In Memoriam: Margo Leavin (1936-2021)
The UCLA Arts community mourns the passing of Margo Leavin, renowned art dealer and influential contemporary art world figure. Margo will be remembered for her profound generosity – as lead donor supporting the transformative UCLA Margo Leavin Graduate Art Studios project – and her passion for the arts.
From left to right: Architect Sharon Johnston, Margo Leavin, and UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture Dean Brett Steele. Photo: Andreas Branch/UCLA
Margo was born in New York, but spent her entire adult life and career in Los Angeles. She attended UCLA, and dealt art out of her home until she opened the Margo Leavin Gallery in West Hollywood in 1970. She took on former employee Wendy Brandow as her partner in 1989. The gallery was renowned for showing cutting-edge contemporary art by emerging and established artists – including Claes Oldenburg, Lynda Benglis, Sol Lewitt, Donald Judd, and John Baldessari. By the time it closed in 2013, it had produced over 500 exhibitions, including 400 solo shows. Its archives were acquired by the Getty Research Institute in 2015.
In 2016, Margo Leavin made a gift of $20 million to fund the renovation and expansion of the UCLA Graduate Art Studios, which have been located in the Hayden Tract in Culver City since 1985. Leavin’s gift is the largest ever made by an alumna to the arts at UCLA.
From left to right: Chancellor Gene Block, Margo Leavin, and Carol Block.
“I’m grateful that my career in the Los Angeles art world has afforded me the opportunity to support those at the very heart of this community: artists,” Leavin said. “The students, alumni, and faculty from the art department at UCLA shape the future of the arts in Los Angeles and beyond.”
The major restoration and expansion created a new building for the nation’s top-ranked public university to support its leading graduate program. Designed by the Los Angeles-based architecture firm Johnston Marklee and opened in 2019, the 48,000 square foot campus was designed to create a true artist’s neighborhood. Throughout the building, the spaces are not overly deterministic in order to support the diverse and emerging needs of creative practice.
“Margo, a hero for and of the arts in Los Angeles, liked to say, ‘without artists, there would be no art world,’” said Brett Steele, dean of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. “Thanks to her commitment to nurturing the next generation of artistic talent, our students will benefit from state-of-the-art facilities, in which to dream and to create, for many years to come.”
Read the Los Angeles Times obituary for Margo Leavin.
Read more about the Margo Leavin Graduate Art Studios.
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