Gift of Wealth and Passion : Art: LACMA’s ‘New Acquisitions’ exhibition honors Robert H. Halff for his donation of 40 works from his personal collection.

“The main thing is that collecting art has enriched my life enormously,” says Robert H. Halff as he surveys 11 of his favorite possessions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The small exhibition--installed over the weekend in honor of Halff’s promised gift of 40 works from his collection--boasts a classic Joan Miro canvas, an early (1955) Jasper Johns painting, vintage works on paper by Sam Francis, Cy Twombly and Robert Motherwell, and a striking array of Pop art icons, including Andy Warhol’s signature “Campbell’s Soup Can” painting, Claes Oldenburg’s oversize sculpture of a lumpy baked potato and Roy Lichtenstein’s comic-book-style image “Cold Shoulder.”

Buying works such as these fresh out of studios and galleries, living with adventurous art and being part of an elite collectors community that has access to private treasure troves has been his great privilege for the past 30 years, according to the 85-year-old retired screenwriter and advertising executive. But now he has decided to share his riches with the museum he has supported for three decades and served as a trustee since 1990.

“These are things the museum should have bought, but didn’t have the foresight or the money to buy,” Halff says of his gift. “They will fill in a lot of gaps.”

Stephanie Barron, LACMA’s curator of 20th-Century art and coordinator of curatorial affairs, emphatically agrees. “We have multiples by Jasper Johns, but ‘Number 7’ is our first unique Johns piece. It’s a classic work from the ‘50s and something that has always been on our wish list,” she says.

Donated paintings by Miro, Warhol and Frank Stella and the Oldenburg sculpture complement the artists’ other works in the collection, she says. Furthermore, Halff’s gift provides LACMA with its first drawings by Oldenburg and Twombly, and its first and only Motherwell.

“When Bob decided to make his gift, he devoted a great deal of care and attention to what we have and don’t have,” Barron says.

The museum hails the windfall as its most significant gift of contemporary art in 20 years. “Bob has given us major works of art that would be unattainable any other way,” Barron says. “This is how museums are built--by passionate collectors. And we all benefit from it. If we don’t have the cooperation of real collectors, it will be very hard for museums to reflect not only the art of our time but the collecting patterns of our time.”

As a member of a collecting family, Halff says he acquired his tastes quite naturally. A graduate of the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, he settled in Los Angeles in 1942 and worked as a screenwriter for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He also moved up through the ranks of the advertising industry, eventually serving as creative director for New York and Los Angeles agencies.

In the meantime, his collection of contemporary paintings, drawings and sculptures grew until it filled his home in Beverly Hills. Some of the walls are bare now, but Halff appears to have no regrets. “I’m just so pleased that I got involved with art and had the opportunity to live with it,” he says.

* “New Acquisitions,” a selection of promised gifts from the Robert H. Halff collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., (213) 857-6000. Wed. and Thurs., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Fri., 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Adults $6; students and seniors $4, children 5 and under free. Ends Aug. 14.