Inside LACMA's lavish opening gala for the David Geffen Galleries with George Lucas, Ed Ruscha and Jeff Koons

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Finding a revolutionary artist during cocktail hour at the opening gala of Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s new David Geffen Galleries was like shooting fish in a barrel.Gaze over the rim of your glass to notice Jeff Koons and Ed Ruscha talking closely beside the DJ booth.Mark Bradford strides by with a beneficent smile — towering over everyone, including AI art maker Refik Anadol.

Todd Gray, whose 27-foot-long photo sculpture “Octavia’s Gaze” graces the hallway near the building’s south entrance, chats with Wim Wenders, who is making a documentary about architect Peter Zumthor’s controversial new $724 million concrete behemoth.Zumthor is there too — in bright red sneakers — talking to LACMA director and chief executive Michael Govan before Govan turns to take a selfie with immersive installation artist Do Ho Suh.Lauren Halsey walks by in her distinctive white shirt, long shorts and ball cap, beset on all sides by friends and admirers.“It’s beautiful, it’s fantastic,” she said of Zumthor’s creation.It’s an artist’s world on this breezy evening, as the sun sets golden over the looming gray concrete of the building, and the lights that gird the structure’s underbelly flicker on and twinkle like stars overhead.

In this milieu, Hollywood A-listers like Will Ferrell and Sharon Stone, who occupy separate cliques nearby, pale in comparison to the mingling artistic luminaries.“It’s ready for us,” Bradford said of the building.“It’s ready for artists.

I walked in and I was overwhelmed with a space that was made for us, and I can’t wait for everything I can do.”“Snazzy.Does the job,” said Ruscha, looking bemused and speaking in short bursts of headline-style phrases like one of his famous paintings.Gray said he was glad to see his art during “magic hour,” noting how the setting sun shone warm through the building’s glass wi...