The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) opens the David Geffen Galleries this month. Designed by the celebrated Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, the striking 900-foot-long elevated building spans Wilshire Boulevard becoming an instant landmark in the heart of the museum district.

The 110,000 square foot gallery houses LACMA’s permanent collection with space for 2,500 to 3,000 pieces. Presented on one level, there are no hierarchies or prescribed visitor pathways which completely redefines the museum experience. Additionally, the artwork is not presented by medium or period. Instead, the inaugural installation uses the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans and Mediterranean Sea to organize the works, emphasizing the cultural exchange, migration, and commerce prevalent throughout art history. Visitors are invited to wander, discover, and form their own connections between works across cultures and centuries. This approach reimagines what a museum visit can feel like, encouraging new perspectives on art, history, and Los Angeles itself.

The collection spans the full arc of art history and includes enduring museum favorites alongside exciting new acquisitions and specially commissioned works created for this opening. Among the highlights are Georges de La Tour’s The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame (1640), Henri Matisse’s La Gerbe (1953), and the Virgin of Guadalupe (1691) by Antonio de Arellano and Manuel de Arellano. Recent standout acquisitions add further depth including Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969) and Vincent van Gogh’s Tarascon Stagecoach (1888).

Beyond the galleries themselves, the addition offers a welcoming public campus designed for the community. A generous shaded plaza provides outdoor gathering space along Wilshire as well as a restaurant, café, and museum shop. An education center further reinforces LACMA’s commitment to learning and access for all.

The new gallery is named in honor philanthropist and longtime LACMA patron, David Geffen for his extraordinary $150 million gift to the Building LACMA campaign. This is the largest single cash gift from an individual in the museum’s history. It is just one of Geffen’s many generous contributions helping the museum grow its campus and its encyclopedic collection, including the historic joint acquisition of the Robert Mapplethorpe archive with the J. Paul Getty Trust.

Member previews are April 19 through May 3 with a conversation between Peter Zumthor and LACMA Director Michael Govan on April 22. Public opening is May 3, 2026, with a free admission day for NexGenLA youth members.

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