Helen Molesworth became chief curator of Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in 2014. Before joining a Zócalo/MOCA panel discussion—“Were the ’90s L.A.’s Golden Age?”—in conjunction with the exhibition Don’t Look Back: The 1990s at MOCA, she talked in the Zócalo green room about being a bouncer at a lesbian bar, her major 1990s fashion faux pas, and how to seduce someone who doesn’t like L.A. into falling for the city.
Q: What’s your favorite spot in Downtown L.A.?
A: I love the Grand Central Market. I’m there a lot.
Q: What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?
A: I was a bouncer at a lesbian bar. I mean it wasn’t a strange job. But, I think that’s what people want to hear, right?
Q: How do you pass the time when you’re stuck in traffic?
A: I love listening to music in my car. So if the traffic is really bad, I try playing music I really want to listen to and tell myself that’s what’s happening—what I’m actually doing is listening to music.
Q: What’s your favorite museum to visit, outside of MOCA of course?
A: The old master museum, the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, in Vienna. It’s an amazing museum.
Q: What’s your most inexcusable habit?
A: Before living here, I would have said smoking dope because I smoked dope in a state where it’s illegal. But here it’s legal. … I’m a clotheshorse. I buy really nice clothes.
Q: What do you eat for breakfast?
A: Oh, it’s so boring. I eat either homemade granola and fresh fruit or muesli and fresh fruit with skim milk. It’s really tedious.
Q: Did you make any 1990s fashion faux pas?
A: Yes of course. I wore stirrup pants.
Q: Where do you take out-of-town guests in Los Angeles?
A: A movie at the ArcLight Cinerama Dome. Martinis at Musso & Frank Grill. Sunday supper at Lucques. The Maria Cornejo store on Melrose Place. Mameg on Little Santa Monica. And Gjusta in Venice. Some version of that is a perfect L.A. day that I would use to seduce someone who doesn’t like L.A.
Q: What was the greatest decade for art in the 20th century?
A: That is a ridiculously hard question. For me I guess it’s a tie between the ’50s and the ’80s.
Q: What was the last thing that made you laugh?
A: I have a very funny wife, and I’m very lucky she makes me laugh really hard every day.
*Photo by Steven Hymon.
