Big Plans for Museum’s Peak Season

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is gearing up for the holiday season this week with four exhibitions opening in the space of five days.

“The holiday season is a peak season for us,” director Earl A. Powell said, “so we always try to open our winter exhibitions before the holiday season starts.”

Opening today is the largest of the four shows, the 200-piece “Romance of the Taj Mahal,” which examines the significance and interrelated character of all the arts from the reign of Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal in the mid-17th Century. Included are paintings, carpets, textiles, fine gems, glass works, jewelry, prints, drawings and photographs. (See William Wilson’s review, Page 103.)

Two other important shows open Thursday--”On the Art of Fixing a Shadow: 150 Years of Photography,” a comprehensive exhibition of 400 photographs from more than 200 photographers, and “The Paintings of Jakuchu, Master Artist of Japan,” the first of a two-part exhibition featuring 90 works (about 40 are being installed for this portion) by 18th-Century Japanese master painter Ito Jakuchu.

Opening on Tuesday is the smallest of the four shows, “The Colorful Realm of Jakuchu and Jakuen: Paintings From the Museum and Other American Collections,” which complements the Jakuchu painting show and is composed of 35 works mainly from the museum’s permanent collection.

Powell admitted that having so many openings so closely clumped together is “somewhat unusual,” and said that although the museum tries to stagger its exhibitions, doing so is not always possible.

In this case, “The Art of Fixing a Shadow” was organized by the National Gallery of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Jakuchu show was done in association with the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Tokyo and the Asia Society Galleries in New York. Hence LACMA had to conform to the other institutions’ schedules, Powell said.

Nevertheless, he said, managing four openings in five days poses no difficulty to the museum, because exhibitions are scheduled up to four years in advance, allowing ample time for planning. (However, Art Owens, the museum’s assistant director for operations, may not share Powell’s view. He refused to talk to The Times for this article, saying through the museum’s press officer that he was too overwhelmed with the installation of the shows, and could not spare even a few minutes from his busy schedule.)

Despite early planning, Powell said that the average turn-around time for a major show is six weeks. The first two are usually spent preparing for the installation--repainting the galleries, preparing labels for the works and constructing any cases or special rooms that need to be built. The rest of the time, Powell said, would be spent on the installation itself.

“Object shows are more time consuming (to install) than any other shows,” Powell said. “They are always the most difficult because you have to build special vitrines or pedestals (on which to display the objects).”

For the Taj Mahal show, for instance, although the museum was able to use much of the same construction elements that were used for the previously mounted exhibition, “Timur and the Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the 15th Century,” the show contains “a room with a huge model of the Taj Mahal that had to be specially constructed.”

Powell estimated that about 100 people--including curators, painters, carpenters, electricians, art handlers, conservators and registrars--were involved in the Taj Mahal show’s installation.

By contrast, Powell said, “you could arguably turn around a photography show in two weeks,” and other shows can be installed even faster. For instance, the actual installation of the Jakuchu show, which is composed mostly of hanging scrolls, will take only a day or two, he said.

This first portion of the Jakuchu show runs through Jan. 14, with the second portion running from Jan. 18-Feb. 18 (the show is split so as to limit the amount of light each painting is exposed to). “The Colorful Realm of Jakuchu and Jakuen” runs through Feb. 18, “On the Art of Fixing a Shadow” runs through Feb. 25, and “Romance of the Taj Mahal” runs through March 11.