MOCA TO GET LOWEN ART

The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art will receive the multimillion-dollar art collection owned by television executive Barry Lowen, The Times has learned.

Lowen, vice president for creative affairs at Aaron Spelling Productions, died Sept. 24 from complications of acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

James Walsh, attorney for the estate, confirmed that MOCA was named beneficiary of Lowen’s collection of works by Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly and other prominent artists. The will was filed Friday morning. Walsh declined to estimate the value of the artworks, but it is believed to be between $3 million and $5 million.

With the exception of five pieces bequeathed to individuals, the museum will receive the entire collection, according to the attorney. Last year MOCA purchased 80 pieces from the highly regarded collection of Italian Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo for $11 million, doubling its holdings at that time. The museum currently owns more than 300 artworks.

The Lowen collection will “complement the Panza collection,” MOCA Director Richard Koshalek told The Times. “The Panza (collection) is strong in works from the late ‘40s, ‘50s and early ‘60s. This is strong from the ‘70s and ‘80s.”

Referring to Lowen’s “wonderful eye,” Koshalek called the Lowen works “a very important gift. (The collection) was very carefully and cautiously selected so that each of the works is an excellent example of the work of that artist. Lowen understood the work of each of the artists and was very close to it. It meant a great deal to him.”

Lowen began collecting in 1972 with a kinetic sculpture by Takis, he told Architectural Digest in 1982, and focused on art of the ‘70s and ‘80s. “I made a decision not to delve into earlier periods, those of Abstract Expressionism or Pop art, but to put together an in-depth collection of works that would support one another.”

Photographs in Architectural Digest at that time documented such works as Carl Andre’s “144 Blocks and Stones” in Lowen’s courtyard, a Brice Marden triptych in his living room and a Dan Flavin light sculpture in the master bedroom. Koshalek said Lowen also owned one of Susan Rothenberg’s “best paintings” and two “excellent examples” of Stella’s work.

Lowen, who was 50 when he died, “served as an example for many young Los Angeles collectors and was a mentor to many of them,” Koshalek said. One of the museum’s charter founders, the television executive helped organize a MOCA benefit last year that raised $400,000. He was also a founder of the Entertainment Alliance unit of the Modern and Contemporary Art Council, a support group of the County Museum of Art.