The Buck Starts Here

Let’s call it the Broad Effect.

When it comes to Los Angeles’ burgeoning reputation as an arts and cultural center, the influence of multibillionaire philanthropist Eli Broad is visible everywhere.

It’s taking shape at downtown’s Music Center, where the eccentric twists of steel that will become the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall are sprouting at the corner of 1st Street and Grand Avenue--a once-doomed project revived by a fund-raising drive spearheaded by Broad.

The symphony hall, new home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is only one of a host of new architectural landmarks that will bear Broad’s stamp. Partnering with the governor of California, he has launched a design competition for a new Caltrans headquarters building near City Hall “so it wouldn’t be just another piece of boring public architecture,” he explains. The Edythe and Eli Broad Art Center at UCLA, designed by Getty Center architect Richard Meier, is soon to be built on the Westwood campus. Already under construction at the California Institute of Technology is the Broad Center for the Biological Sciences. Broad provided the $23-million lead gift for the physical centerpiece of a $111-million expansion of Caltech’s biological sciences program. Broad is also in early discussions with USC about a new biomedical center.

Then there’s the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The campus of L.A.’s largest museum is slated for a $200-million redesign, with museum trustee Broad an active member of the committee to select an architect as well as a likely major donor to the project.

And, beginning next Sunday at LACMA, Los Angeles will get a glimpse of the 25-year obsession with contemporary art that spawned Broad’s wide-ranging participation in things artistic, in the exhibition “Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons: Four Decades of Art From the Eli Broad Collections.” While individual works from the massive Broad holdings have been lent or donated to institutions around the world, this selection of works by 24 artists will be exhibited together, under the Broad banner.

The Broad Effect is also felt behind the scenes. The 68-year-old entrepreneur, who built his fortune as co-founder of Kaufman & Broad home builders (now KB Homes), and later as CEO of the retirement savings company SunAmerica, was founding chairman of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and has served on boards and influential committees at museums including the UCLA Hammer Museum, New York’s Guggenheim and Whitney museums and Harvard University Museum.

The effect will even be hard to miss in the details. Separate from the mega-gifts that will fund the new buildings at Caltech and UCLA, Broad is donating several million more to each institution to commission outdoor public artworks by sculptor Richard Serra. Broad has one of the artist’s massive works--two 15-ton curved steel panels--in his own garden. “I just thought both places could use some great sculpture,” he says.

And in the next decade, it seems certain that Los Angeles will feel the Broad Effect even more: On Jan. 1, Broad stepped down as CEO of SunAmerica to become a full-time “venture philanthropist.” After more than 20 years on the Los Angeles arts scene, Eli Broad is now available in concentrate.

But how much Broad is too much Broad? Does the city’s wealthiest and most outspoken patron support arts institutions, or control them, just by being Broad?

Broad is the first one to say he has no plans to give up his aggressive hands-on approach to the arts and everything else. “I want to make a difference,” he asserts.

“Look, I don’t worry about two things: One, I don’t worry about getting elected, and two, I don’t worry about making a mistake. Because I, or Bill Gates or anyone like us doesn’t have to worry about getting fired.”

Broad is not the only powerful arts supporter in L.A. Like LACMA, UCLA Hammer Museum is about to undergo a $25-million redesign, with a leadership gift of $2 million from the family foundation of Santa Monica art collectors Peter and Eileen Norton. Billionaire supermarket magnate Ron Burkle, a friend of Broad’s, has donated to Disney Hall and other cultural endeavors. The Ahmanson and Irvine Foundations are among the foundations whose names often appear on the walls of local arts institutions. And don’t forget the late Lillian B. Disney, Walt’s widow, whose initial $50-million gift launched Disney Hall (with additional pledges and gifts, the family’s contribution to the project now exceeds $100 million).

The past year brought high-tech investor Alberto Vilar, founder and president of Amerindo Investment Advisors Inc. and the largest opera donor in the world, to town.

