In 1986, Los Angeles's Museum of Contemporary Art opened its doors. Its inaugural show was buttressed by a lavish catalog in which MOCA administrators introduced the new institution to its public. In a keynote essay, Associate Director Sherri Geldin wrote the following:

Since first contemplating the amazing good fortune bestowed upon the Museum of Contemporary Art. . . I have been unable to shake an especially persistent metaphor. It links Arata Isozaki's building in California Plaza to a favorite film star of his, and goes something like this: . . . Isozaki's design embodies the exquisite shape and proportion of a Marilyn Monroe -- classic, voluptuous, and sensuously draped to enhance and tantalize . . . Isozaki fashions a stunning, sometimes elusive creature of the moment . . . whose allure and mystique are . . . certain to long endure.

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