing,^[9][10] and moved to West London.^[11]

She is a keen runner, running six miles every day, and in 2010 announced plans to run a marathon.^[6] In support of her second EP, Run Into the Light, she invited a small number of fans through her Facebook pages, to run with her in seven different cities on her UK tour,^[12] and has announced that she will be doing the same across Europe and the United States. Goulding is considered to have an impressively athletic physique.^[13][14][15]

Music career[link]

Early career[link]

Signed to Polydor Records in September 2009,^[9] Goulding's debut single, "Under the Sheets", was released digitally in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2009,^[16] peaking at number fifty-three on the UK Singles Chart.^[17] In October 2009 she toured the UK supporting Little Boots,^[18] and appeared on Later... with Jools Holland, performing "Under the Sheets" and "Guns and Horses".^[19] "Wish I Stayed" was available as a free download as the Single of the Week on iTunes Store UK from 22–28 December 2009.^[20]

[edit] 2009–11: Lights and Bright Lights

Before the release of her debut studio album, Goulding won the BBC Sound of 2010 poll, which showcases the critics, broadcasters and music industry insiders' top choices for rising stars and artists for the coming year.^[21] She also won the Critics' Choice Award at the 2010 BRIT Awards, which prize made her the second artist to win both in the same year.^[22]

Goulding performing in Amsterdam on 17 September 2010.

Goulding's debut album Lights was released in March 2010, reaching number one on the UK Albums Chart and number six on the Irish Albums Chart.^[23][24][25] Its singles, "Starry Eyed", "Guns and Horses" and "The Writer" peaked at numbers 4, 26, and 19 respectively.^[17] The album has sold over 650,000 copies in the UK as of April 2012.^[26] In August 2010, Goulding released a second EP, Run Into the Light, containing remixes of songs from Lights. The album was supported by Nike and was released through Polydor as a running soundtrack in an effort to get Goulding's music taken up by the national running subculture.^[12]

In November 2010, Lights was re-released as Bright Lights, with six new tracks added. It was originally announced that the lead single from Bright Lights would be the new edit of the title track with a release scheduled for 1 November 2010.^[27] Yet this was scrapped to allow her cover of Elton John's "Your Song" to be released in conjunction with the John Lewis Christmas 2010 advertising campaign in the UK.^[28] The single became Goulding's highest-charting single to date, reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart.^[17] The song also charted in some European countries in early 2011.^[29]

Goulding toured in support of Lights and supported Passion Pit in March 2010 and John Mayall during his British tour in May 2010.^[30] During the summer she performed at a number of festivals. On 29 May she performed at the Dot to Dot Festival in Bristol.^[12] She performed a set on 25 June at the Glastonbury Festival 2010 on the John Peel Stage.^[31] Her third EP was a live recording of part of her set at the iTunes Festival 2010.^[32] The whole set was ultimately included as bonus content on the iTunes version of Bright Lights.^[33] She made her T in the Park debut on 11 July.^[34] She played on the Nissan Juke Arena at the 2010 V Festival in late August.^[35] In September she was part of the line-up at Bestival 2010 on the Isle of Wight.^[36] In support of the album in Europe she performed on the first day of Pukkelpop in Belgium, at the Open'er Festival in Poland and at Benicàssim in Spain.^[37] A track from Lights, "Every Time You Go", was featured in the Vampire Diaries episode "Founder's Day", "Your Biggest Mistake" appeared in an episode of The Inbetweeners.^[38] and "Believe Me" appeared in an episode of 90210. She began a tour of the United States and Canada in February 2011 to coincide with the release of the American edition of Lights.^[39] In August/September 2010 the singer was an opening act on Irish alternative rock band U2's U2 360 Tour in Munich, Germany, Vienna, Austria, and Zurich, Switzerland.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2011 it was announced that the title track from Lights would serve as the second single from Bright Lights.^[40] In early 2011 she recorded an original song for the film Life in a Day. Goulding was placed at number five on Rolling Stone's annual hot list in February 2011.^[41] In February 2011 she returned to the BRIT Awards where she was nominated for Best British Female and Best British Breakthrough Act, but lost out to Laura Marling and Tinie Tempah, respectively.^[42] Previously she had performed at the BRITs launch party where the nominations were announced.

She also played live at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2011.^[6] Goulding made her American television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live on 7 April 2011 performing "Starry Eyed". She appeared as the musical guest on the 700th episode of the Saturday Night Live, broadcast 7 May 2011 and hosted by Tina Fey.^[43][44] She served as one of many live performers at the wedding reception of Prince William and Kate Middleton on 29 April 2011 singing her rendition of "Your Song" for the couple's first dance as well as her hits "The Writer" and "Starry Eyed" and several of William and Kate's personal favourites.^[45] She was introduced to Prince William by Tinie Tempah at a music festival during the summer of 2010. Goulding performed, for the second consecutive year, at Radio 1's Big Weekend on Saturday 14 May.^[46]

Goulding headlined the 2011 Wakestock Festival in Wales, performing on 8 July.^[47] In August she, again, performed at V Festival for her second year in a row.^[48] Following the re-release of Lights and the American release of the album, Goulding said she would soon begin work on a second studio album with an expected release in September 2011.^[49]

On 6 August 2011, Goulding performed at Lollapalooza in Chicago.^[50] Goulding performed at the annual Nobel Peace Prize Concert on 11 December 2011 in Oslo, Norway, where she also served on a panel discussion with Amy Lee of Evanescence and Janelle Monáe.^[51] On 1 December 2011, Goulding performed at the White House during the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, alongside the likes of Big Time Rush and will.i.am.^[52] On 18 January 2012, Goulding performed "Lights" on Late Show with David Letterman.^[53]

2011–present: Second studio album[link]

In February 2011, Goulding told the Daily Star that she had plans to release a follow-up to Lights sometime in 2012, commenting, "I'm not going to go away for ages. It'll be out this year or the start of next."^[54] The following month, when asked about the album's musical direction in an interview with gossip website Dean Piper's World, Goulding stated, "It's started to sound very dark and very weird. This album is going to be even more emotional [...] I wanted to make it so there is hope. I want to make an effect whether it's happy or sad."^[55] In April 2012, Goulding stated that she hoped the album would be released in October 2012.^[26] That same month, her single Lights was certified platinum in the United States by the RIAA ^[56].

Work with other artists[link]

Goulding co-wrote "Love Me 'Cause You Want To" for Gabriella Cilmi's second album, Ten, and three songs, "Remake Me + You", "Notice" and "Jumping Into Rivers", for Diana Vickers's debut album, Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree.^[57] Her song "Not Following" was used by German singer Lena on her debut album My Cassette Player.^[58] Goulding was featured on rapper Tinie Tempah's single "Wonderman" from his debut studio album Disc-Overy. Goulding's "Under the Sheets" was also remixed by American rap duo Chiddy Bang, featured on their 2010 mixtape Air Swell, and by DJ Frenzy (F^K Y3AH! Breaks Mix). Frankmusik, who produced Goulding's song "Wish I Stayed", told Digital Spy he hoped to collaborate with her on his second album, Do It in the AM.^[59] "Lights" was remixed by Bassnectar, which appears on his 2011 album Divergent Spectrum.

On 19 September 2011, it was announced that Goulding would open for Katy Perry on her "California Dreams Tour", replacing Jessie J due to a foot injury.^[60][61]

On 14 December 2011, Mika announced that Goulding had involvement in his upcoming album The Origin of Love.^[62]

Goulding collaborated with American electro artist and producer Skrillex on a song titled "Summit", included on his 2011 EP Bangarang.

Discography[link]

• 2010: Lights

Tours[link]