Courted by his close friend Placido Domingo, the new artistic director of Los Angeles Opera, Vilar joined the board of the organization and pledged $10 million toward new productions and the development of young artists; he has also made gifts totaling $33 million to New York’s Metropolitan Opera, and $50 million to the Kennedy Center. Because no one else has been as generous to the opera, some fear that Vilar’s reportedly conservative tastes may come to dominate the art form.

But Vilar is based in New York, so does not play the same role as a local civic leader that Broad does. And, as a supporter of the performing arts, much of Vilar’s money is going toward programming and artist training, by their nature less visible in the wider community than arts centers and concert halls.

And in the end, Vilar’s generosity doesn’t match the Broads’. They rank just below the No. 1 philanthropic couple in the nation--Bill and Melinda Gates--on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of the top donors in the year 2000, giving more than $137 million. The publication pegs Broad’s personal worth at $5.2 billion.

These days, Broad’s energy and money goes to a variety of causes. Certainly Broad has gained as much notoriety for such ventures as successfully leading the charge to bring the Democratic National Convention here in 2000 as his cultural commitments. And he says his newest obsession is not art, but improving K-through-12 education in urban school districts nationwide through the $100-million Broad Foundation.

Still, his knowledge of arts and architecture means that he gets more actively involved when it comes to the arts. “I think I know something about art and museums and architecture, and when I do know about something, I want to spend time at it,” he asserts. “I love architects. That’s why I get involved in projects like resurrecting Disney Hall from the dead.”

Civic leader Linda Griego, a partner in downtown’s Engine Co. 28 restaurant, has watched Broad in action for years. “His love is art, his interest is in aesthetics; he has the means, and he uses them,” she says. “A lot of philanthropists set up a foundation and you never hear from them again. He’s a more hands-on guy.

“That’s different from a lot of people who give a lot of money with no strings attached. The string attached here is, you get Eli. His money is not the easiest to get. I don’t mean by that that he’s going to turn you down--it’s just going to come with his strong involvement. You have to be prepared for that.”

Not everybody is. Just because the arts community can’t fire Broad doesn’t mean it’s never wanted to.

The battles are legend: a highly publicized struggle for leadership during the founding of LACMA in the early 1980s; a clash with Disney Hall architect Frank Gehry over design and building plans that led the world-renowned architect to threaten to walk off the project in 1997. And it’s not the first time Broad and Gehry have locked horns over architecture.

To this day, Gehry will not set foot in Broad’s house in the hills of Brentwood. Broad hired Gehry to design the home, but in the end hired another architect to complete it--a precursor of the Disney Hall conflict to come. Although Broad still calls Gehry “a genius,” Gehry steadfastly refuses comment on anything that has to do with Broad.

While most arts leaders express gratitude for Broad’s enthusiasm, at least one museum director’s careful comments suggest there remains good reason to handle this hands-on donor with care.

“Eli Broad was only on the board of the Hammer for a short time after I arrived here, so I have not had much direct experience with him in that way,” says Ann Philbin, director of UCLA Hammer Museum, in an interview via e-mail.

“Of course, museums’ boards are often made up of passionate art collectors ... ideally, this passion is also combined with a philanthropic sense and an interest in the well-being of one’s city and civic culture,” Philbin continues. “Hopefully a city or institution has more than one or two of these personalities involved since, it almost goes without saying, their egos are healthy and are best balanced by others with equal passion, power and money ... personalities like this on a board require a strong staff, and especially a strong executive director to ensure that the institution follow closely the standards and practices if the field, which are not always the same as in the business world.”

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky is among those who believe there are enough strong cultural leaders in Los Angeles to provide a buffer to Broad. “I don’t think Eli calls the shots,” Yaroslavsky says. “Just because he’s as wealthy as he is, and has invested as much as he has in the arts, [I don’t think that] means he calls every shot. There are a lot of other people around, and that’s healthy.”

Broad insists that he is a team player, albeit an aggressive one--and he points to his continuing relationship with City Hall to prove it. His friendship with the former mayor was key to the fund-raising drive for Disney Hall, with both Broad and Riordan tapping wealthy friends in the business community when fund-raising was stalled. But even though he didn’t vote for the current mayor--he stumped for Villaraigosa--Broad says he’s on board.

But Broad says that even with a new administration downtown--one he didn’t vote for--he’s on board.

