Frank Gehry Back in MOCA Exhibition

In early May Frank Gehry announced he'd be pulling out of the exhibition A New Sculpturalism: Contemporary Architecture from Southern California, set to open 2 June at the Museum of Contemporary Art's Geffen Contemporary in Los Angeles. He stated the major exhibition, funded in part by a nearly half-a-million-dollar Getty Foundation grant, "didn't seem to be a scholarly, well-organized show." Gehry's statement was followed by cries in LA's architectural community, including by the show's curator Christopher Mount, that the show might be cancelled.

Well, Gehry's omission did not kill the exhibition, but the fact it could jeapardize such an important show drew ire from The Architect's Newspaper, which asked "Why the thin skin, Frank?" Then last week we learned that Gehry is back in the show after being coaxed by fellow Pritzker Prize winner and Angeleno Thom Mayne, who is quoted as saying to Gehry: "'Frank, this is a collective community, you want to be in the show.'" The show goes on, opening a couple weeks late (16 June) at Geffen Contemporary as part of Pacific Standard Time: Modern Architecture in L.A.