Activist Group Criticizes Los Angeles Art Collection

A feminist activist group, the Guerrilla Girls, has sent an open letter to Eli Broad, the philanthropist, complaining that there are too few female and minority artists represented in the exhibition at the Broad Contemporary Art Museum at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and in Mr. Broad’s private foundation’s art collection, reports The New York Times.

“How can this exhibition be a legitimate survey of contemporary art with so few women and artists of color? Especially in Los Angeles! And at a public museum like Lacma!” says the letter, on the Guerilla Girls’ Web site. The group says that 97 percent of the 30 artists in the new exhibition at the Broad Museum are white, and 87 percent are men; of the 194 artists in the Broad foundation’s collection, 96 percent are white and 83 percent are male.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Broad told the Times that “women are prominently featured in the opening installation at BCAM, which was curated by Lacma. In fact, 33 percent of the works in the exhibit are by women. One of the largest galleries at BCAM is devoted to Cindy Sherman, whose works the Broads have collected since 1981.”

Michael Govan, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s director, discusses Mr. Broad’s philanthropy and other topics in a profile in The Wall Street Journal.

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