Pablo Picasso’s “Head of a Jester,” foreground, is a bronze casting from 1905, early in his career. The sculpture is one of 20 works by the artist on display at the Lazarof Galleries.

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BY JIM FARBER>LA.COM

In the coming days a great deal of media attention is going to be focused on the gala opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) and its principal benefactor - industrialist/philanthropist/art collector, Eli Broad. That opening, however, is only part of an overall plan to transform the Los Angeles County Museum of Art into a more artistically and architecturally harmonious campus.

A major component of this "new LACMA" involves the reinstallation of the museum's permanent collection, particularly its collection of late 19th- and 20th-century art that now occupies the entire ground floor of the Ahmanson Building. Within this new configuration three galleries have been devoted to the recent acquisition of 130 paintings, sculptures and works on paper from the collection of Janice and Henri Lazarof.

Opening to the public today, these new galleries dynamically enhance the scope of LACMA's collection. At the same time they fit seamlessly into the dynamic new design scheme overseen by senior curator of modern art, Stephanie Barron.

Strategic in its placement, the first piece you see as you approach the Lazarof Galleries is the swooping abstract modernity of Constantin Brancusi's gleaming bronze sculpture, "Bird in Space," standing well over 5 feet in height.

To the left is a small gallery devoted to the artists of the Russian Avant-garde including Alexander Archipenko and Wassily Kandinsky along side works by the iconoclastic Swiss painter, Paul Klee. An island of small abstract sculptures occupies the center of the room.

The scope of the Lazarof collection spans more than 100 years, beginning with impressionistic images by Edgar Degas (a pastel of dancers from 1898), two delicately rendered country-scape paintings by Camille Pissarro and a intimate nude in her bath by Edouard Vuillard.

For many viewers the most impressive element of the collection will undoubtedly be the 20 paintings, drawings and sculptures by Pablo Picasso. The artist's early career is represented by "Head of a Jester" (a bronze casting from 1905) and "Head of a Woman" (showing the influence of African masks, painted in 1906). A striking series of female portraits painted between 1938-1941 (featuring the artist's favorite model of those years, Dora Maar) offer bold examples of Picasso's cubist abstractions. These portraits are contrasted by works from the final years, including "Head of a Woman" (Jacqueline, from 1961-62) and "Head of a Woman in Profile" (from 1970).

The final gallery (which is almost as impressive) is devoted to a series of figure studies by the Swiss scuptor Alberto Giacometti, all cast in the artist's signature elongated style.

According to Barron, the exhibit represents about two thirds of the overall acquisition. Over time, she said, the display will be changed to incorporate new pieces, particularly from the collection's extensive array of works on paper.

Jim Farber (310) 540-5511 ext. 416 jim.farber@dailybreeze.com