Jeffrey Deitch breaks his silence to speak with LA Times reporter Reed Johnson. In the wake of Paul Schimmel’s departure, the resignation of all four artist-trustees from the museum board, and MOCA Mobilization’s garnering of 1500 signatures, Deitch defends his directorial/curatorial decisions, the status (and seriousness) of the museum, and his commitment to “a new, more diverse audience.”

For Deitch, this new museum audience is not made up of “people who make a living as artists, art critics or professional art collectors, which is the traditional MOCA audience. […] These are people who hear about a great new film they want to go to. They hear that there’s a terrific new fashion store that’s very cool – they want to go there. They don’t differentiate between these cultural forms.”

The director goes on to address the recent media frenzy: “Your average cultured reader, reading the L.A. Times, thinks that I’ve destroyed the museum, that I’ve dismantled all intelligence from the program, that we’re doing nothing serious, that we’re showing, like, celebrity portraits or something, that nobody on the staff gets along with me. […] And that is not what’s happening here. […] My goal is to just really get back to our business and not prolong this.”

Deitch’s “back to business” is said to include the addition of two “‘significant’ new trustees” within the coming days.

SOURCE: Reed Johnson, “MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch Defends ‘Seriousness’ of Shows,” LA Times.com (August 4, 2012). Continue reading at link below: