He is doing a bang-up job of exactly what he was hired to do. With this combination of exhibitions, performances, stars and celebrities, Deitch has effectively increased the museumвЂ™s attendance from a low of almost 150,000 to 400,000 visitors clearly, he can deliver audience.Д«ut this firestorm is not really about Jeffrey Deitch. To be fair, MOCA has also initiated projects with artists such as Amanda Ross-Ho, Mark Bradford and Shepard Fairey, balancing the more Hollywood-driven program. Under Deitch, it has been dominated by celebrities and youth culture, including a retrospective of artwork by the late actor Dennis Hopper, the exhibition вЂњArt in StreetsвЂќ and a show about James Dean staged by actor James Franco. Since then, MOCAвЂ™s program has moved in a new direction. DeitchвЂ™s hire raised lots of questions about commercialism, scholarship and undue influence by one donor, but they were deferred with a wait-and-see attitude. After several years of budget deficits led to the drawdown of MOCAвЂ™s endowment вЂ“ and a $30 million bailout by Eli BroadвЂ™s foundation - Jeffrey Deitch, the accomplished NYC gallery owner, business whiz and street-art impresario, was appointed director in 2010 with a charge to fix the finances. Significant exhibitions like these are expensive, labor-intensive endeavors. Critics from Christopher Knight of the LA Times and Roberta Smith of The New York Times to Tyler Green, author of the widely read blog Modern Art Notes, all recognize the curatorial leadership that MOCA defined and exerted under Schimmel and the position held by MOCA as the museum that treated contemporary art as a subject for rigorous scholarship. They excelled at groundbreaking exhibitions and collection building of historical sweep, meticulous research and the engagement of artists in the LA community. Why is this a national story? Is it simply a case of what Tolstoy described when he wrote, вЂњHappy families are all alike every unhappy family is unhappy in its own wayвЂќ? Or is it closer to Jenny HolzerвЂ™s artwork, 'Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise'? As a museum director, I see the issue as all about values: What is the definition of success in a museum and who defines it?ДЇor many of us, MOCA was the standard-bearer of success.

It seems that the renowned curatorвЂ™s scholarly approach to contemporary art clashed with new director Jeffrey DeitchвЂ™s populist direction. Three weeks ago, longtime MOCA chief curator Paul Schimmel, one of the nationвЂ™s leading curators, was summoned to the office of LA philanthropist and MOCA life trustee Eli Broad there Schimmel was told he was out of a job. What should we measure and count? (AP File Photo)ДЇor the past few weeks, art museum aficionados and the art press have been apoplectic about changes at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. A recent dust-up at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles raises questions about what makes a museum successful. Twitter facebook Email This article is more than 9 years old.

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