Richard Koshalek, an energetic champion of new art and architecture who joined Los Angeles' Museum of Contemporary Art in 1980 when the museum was still on the drawing board and went on to serve as its director for the past 15 years, said Monday that he will step down in the summer of 1999.
Koshalek is fulfilling terms of a contract signed nearly four years ago but only now being revealed. He said: "It is time. This is something that I wanted because I think 20 years is enough."
When Koshalek arrived in Los Angeles, the planned museum had $50,000 in the bank, a professional staff of three and no collection. Now MOCA operates on a $10-million annual budget with a staff of 75, attracts about 450,000 visitors a year, organizes exhibitions that travel all over the world and has a 4,000-piece collection of postwar art.
Koshalek will serve the museum as a consultant for five years after he leaves his post and said he plans to stay in Los Angeles as a cultural advocate and facilitator for downtown Los Angeles, although he would not elaborate.
A charismatic leader, Koshalek, 56, has presided over an institution that began as nothing more than a dream of local contemporary art supporters but has become a major fixture on the international art scene. Presenting programs in two downtown facilities--an elegant structure on Grand Avenue and a vast warehouse-like space in Little Tokyo--the museum is the nation's largest showcase for contemporary art.
Under Koshalek's leadership, the museum is winding up a $25-million capital campaign that will bring its endowment to about $50 million. Koshalek also has encouraged the museum to embrace architecture in its exhibitions program and served as an advocate for the Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Los Angeles-based architect Frank O. Gehry.
Upon hearing the news of Koshalek's resignation, civic and cultural leaders praised his accomplishments.
"MOCA has grown into one of the cultural centerpieces of Los Angeles through the indefatigable efforts of Richard Koshalek, and this city is fortunate to have had him as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art," said Mayor Richard Riordan.
John Walsh, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, said, "Richard built MOCA, and now I can't imagine Los Angeles without MOCA or Richard. This is a business without many heroes, but what Richard did, not only to create MOCA but to be sure that the audience saw truly important and advanced art--not just the easy stuff--and to stay courageous when other people doubted MOCA, was heroic."
