Hammer nails it

CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT may not understand this [“The Hammer Cleanup,” Jan. 22], but a lot of residents in West Los Angeles have great affection for the Hammer Museum in Westwood. With its eclectic selection of paintings old and new, the Hammer provides a pleasant and intimate viewing space.

We are delighted that the Hammer did not give the Los Angeles County Museum of Art all of its “great master” holdings, and we are equally happy the Hammer held on to some of its “minor” works and paintings of “modest size.”

Not every painting on a museum’s wall needs to be a blockbuster behemoth.

STEVE FISHER

Brentwood