Annenberg Space for Photography
Wallis Annenberg announced this week that the Annenberg Space for Photography which has been closed since March due to the pandemic, will not reopen. Located in Century City, the decade old institution had been LA’s only museum devoted solely to Photography.
In a letter posted on the The Annenberg Space’s website, Annenberg said her decisions was “borne out of the pandemic that has upended public institutions across the world.“ Calling it a “joy and a privilege to share my favorite art with the Los Angeles community for these ten wonderful years” during which Annenberg said, nearly a million visitors had taken part in their exhibitions and programs.
The Annenberg hosted some great exhibits like showcasing Lauren Greenfield’s “Generation Wealth” and “Contact High: A Visual History of Hip Hop” each of which attracted diverse audiences of all ages. There were also several exhibitions that targeted issues related to women and body image, the environment, or immigration, all of which were commendable.
I will say that as a critic, not all exhibits were well served by the Annenberg’s distinctive layout (a giant community theater for projection of short films and large scale images, with narrow gallery space surrounding it). I also think that the Annenberg Space opened believing that interactive tech would be more useful in displaying images but it turned out that people really want to look at the photos themselves up close. During the decade of its existence, there were also some long stretches where I was less than engaged by the Annenberg’s exhibitions, or found them less about art or about the photographers than other intangibles (popular appeal, causes, partnerships), but I was genuinely looking forward to what curator Katie Hollander would do with the Space.
It seems strange that Los Angeles, a city so devoted to all things visual and to the visual appearance of all things, of pictures and photographers, in still and moving image, would have no first class museum devoted to Photography.
Right now, of course, all museums are closed, and all will need to rethink their exhibition methods and attendance protocols as well as addressing their systemic biases and baked-in racism at all levels, from the boardroom to the curatorial staffs and the artists exhibited and collected. But they will open because we need Art in these times, more than ever.
LA’s art museums will no doubt fill the gap. The Getty Center has one of the great photography collections, particularly deep in its collection of 19th and 20th Century images. Recently, The Getty has been showing more contemporary work, and is collecting fashion photography. LACMA, MOCA, the Hammer, and The Broad, will also have photo exhibitions, no doubt.
Nonetheless, I imagine we will miss the Annenberg Space for Photography as life rebounds. Certainly, Wallis Annenberg’s philanthropy won’t end. If, going forward, her giving is more political than cultural, more about climate change and gender and race discrimination – who can fault her for doing so?
Cultural institutions will have to reinvent themselves. Perhaps a glut of office space and new tax incentives will lead to new possibilities. For the Annenberg Space for Photography, no longer will there be images for us to conjure a thousand words, save one: Farewell!
