The Broad collections include approximately 2000 artworks by more than 200 artists who range from the vanguard innovators of 1960s and 70s to artists achieving similar distinction today. The Broad Art Foundation collection is comprised of approximately 1,500 artworks, and the Foundation typically adds 25 to 100 works per year. The over 400 works in the Broads’ personal collection are augmented by very selective additions of major historical masterworks, such as the David Smith sculpture Cubi XXVIII, 1965, acquired in 2005, and Andy Warhol’s Small Torn Campbell's Soup Can (Pepper Pot), 1962, acquired in 2006. Acquisitions for the collections typically meet one or more of the following criteria: the acquisition meaningfully fills a gap within the collections’ holdings of an artist’s work; the work is of iconic importance that broadens the scope of the collections; or the work contributes a new facet to the contemporary art resources in Los Angeles and the West Coast. When an artist is added to the Foundation collection, that acquisition signifies our belief that the work demonstrates a mature point of view and the artist shows potential to influence the contemporary era. The Foundation’s commitment to collecting in depth means that our first acquisition of an artist’s work typically leads to a meaningful grouping over time, which ensures that important, multiple examples of an artist’s achievement are available to public art institutions.
The Broad Art Foundation believes it is important to acquire large-scale works and installations that might prove difficult for a single museum or private individual to acquire and display. By acquiring sizeable and complex works by Doug Aitken, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Eric Fischl, Andreas Gursky, Anselm Kiefer, Phillip Taaffe, Toba Khedoori and Andy Warhol, as well as installations such as Mike Kelley’s haunting installation Gym Interior, 2005, Home, home again, 2006 by Franz Ackermann, Danse de la Nubienne Nouveaux, 1998 by Kara Walker, Firetruck, 1993 by Charles Ray and the photo-mural Buildings=Guns=People: Desire, Knowledge, and Hope (with Smog), 1985 by John Baldessari, the Foundation safeguards them for future public enjoyment.
The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Collection emphasizes essential postwar masterpieces by artists such as Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Agnes Martin, Jasper Johns, and Roy Lichtenstein. The strongest themes in the Foundation’s collection—such as mass consumerism, the roles of representation and figuration, and political and social issues—extend the tastes and interests evident in the more historical works in the Broads’ personal collection.
