ROBERT SMITH RESIGNS AS DIRECTOR OF LAICA

Robert Smith, controversial founding director of the L.A. Institute of Contemporary Art, has resigned after 10 years, marking the end of an era for the pioneering local art organization.

Reached at his office, Smith cited both personal and professional reasons for stepping down.

“It was a good time for LAICA. A sort of static condition exists without tangible new goals or changes in policy. It is a good time for reassessment and change,” Smith said.

“For about a year I have been involved in organizing two exhibitions. When I ignored my duties as director to work on them, I felt guilty. When I worked as an administrator, I was neglecting my own interests,” he added. “Administration has never been my primary interest, and at age 44 I’m not getting any younger. My salary is $18,000 a year with no benefits, and at a certain point my welfare and that of my wife comes into play.

“I want to finish organizing the exhibitions and then make a choice. I’ll either continue to do curatorial work and writing or go back to some version of my original training as an industrial designer.”

The announcement of Smith’s resignation was made by Elyse Grinstein, who has just taken over as chairman of the institute’s interim board of trustees following Smith’s resignation. An architect and prominent collector of local contemporary art, Grinstein acknowledged that attrition and Smith’s resignation have shrunk the board from 18 to 12 members.

Asked if the current flux means that the institute is in trouble, she replied: “Things are in flux in a healthy way. Things have changed since we started LAICA. Then there was no showcase for contemporary art; now there is, and we have to reevaluate. We are holding a public meeting Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. at the gallery to discuss future goals and plans. Everybody will have a chance to be heard.

“Bob served very ably in bringing world art here. Now we have other institutions like the Museum of Contemporary Art doing that, and I believe we have to get back to supporting a local constituency. It is wrong that an L.A. artist like John Baldessari has to go to Europe to gain attention, or that people as talented as Bryan Hunt or David Salle have to go to New York to be successful.

“Once we find a new director, we want to get the board up to 25 members, with a lot of emphasis on artists on the board. LAICA is not in trouble. If we were in trouble, we’d just close. Bob’s resignation has been very smooth and friendly.”

Smith headed the sometimes troubled and disorganized institute since it was established in a Century City office building in 1974. The original institute was a child of the ‘70s trend to “alternate spaces,” grass-roots artists’ galleries that sprouted around the country in rebellious reaction to a museum and commercial gallery system unable to accommodate a huge boom in art school graduates spawned by art’s high-rolling success in the ‘60s.

The institute’s original concept was to act as a community organization, supported by a large artist membership that would determine exhibitions centered around L.A. artists, especially entry-level professionals. Among LAICA’s first exhibitions was a show of nine senior Southland painters, such as Nick Brigante and Lorser Feitelson, and a bracingly anarchic stew of hundreds of local works called “Collage and Assemblage.”

From community-oriented beginnings, the institute evolved into an ever more professional operation, so clearly under Smith’s personal sway that his detractors said he was abrasive and autocratic.

Smith recruited his wife, Tobi, a hospital administrator adept at obtaining government grants, to work for the institute. In 1977 the showcase moved to a permanent location at 2020 S. Robertson Blvd. The place was a-buzz with government-funded projects and personnel provided by Comprehensive Employment and Training Act programs. In 1979 LAICA established a short-lived outpost that pioneered the art-world colonization of industrial downtown Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Smith expanded the institute’s geographical parameters with ambitious exhibitions with national and international flavor. In 1980 the museum presented “Architectural Sculpture,” which sprawled across virtually every community and college gallery in the area. Last summer, it brought in a group of Australian artists in connection with the Olympic Arts Festival.

Despite the ambitious scope of such exhibitions, they met dubious critical reaction. LAICA’s programs grew fitful. The place projected an aura of malaise amid constant speculation that the heyday of the alternative space had passed and that such local institutions would be eclipsed by the glittering program at MOCA and the huge expansion of galleries for modern art at the County Museum of Art.

“The advent of MOCA has only been an asset and not a detriment to places like LAICA and LACE (L.A. Contemporary Exhibitions, downtown),” Smith said.

“MOCA has created a much broader audience, attracted a lot of attention to contemporary art and demonstrated the flexibility of the alternate spaces.

“There might have been a negative impact if I had been trying to raise money from the same sources as MOCA, but I never liked to raise money or got to know those people. LAICA may need a director who likes to raise money . . . .”