“It’s no secret that I did not back Jimmy Hahn for mayor--but he’s mayor,” Broad says. “We’re involved in LA’s BEST [an after-school program], and we’re going to do other things together. That’s life--you can’t get your way all the time. I have quite strong feelings, and I let them be known, maybe a bit more than some people would like. But I don’t go away, take my marbles and go home.”

Mayor James Hahn confirms an amicable relationship--although it may never result in a landmark building like the Broad-Riordan partnership. “I’m not as interested right now in more fine edifices, although I appreciate that, as I am in expanding programs,” he says. “I was pleased to sit down with Eli Broad and talk to him about what was important to me, which was expanding after-school programs, and he made a very generous donation, and made phone calls to get more people involved in it.

“There is not enough in the governmental checkbook to do what needs to be done, so we need the support of people like Eli Broad,” Hahn continues. “I think what Eli is able to do is show the leadership, and also raise the money; he is able to contact his friends to move forward. Certainly Richard Riordan was one of those friends--the partnership between Mayor Riordan and Eli Broad was what really got the Disney Hall project done.

“I may not have the same Rolodex he has, but I have told Mr. Broad that I am certainly willing to partner with him on these projects. That’s part of being mayor too--working on raising money for those kinds of projects.” Hahn adds. “I just won’t be able to write my own checks.”

Is it possible that this new partnership means that the outspoken Broad has mellowed over the years?

“No,” says Griego, with a laugh both rueful and affectionate. “I don’t think that’s in the cards. He’s got a strong personality. It’s who he is .”

In the near future, nowhere is Broad’s influence more likely to be seen than at LACMA. With its planned redesign, the county museum rolls Broad’s three favorite areas--art, museums and architecture--into one big ball of billionaire philanthropist catnip.

Broad is on the selection committee for the redesign architect. He has also said he’s prepared to make a large donation to the redesign, although he’s close-mouthed about how much. This raises the question: Is LACMA exhibiting the Broads’ collection now because of its artistic value, or to flatter Broad into giving money for the redesign?

And, for that same reason, will Broad have a bigger say in who gets selected as architect for the new, improved LACMA?

The list of five architects chosen for the competition--Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, Berlin-based Daniel Libeskind, Jean Nouvel of Paris, New York’s Steven Holl and Thom Mayne of Los Angeles--notably does not include Gehry. Both Broad and LACMA President and Chief Executive Andrea Rich both say that is because Gehry did not want to participate in a competition. As with all things Broad, Gehry won’t talk about it--but the architect’s office confirms this.

Museum officials insist that the timing of the Broad exhibition is purely coincidental, saying that discussions about exhibiting the Broad collection date back five years. And, certainly, seeing the personal art collection of board members eventually make their way into the public galleries is organic to the museum world.

Lynn Zelevansky, who curated the exhibit with Stephanie Barron, points out that the Broad collections, with many works from the 1980s, are only now coming of age. “It’s one of the first moments to begin looking at the ‘80s in art historical terms,” says Zelevansky. “It’s not now, and it’s not even yesterday; it’s suddenly then .”

Gary Kornblau, editor of Art Issues magazine, questions the artistic value of the Broad collections. “There are dozens and dozens of collections of contemporary art that are of higher quality than Eli Broad’s,” he says. “Eli has a very expensive collection, but there is no vision behind it. Eli’s collection is like a small, contemporary museum’s art collection--one or two works by everyone who’s hip each year, you know? There is no reason to show a collection like that.”

But Kornblau remains the lone dissenter in a survey of a number of art world observers who praise both the breadth and depth of the Broad collection.

“This collection has a very large number of strengths--the work of Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Roy Lichtenstein. It is also a collection that is continually evolving,” offers Richard Koshalek, president of Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design and former director ofMOCA, where he was at the center of the aforementioned leadership conflicts with Broad. (All fences are apparently mended; Broad has recommended Koshalek to serve as co-chair of the selection panel for the Caltrans architectural competition.)

