What if billboards shared art rather than sell things that you don't need? Beginning this week, you’ll notice that a number of standard ad spaces—everything from bus shelters to giant billboards to dynamic digital screens—have been co-opted by reproductions of artworks culled from the collections of five museums throughout the country. The over 50,000 spaces that are usually reserved for traditional advertising will take a summer recess in the month of August, and art will take over.

Robert Mapplethorpe's Ken Moody and Robert Sherman as seen in Times Square.

 

Launched yesterday in New York’s Times Square, Art Everywhere US celebrates masterpieces made by American artists. A joint project between the Art Institute of Chicago, the Dallas Art Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and in collaboration with the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, Art Everywhere US reproduces 58 works of art (covering nearly the entire history of the U.S.) on over 50,000 advertising spaces throughout the country. Chosen by the voting public on the Art Everywhere US website, the works will be on view throughout the month of August.

Fitz Henry Lane's Boston Harbor, Sunset on view in Times Square

 

A number of works—11 to be exact—hail from LACMA’s permanent collection. Here’s what you’re see, from NW Murray Road in Portland, Oregon, to US 1 Federal Highway in Pompano Beach, Florida: George Bellows, Cliff Dwellers, 1913 Imogen Cunningham, Magnolia Blossom, 1925* Willem de Kooning, Montauk Highway, 1958 Winslow Homer, The Cotton Pickers, 1876 Fitz Henry Lane, Boston Harbor, Sunset, 1850–55 Roy Lichtenstein, Cold Shoulder, 1963 Robert Mapplethorpe, Ken Moody and Robert Sherman, 1984 Mark Rothko, White Center, 1957 Edward Ruscha, Hollywood, 1968* Millard Sheets, Angel’s Flight, 1931 Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Can, 1964 *On view beginning Thursday, August 7

Art Everywhere US rendering, featuring Roy Lichtenstein’s Cold Shoulder (1963, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein)

 

Ed Ruscha's Hollywood, as seen on a bus wrap

 

Want to see the original works right here in Los Angeles? Nine of the 11 pieces that are part of LACMA's collection and featured in Everywhere US are currently on view in our galleries. (The Robert Mapplethorpe and Fitz Henry Lane are currently on loan to other institutions.) Click the links in the list to see where the pieces are located throughout LACMA. If you spy a LACMA piece, take a photo and share it with us @LACMA on Instagram or Twitter or in the comments section on our Facebook page. We’ll be posting our favorites in this album. Find out where art has taken over on the interactive map at ArtEverwhereUS.org. Linda Theung, Editor