Get those selfies in before the end of the month, folks, because on May 1, “Urban Light,” the iconic Chris Burden lamppost sculpture that serves as the entryway to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is going to be closed to the public and dark for two months.
Restoration is the reason for the closure, the director of the museum’s conservation center says. Not only is the gray paint fading (“creating a mottled uneven surface effect that is unsightly”), but some of the metal is also rusting.
Finding an “alternative paint system” was a two-year saga—the museum had to find something that’s “durable and possesses the right sheen and meets California’s new volatile organic compounds regulations,” which was not easy.