LACMA Plans Retrospective On Famed Architect Frank Gehry's Work

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is celebrating the creative work of famed architect Frank Gehry.

"I can't bring myself to look back," Gehry said. "So, we don't photograph our stuff or anything."

Fortunately, LACMA did that work for him. Gehry's best designs from the past six decades, including more than 200 drawings and 65 models, will be on display, even some that never made it past the design stage.

"There are a lot of those buildings that I really loved that never got built, and that's difficult," Gehry said.

Gehry's architecture is defined by unusual shapes, like a building nicknamed "The Dancing Couple," for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, that he built in Prague in 1996.

"When I started in the '50s," Gehry said, "the LA art scene and the LA architecture scene were kind of provincial, and you could kind of play under the radar."

As for his remarkable work locally, the most notable venue Gehry created is the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Internationally, he's designed the Guggenheim Museum in Spain.

"Those of us who make things and create things from inert materials, our job is to create feelings that we can transfer to people," Gehry said.

The retrospective on Frank Gehry's work will open to the public Sunday.