Michele De Angelus, who served as curator of the Broad Collections from 1983 to 1990, believes that the collection represents “the cutting edge of collecting.” “A characteristic of American collectors that is often criticized is that they have a ‘trophy collection’--one Johns, one Rauschenberg. But he’s collecting artists whose work is not that easy to access,” she says. “Somebody like Johns is not hugely prolific; if you have three of his paintings, that’s a lot.

“He also enjoys a life in art, which not all collectors do,” she adds. “He is not in it for the cachet, or the social activities. The Broads had friends who wouldn’t travel east of Robertson or south of Pico, for any reason. But they would go to some really seedy and disreputable parts of New York to connect with the artists themselves.

“I can remember, on a sweltering July day in New York City, climbing up to the third or fourth floor of an artist’s studio with a meat-packing factory on the ground floor. The stench was unbelievable, we were laboring up these stairs, and Edye Broad says: ‘And people think it’s easy to collect art!’ They were indefatigable.”

While they deny any relationship between the timing of Broad exhibition and the LACMA redesign, the two exhibition curators, as well as museum director Rich, are blunt on another point of timing: The Los Angeles show, which will travel to Washington’s Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, is a preemptive strike.

“Once we caught wind that there was the germination of interest in showing the collection by other institutions not in Los Angeles, we were not going to let that happen,” Barron says. “The collection was ready--and if we didn’t do it, somebody was going to do it.”

Says Broad: “Let me just say that LACMA was not the first. I don’t want to mention other people that approached us and we didn’t say yes to, not only here but in other cities. But I feel good about it coming to L.A.”

The stakes here are higher than one exhibition. Broad has made it clear that, someday, he will donate his artworks to a public institution. “My children have more money than they’ll ever spend,” Broad reasons. “The one thing I can say is, the collection is not going to be sold. The collection will go to one or several museums. But we’ve made no commitments, nor do I want to at this point.”

And if LACMA can’t afford to let another museum beat it to the punch on an exhibition, it surely couldn’t stomach watching another institution snare the collection permanently, says Zelevansky.

“L.A. is a city that has a history of losing some of its most important collections,” she observes, citing the noted Arensberg collection as a painful case in point. Arts patrons Walter and Louise Arensberg, who settled in Hollywood in 1927, amassed a respected collection of modern art, including numerous works by Marcel Duchamp. After attempts to find a Los Angeles home for the collection, including failed negotiations with LACMA and UCLA, the Arensbergs finally donated their artworks to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1951.

“You get the sense the collection would have changed the history of the city,” Zelevansky adds. “So the commitment of the Broads to the city is very important.”

There’s another cultural project on the table--one that may be too big even for full-time, full-strength Broad: the $1-billion redevelopment of downtown’s Grand Avenue. It’s a project Griego calls “Disney Hall times 10.”

Broad is part of a circle of civic leaders, led by developer James A. Thomas, who are determined to revitalize the city’s center by creating a Boston Commons-like area of parks, shops, hotels, restaurants, bistros and bookstores that covers 16 acres. Broad believes that $700 million in private investment must be committed to leverage the remaining $300 million in funds from the state and the county.

“When we started this, the state was awash in money, the state had a surplus of about $10 billion dollars, and the governor was looking for one-time infrastructure projects,” Broad says. “Since then, the state budget has changed, and we can’t predict where it’s going to go.”

Broad adds that the Grand Avenue leaders were interviewing national developers, but the attack on New York has put any discussions of retail entertainment development on indefinite hold.

Whatever pressure the strained stock market may place on the grand plan for Grand Avenue, however, Broad insists that the country’s financial state will not dilute his own philanthropy or his commitment to Los Angeles.

“It will not affect it at all,” Broad said crisply in a phone interview from New York 10 days after the attack on the World Trade Center. “I am a large owner of AIG stock [American International Group acquired SunAmerica in 1998]. The stock was at 74 before; it’s now at 671/2. I am not like somebody in high-tech stocks that just went from 50 to 2. No--I have no intention of reducing my commitment.”

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“Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons: Four Decades of Art From the Broad Collections,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Opens next Sunday. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, noon-8 p.m.; Fridays, noon-9 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; closed Wednesdays. Ends Jan 6. (323) 857-6000.