Imogen Cunningham, Magnolia Blossom, 1925
LACMA RECEIVES MAJOR GIFT FROM WALLIS ANNENBERG TO ACQUIRE RENOWNED COLLECTION OF 3,500 PHOTOGRAPHS
LACMA honors gift by naming the Wallis Annenberg Department of Photography
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August 18th 2008 —The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announced that ithas received a groundbreaking gift from Wallis Annenberg and the AnnenbergFoundation in support of photography. A substantial portion of the giftwill support the acquisition of The Marjorie and Leonard VernonCollection, a group of more than 3,500 prints that forms one of the finesthistories of photography and collections of masterworks from thenineteenth and twentieth centuries. Highlights, including seminalphotographs by Ansel Adams, Julia Margaret Cameron, Edward Steichen, W.H.Fox Talbot, and Edward Weston, will be presented in LACMA’s exhibition, AStory of Photography: The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection, openingOctober 5 in the Ahmanson Building. Through the largesse of WallisAnnenberg and the Annenberg Foundation, this collection becomes the mostsignificant and valuable gift of photography in the museum’s history.
Wallis Annenberg’s tremendous support of LACMA includes not only theacquisition of The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection, but also acontribution to a new study room, opening in early 2011, that will allowfor access to the entire photography collection at LACMA. Head of thenewly named Wallis Annenberg Photography Department, Charlotte Cotton,said, “This staggering acquisition will enable LACMA to present multiplenarratives of nineteenth and twentieth-century photography to its actualand virtual visitors, and to enhance the appreciation of photography, as Marjorie and Leonard always hoped the collection would. Wallis Annenberg,who shares the same vision, has been incredibly thoughtful about what ittakes to create a world-class, accessible photography department atLACMA.”
LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, Michael Govan, noted,“Photography claims an ever larger presence within the history of art.Twenty first-century encyclopedic museums like LACMA must have asubstantial and growing commitment to photography and media. WallisAnnenberg’s gift makes this possible.”
LACMA trustee and Annenberg Foundation Vice President, Wallis Annenberg,commented, “I have a passion for photography and a deep belief in LACMA.They will undoubtedly inspire others to love this art form as much as Ido. I’m thrilled to see a collection of this magnitude find a home in alocal institution that is increasingly an international force in themuseum world.”
Marjorie and Leonard Vernon, Los Angeles residents now deceased, began toamass their expansive collection in 1976. They cultivated a group of workswith global significance that especially highlighted the riches of WestCoast photography in the early and mid-twentieth century. The collectiongrew over the years to include works by 700 photographers, with theearliest photographs dating from the 1840s. The couple were pioneer LosAngeles collectors and supporters of local talent. The collection wasacquired from Carol Vernon and Robert Turbin, including a partial gift ofa selection of the photographs. Ms. Vernon, daughter of Marjorie andLeonard, noted, “My parents would be pleased to know that the collectionthey so passionately fostered will remain together in Los Angeles, a cityrapidly developing into a photography collecting hub.”
Key works on view in A Story of Photography: The Marjorie and LeonardVernon Collection include Ansel Adam’s Moonrise, Hernandez (1941), one ofhis most famous and most difficult photographs to print, as well as EdwardWeston’s Nude (1925), from what Weston considered the finest series ofnudes he created, and Imogen Cunningham’s Magnolia Blossom (1925), whichexemplifies the photographer’s interest in pattern and especially plantstructures. Other iconic works represented are Gustav le Gray’s The GreatWave, Sete (1856-57), a photograph that demonstrates le Gray’s ambitionand invention in capturing the rapid movement of the surf at such an earlystage of photography’s technical development. Julia Margaret Cameron’sMrs. Herbert Duckworth (née Julia Jackson) (1867), also in the exhibition,is an example of exquisite framing and masterful lighting with thephotographer’s niece, later to become Virginia Woolf’s mother, as thesubject. In addition to the exhibition of collection highlights this fall,visitors to LACMA will see key photographs from the collection inpermanent galleries alongside American art, modern, and nineteenth-centuryEuropean collections and in 2011, first-rate study rooms for photographywill open in LACMA West where individuals and educational groups will haveregular and easy access to the collection.
About the Annenberg Foundation
The Annenberg Foundation is one of the nation’s largest private familyfoundations. It provides funding and support to nonprofit organizations inthe United States and globally. In addition, the Foundation operates anumber of initiatives which expand and complement these program areas. TheAnnenberg Foundation exists to advance the public well-being throughimproved communication. As the principal means of achieving this goal, theFoundation encourages the development of more effective ways to shareideas and knowledge.
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