LOS ANGELES — Michael Govan stood in a third-floor gallery scattered with paintings and crates at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, his arms gesturing at blank white walls, his face furled in thought. Mr. Govan is the director of the museum, but on this bright morning, he was focused on one single project: the installation of an exhibition of paintings by Agnes Martin. No detail was too small for Mr. Govan as he squinted his eyes and directed two workers, hoisting a framed canvas against a wall.
“Two inches higher,” Mr. Govan said. Still not right. “A little to the left.” Finally, Mr. Govan nodded his approval as the work was positioned into place. “Awesome.’’
Mr. Govan could not have been more intricately involved in the details of this retrospective, as he is with pretty much everything that happens on the museum campus on Wilshire Boulevard.