East West Bank has purchased a $2-million collection of Chinese contemporary art for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, but you'll have to go to the bank's headquarters in Pasadena to see it.
Under terms of an unusual agreement, MOCA curators selected 11 paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs by six artists -- including leading figures such as Xu Bing and Cai Guo-Qiang -- and the bank paid for them. The collection includes also works by Cai.Xu, Shi Guorui, Zhan Wang, and Li Jin. Starting Thursday, August 30, the works will be on public display at the bank, but they will also be available for exhibition at the museum and will become part of its permanent collection in 2026.
At MOCA, the new collection will join a small group of recent acquisitions, including pieces by Shi, Zhang Huan and Qui Zhijie. (Source: Suzanne Muchnic, Los Angeles Times, Aug 29, 2007).