LACMA’s annual Collectors Committee Gala took place over the weekend, and the museum is seven artworks stronger for it. Members of the Collectors Committee create a pool for acquisitions funds, and are presented with a handful of objects by LACMA curators earlier in the day. At Saturday night’s gala, they then vote on which objects to acquire. All told, this weekend’s gala raised $2.8 million and resulted in the following objects joining the collection:

Neshat

Shirin Neshat, Speechless, from the series Women of Allah, 1996, purchased with funds provided by Jamie McCourt through the 2012 Collectors Committee, © Shirin Neshat, courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels

• Shirin Neshat’s Speechless (1996), from the photography series Women of Allah, is a black-and-white photograph capturing the intense gaze of an Iranian woman whose face is covered with an inscription from a Persian poem.

Rauschenberg DETAIL

Robert Rauschenberg, Currents (detail), 1970, gift of the 2012 Collectors Committee, with additional funds provided by Gail and Tony Ganz, © Robert Rauschenberg Estate/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo courtesy Peter Freeman Inc., New York, photo by Jerry Mathiason

• Robert Rauschenberg’s Currents (1970), a dense collage of newspaper clippings strewn across a sixty-foot expanse.
  
  
  

  Sullivan

  Louis Sullivan, Elevator Surround from the Chicago Stock Exchange Building, 1892, gift of the 2012 Collectors Committee, photo courtesy of Wright

• An Elevator Surround from the Chicago Stock Exchange Building designed by renowned architect Louis Sullivan; the richly detailed iron frame demonstrates Sullivan’s creative adaption of natural materials.
  
  
  

  Conner

  Bruce Conner, Three Screen Ray (still), 1961/2006, purchased with funds provided by Brad and Colleen Bell, Victoria Jackson and Bill Guthy, Jane and Marc Nathanson, and Steve Tisch through the 2012 Collectors Committee, © Estate of Bruce Conner

• Bruce Conner’s Three Screen Ray (1961/2006), a three-channel video based on the artist’s second film, Cosmic Ray of 1961, including fast-paced montages of the artist’s original footage juxtaposed with hundreds of images.

J

Fudō Myōō: The Indomitable Foe of Evil, Japan, c. 1125, purchased with funds provided by Irene Christopher, Scott M. Delman, and the 2012 Collectors Committee

• Fudō Myōō: The Indomitable Foe of Evil, a rare twelfth-century Buddhist sculpture carved from one solid block of Zelkova wood.

Durer

Albrecht Durer, Saint Jerome in His Study, 1514, gift of the 2012 Collectors Committee, with additional funds provided by the Prints and Drawings Council and Philippa Calnan

• German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dϋrer’s Saint Jerome in His Study (1514), a meticulous engraving depicting the scholarly and spiritual reflections of Saint Jerome.

Enriquez.Marriage

Nicolás Enríquez, The Marriage of the Virgin, 1749, purchased with funds provided by Kelvin Davis, Lynda and Stewart Resnick, Kathy and Frank Baxter, Beth and Josh Friedman, and Jane and Terry Semel through the 2012 Collectors Committee

Enriquez.Adoration

Nicolás Enríquez, The Adoration of the Kings with Donor, 1741, purchased with funds provided by Kelvin Davis, Lynda and Stewart Resnick, Kathy and Frank Baxter, Beth and Josh Friedman, and Jane and Terry Semel through the 2012 Collectors Committee

• Two oil-on-copper paintings by distinguished eighteenth-century New Spanish (Mexican) painter Nicolás Enríquez— The Marriage of the Virgin (1749) and The Adoration of the Kings with Donor (1741), each depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin.

Keep your eyes on Unframed for the rest of the week for blog posts from our curators on each of these incredible objects.

Scott Tennent