The most tantalizing feature of the Broad: that little window in the central staircase that provides a peek into the archive and everything that’s not on display. So whenever the DTLA museum says it’s pulling dozens of pieces out of its archive and putting them into its galleries, it’s always a prompt to pay attention.
To mark a decade since the museum’s announcement, the Broad has plucked 57 key pieces acquired during that time period out of its vault. There are some familiar works in “Since Unveiling: Selected Acquisitions of a Decade”: Massive pieces from Andreas Gursky, Julie Mehretu and Robert Longo that you may have seen upstairs in the past, as well as galleries that reprise elements of the Shirin Neshat and Cindy Sherman exhibitions. But half of the works are on view for the first time, and the vast majority were added after the museum first opened in 2015 (highlights include works by Catherine Opie, John Baldessari, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Nathaniel Mary Quinn and Mark Bradford).
But the most exciting inclusion has to be the return of Ragnar Kjartansson’s The Visitors, a mesmerizing, nine-screen video installation of musicians performing simultaneously in separate rooms of a farmhouse. It was a clear standout when the museum opened in 2015, and it last went back on display in 2018—and in the middle of last year’s stay-at-home existence, we found ourselves pining for its beautiful depiction of isolation and togetherness. Stepping inside once again, it’s still just as transcendent and emotionally overwhelming as ever.
